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A domestic terrorist group make an unsuccessful attempt on the life of US President Jonathan Hayes (Harrison) and the group's leader, Michael Smith (David Wheeler), is subsequently captured. Some members of the group manage to evade capture and continue with terrorist activities. Eight weeks later, believing the threat is past, the President organizes an outdoors activity trip for his teenage daughter, Jess (Monica Keena), who has grown tired of the public life and constant Secret Service supervision. Jess, excited about the trip, is disappointed to learn a Secret Service agent she dislikes, Alex McGregor (Mariel Hemingway), will be accompanying her, despising her over a misunderstanding embrace between her father and Alex. Jess goes so far as to spread rumours about Alex during the trip, leaving an air of animosity between the two of them. Unbeknownst to the hikers, during their trip they are seen by members of the domestic terrorist group who have been hiding out in the same woods to evade capture. The terrorists initially believe they are witnessing a normal group of hikers, but soon notice bodyguards with guns. Eventually, one of the group recognises Jess, and identifies her as the daughter of President Hayes. They quickly form a plan to kidnap Jess in order to negotiate the release of Smith. They ambush the hikers, kill one of the bodyguards, and kidnap Jess. With the help of one of the river guides, Grant Coleman (Savant), Alex searches for Jess and attempts a daring rescue. 

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Arrogant scientist Sebastian Caine has developed a serum for the military that can make a subject invisible. His team includes ex-girlfriend Linda McKay, Matt Kensington, Sarah, Janice, Carter, and Frank. The team succeeds in reversing the procedure, returning an invisible gorilla to visibility. Sebastian becomes infatuated with Linda again but, unbeknownst to him, she has become involved with Matt. Instead of reporting his success to the military, Sebastian lies to an oversight committee which includes his mentor Howard Kramer, telling them he is close but needs more time. He convinces part of the team to go right into human testing without military authorization, keeping the rest in the dark. The procedure is successful and Sebastian turns completely invisible. He enjoys sneaking around the lab in order to scare and play pranks on his fellow co-workers, including molesting Sarah. The team becomes concerned that Sebastian is taking it too far. The procedure to return him to visibility fails, and he is almost killed. Sebastian is quarantined in the laboratory due to his condition and the other researchers construct a latex mask for him to wear around the lab. Unable to cope with the isolation, he defies instructions and leaves the building. After he drives to his apartment to retrieve some lab supplies, he notices a female neighbor undressing and violently rapes her inside her apartment. Linda warns Sebastian that if he leaves again, she and Matt will tell the committee about the experiment. Ignoring their threat, Sebastian assembles a device that runs a video loop of his heat signature in his quarters. He leaves the lab again and spies on Linda and Matt, becoming enraged when he sees them about to have sex. Sebastian, becoming increasingly unstable, also kills a dog being used as a lab animal in a fit of rage. The team discovers that they have been watching a recording and that Sebastian has been leaving the lab without their knowledge. Linda and Matt go to Kramer's house and confess all. After they leave, Kramer attempts to alert the Army, but Sebastian, who followed Linda and Matt to the house, kills him. The next day, Sebastian waits until the whole team is inside the lab before he disables the phones and the elevator codes except for his own. He begins to murder team members one by one, with Janice being his first victim. Linda and the others hide in the lab, while Matt and Carter take tranquilizer guns to hunt for Sebastian using thermal imaging goggles. Sebastian mortally wounds Carter before getting into a fight with Matt. Linda saves Matt. Sebastian then kills Sarah and Frank, and locks an injured Matt and Linda in the freezer, leaving them to die. Linda constructs an electromagnet using a defibrillator to open the door, then gathers materials to assemble a flamethrower. Meanwhile, Sebastian builds a makeshift bomb that will destroy the facility after he leaves. Just as Sebastian enters the elevator, Linda fires the flamethrower at him. Sebastian escapes and the two fight. Before Sebastian can kill Linda, Matt strikes him with a crowbar. Sebastian recovers and approaches Matt and Linda from behind with the crowbar but Matt deflects the blow, throwing Sebastian into a nearby circuit box, electrocuting him and rendering him partially visible. Linda and Matt find the bomb, but cannot stop it. They attempt to climb a ladder in the elevator shaft to escape as the bomb explodes. Sebastian, despite his injuries, grabs Linda's ankle. He pulls her off the ladder and onto the top of the elevator. Linda disconnects the elevator cables, causing Sebastian to fall to his death down the shaft. Linda and Matt emerge from the burning lab and emergency personnel take them away in an ambulance. 

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Gallo Morales (Olmos) returns home after being imprisoned for seven years for murdering a man over a cockfight. His family welcomes him back with mixed feelings. While his daughter Angela (Lassez) is eager to have him back, his son Hector (Nucci) feels otherwise. Hector desires to leave behind the farm and wants to use the family's prize-winning cock, which he has inherited from his grandfather, to win money in order to move his family away. However, Gallo has returned from prison determined to continue the business and to raise a new flock of roosters. Hector and Gallo soon clash over their differing goals. 

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The crew of the Federation starship Enterprise is struck with deadly Rigellian fever, for which the only treatment is the mineral ryetalyn. Captain Kirk, first officer Spock and medical officer Dr. McCoy beam down to the planet Holberg 917-G in search of the substance and are attacked by an airborne robot, which is called off by its master, Flint. Flint demands they leave immediately, but Kirk orders the Enterprise to fire phasers on their coordinates if they are attacked. Acknowledging a stalemate, Flint agrees to let them remain long enough to obtain the ryetalyn. Flint offers the help of his sentry robot M4 to gather the mineral and escorts them to his home, which has an impressive art collection. Spock notices that the brushwork of the paintings is identical to Leonardo da Vinci's, but his tricorder indicates that they are made with contemporary materials. The party is introduced to Flint's young ward, Rayna Kapec, whose late parents, according to Flint, were employees of his. On Flint's suggestion, Kirk plays billiards with Rayna, and they dance to a waltz played on the piano by Spock. The sheet music, apparently in the hand of Johannes Brahms, is written with contemporary ink. M4 returns with a container of ryetalyn, but it is contaminated with irilium, and therefore useless. Flint apologizes and accompanies M4 on a search for more ryetalyn. When Kirk kisses Rayna, M4 reacts as if he were attacking her. Spock destroys it with his phaser. The Enterprise reports that no information can be found on Flint or Rayna. A tricorder scan reveals that Flint is over 6,000 years old. Rayna comes to say goodbye to Kirk, who has fallen in love with her and begs her to accompany him. McCoy tells them that after being processed in Flint’s laboratory, the ryetalyn vanished. Spock follows tricorder readings to a laboratory chamber containing not only the ryetalyn, but a number of android bodies, all labeled "Rayna". Flint reveals the truth. He was born in 3834 BC, and after falling in battle discovered he could not die. Flint has lived "lifetimes" as da Vinci, Brahms, and many others. He built Rayna to be his immortal mate and manipulated Kirk into teaching her how to love. Paranoid about the possibility that the Enterprise crew would reveal him and his location, Flint causes the Enterprise to disappear from orbit and reappear as a tabletop miniature in his laboratory, with the crewmembers in suspended animation. He proposes to keep them that way for up to 2000 years. Rayna happens into the room and vehemently objects, so he restores the starship to its previous state. When Captain Kirk professes his love for Rayna and pleads with her to leave with him, a fight breaks out between him and Flint for the possession of Rayna. Rayna stops them, claiming her right to choose her own future, and then, overwhelmed by indecision for fear of hurting either Kirk or Flint, dies. Back on the Enterprise, McCoy reports that readings from the earlier tricorder scan show that Flint has been aging normally since he left Earth’s environment, and will soon die. Kirk falls asleep on his desk after commenting ruefully on Rayna's fate, and Spock places a suggestion to "forget" into his mind. 

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The film tells the story in pictures accompanied by the entire Brave record minus "Paper Lies" and the final song "Made Again". On the recording, it is left ambiguous as to whether the main character commits suicide in the end. In the film, she does. Thus, "Made Again", which concludes the story on the record as a happy ending of sorts, is not included. On the back of the cover of the videocassette, the description reads as follows: :Brave.. The Movie is a fifty-minute concept film directed by cult movie director Richard Stanley. It is Stanley's stark vision of a young life in the 90's inspired by Marillion's album of the same name, which centres around a teenage girl who is found wandering in a state of amnesia on the Severn Bridge, and her consequent search for her past. Although this story bears similarities to actual recorded incidents in the history of the Severn Bridge we wish to stress that this is a work of fiction. On the bottom of the cover, the final lines are: "Watch it loud with the lights off." 

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Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are visited by "the unhappy John Hector McFarlane", a young lawyer from Blackheath who has been accused of murdering one of his clients, builder Jonas Oldacre. McFarlane explains to Holmes that Oldacre had come to his office only a day earlier and asked him to draw up his will in legal language. McFarlane saw, to his surprise, that Oldacre was making him the sole beneficiary and even heir to a considerable bequest, and McFarlane cannot imagine why he would do so. That business took McFarlane to Oldacre's house in Lower Norwood, where some documents had to be examined for legal purposes. They had been kept in the safe, where the murder allegedly took place. McFarlane left quite late and stayed at a local inn. He claims to have read about the murder in the newspaper the next morning on the train. The paper said quite clearly that the police were looking for him. The evidence against the young McFarlane is quite damning. His stick has been found in Oldacre's room, and a fire was extinguished just outside in which a pile of dry timber burnt to ashes, complete with the smell of burnt flesh. It seems more than likely that McFarlane did the crime, especially as it is known that he was there around that time. Inspector Lestrade gloats in the apparent knowledge that he, unlike Holmes, is on the right track. Holmes begins his own investigation into the matter by going to Blackheath, which puzzles Lestrade, who had expected him to go first to Norwood. McFarlane's mother, Holmes finds out, was once engaged to Oldacre years earlier but later wanted nothing to do with the man once she found out how cruel he was: he had let a cat loose in a bird sanctuary. Nonetheless, Holmes tells Lestrade that he can see no other explanation for what happened to Oldacre than the official one, propounded by Lestrade. Upon examining the handwritten notes given to McFarlane by Oldacre to be rendered into legally acceptable language, Holmes reckons they were written in a very haphazard fashion, as if the writer failed to care about what he was writing. The alternation between legible handwriting and incomprehensible squiggles suggests to Holmes that the "will" was written hurriedly on a train, with the legible writing representing stops at stations. Also, Oldacre's financial dealings are found to have been a bit odd. Several cheques for substantial amounts, for unknown reasons, have recently been made out to a Mr. Cornelius. The discovery by Holmes of Oldacre's trouser buttons in the fire ashes does nothing to help exonerate McFarlane, but Holmes has powers of observation that suggest to him convincingly that Oldacre's housekeeper is withholding information. Oldacre appearing Lestrade's gloating reaches a peak when a bloody thumbprint is found at Oldacre's house that matches McFarlane's thumb exactly. However, Holmes becomes quite sure that something very devious is afoot, as he had examined that part of the house only a day earlier, and the thumbprint was quite surely not there then. Because McFarlane has been in gaol since his arrest at 221B Baker Street, Holmes deduces that someone is attempting a deception. Holmes sets up a small fire in one room of the house with a little straw and tells three of his constables to shout "Fire!" Lestrade and Watson are quite astonished at what happens next: Oldacre emerges alive from a hidden chamber at the end of a hallway, where Holmes has deduced it must be, and runs to escape the fire. Oldacre is immediately seized. It is revealed that McFarlane being accused of his murder had been part of a revenge campaign against the woman who rejected Oldacre years previously, the young mother of McFarlane. Oldacre tries to pass off his actions as a practical joke but is taken into custody, along with the housekeeper as an accomplice. Holmes lightly chaffs his rival for neglecting Blackheath, where he acquired the key information. As for Mr. Cornelius, the recipient of so much of Oldacre's munificence, Holmes deduces that it had likely been an alias used by Oldacre, who has been leading a double life with the eventual goal of shedding his Oldacre identity so that he would be able to start a new life. The bank account of "Mr. Cornelius" will be seized by Oldacre's creditors. Oldacre swears revenge against Holmes, who serenely dismisses the threats. Holmes remarks to Lestrade that Oldacre's plot was nearly perfect, but he went one step too far by planting the thumbprint after Holmes had already examined the room where it was found, after overhearing through the wall that Holmes was casting doubt on McFarlane's guilt. 

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Loosely based on the real-life actor-manager Geoffrey Kendal's family and his travelling "Shakespeareana Company", which earned him the Indian sobriquet "Shakespearewallah", the film follows the story of nomadic British actors as they perform Shakespeare plays in towns in post-colonial India. In this story, Tony Buckingham (Geoffrey Kendal) and his wife Carla (Laura Liddell) oversee the troupe. Their daughter, Lizzie Buckingham (Felicity Kendal), falls in love with Sanju (Shashi Kapoor), who is also romancing Manjula (Madhur Jaffrey), a Bollywood film star. In real life, Shashi Kapoor fell in love with Felicity's elder sister Jennifer Kendal. Their marriage provided an important contribution to the Indian film industry until Kendal's death in 1984. 

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The action takes place in 1905 at the factory of the landowners Bardiny and Skrobotov. Skrobotov is dissatisfied with the liberal policy of his partner Bardiny and complains that the workers are given too much voice – "They don't dare squeak at me!" says Skrobotov, sincerely believing that the working class should not be allowed entertainment, education, or voting rights. The factory has a social democratic worker's organization, and its activists demand the removal of a cruel manager, Dichkov. Skrobotov categorically refuses, believing that even if Dichkov deserves removal in this case, doing so in response to worker demands would be a fatal step. Discussions between the workers lead nowhere, the situation spirals out of control, Skrobotov summons the militia, and blood is shed. One of the enraged workers mortally wounds Skrobotov, who before he dies identifies the worker as a communist. A murder investigation ensues, the militia arresting masses of workers. But the workers do not break, and display iron calm, coolness and courage. A worker, Akimov, comes to Bardiny and confesses to the murder. But other workers come, and stand behind Akimov. Skrobotov's widow Cleopatra advises Akimov to flee into exile, to which Akimov responds: 

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The story is set around a group of students taking a college course in which they are asked to list ways in which society could benefit from the application of nanotubes. They are assigned together apparently at random, and they decide their topic: using nanotubes to alter human DNA, giving them access to abilities which are latent in the human genome. When they present their thesis, the university refuses to let them test it. During the night they test the nanotubes upon themselves and awake with superhuman abilities. It has been implied that the experiment that gave them their powers has some connection to Jeff Carey, aka Breakdown, who stars in another of Aftermath's titles. 

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The Numata family consists of the father, Kōsuke (Juzo Itami); mother, Chikako (Saori Yuki); and two sons, Shinichi (Jun'ichi Tsujita) and Shigeyuki (Ichirōta Miyagawa). Shigeyuki is a junior high school student. He will soon be taking a high school entrance examination. Unlike his high school student brother, Shinichi, who lives up to the father's expectations, Shigeyuki’s grades are poor, and he is only interested in roller coasters. His father finds a private tutor, Yoshimoto (Yūsaku Matsuda), for Shigeyuki and imposes all responsibilities for his exam on the tutor. Yoshimoto's behaviour is extremely strange, including kissing Shigeyuki and hitting him painfully hard. Even though Yoshimoto is a seventh year student of a third-rate university, Shigeyuki’s marks become better and better. Eventually he passes the exam for the high school. At a family celebration, Yoshimoto begins to riot, hitting people, pouring wine on their heads, and throwing spaghetti around wildly. 

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The owner of a high-class Japanese hotel, the Europa, hopes to win a prestigious and lucrative contract for the hotel as the site of a summit meeting between important international officials. Unfortunately, the yakuza have taken a liking to this hotel as both a hangout and a target for extortion. In order to win the contract, the owner realizes, he must rid the hotel of the yakuza. Fearing to confront them himself, he deputizes a hotel accountant, Suzuki (Yasuo Daichi) and a bellboy and former college sumo-club member, Wakasugi (Takehiro Murata). The hapless pair are no more daring than their employer, however, and their tentative attempts to address the problem fail until they meet Mahiru Inoue (Nobuko Miyamoto), a lawyer who specializes in dealing with the yakuza. With Inoue's direction, the hotel staff comes together to face down the yakuza ruffians, who are portrayed as craven, outwardly-threatening- but-inwardly-weak, fools. 

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The urban legend (or alternate history) states that a facility manned by renegade Princeton professors conducted quantum physics and chaos theory experiments, and according to conspiracy theories, discovered a new theory for dimensional travel using a device called The EGG. This device was to later inspire a children's TV series called Galidor to use an interdimensional travel device of the same name. Ong's Hat is often cited as the first ARGs on many lists of alternate reality games. They were largely based in the ghost town of Ong's Hat, New Jersey, hence the name of the project. 

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Commodore Trunnion and Jack Hatchway by Francis William Edmonds The novel begins with the character of Peregrine as a young country gentleman rejected by his cruel mother, ignored by his indifferent father, and hated by his degenerate brother. After their alienation, he turns to Commodore Hawser Trunnion, who raises him. Peregrine's detailed life experience provides a scope for Smollett's satire on human cruelty, stupidity, and greed: from his upbringing, education at Oxford, journey to France, jailing at the Fleet, unexpected succession to his father's fortune, and final repentance and marriage to his beloved Emilia. The novel is written as a series of adventures, with every chapter depicting a new experience. The novel also contains a lengthy independent story called "The Memoirs of a Lady of Quality", written by Frances Vane, Viscountess Vane. Peregrine Pickle features several amusing characters, most notably Commodore Hawser Trunnion, an old seaman and misogynist who lives in a house with his former shipmates. Trunnion's lifestyle may have inspired Charles Dickens to create the character of Wemmick in Great Expectations.Beaman, Evelyn Armstrong, "Dickens' relationship to Tobias Smollett". Masters Theses 1896 – February 2014. Paper 1304. http://scholarworks.umass.edu/theses/1304 Another interesting character is Peregrine's friend Cadwallader Crabtree, an old misanthrope who amuses himself by playing ingenious jokes on naive people. Smollett also caricatured many of his enemies in the novel, most notably Henry Fielding and the actor David Garrick. Fitzroy Henry Lee was supposedly the model for Hawser Trunnion.J. K. Laughton, ‘Lee, Fitzroy Henry (1699–1750)’, rev. Philip Carter, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 

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After spending most of his life alone and working hard to make ends meet, Frank Grimes is hired at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant. He is assigned to Sector 7G, where he must work alongside Homer Simpson and his two friends, Lenny and Carl. Grimes quickly becomes aghast at Homer's laziness and incompetence. When Grimes prevents Homer from accidentally drinking a flask of sulfuric acid by knocking it from his hands. Mr. Burns admonishes Grimes and reduces his pay, as the spilled acid destroyed a wall. Outraged, Grimes declares that he and Homer are now enemies. At Moe Syzlak's suggestion, Homer invites Grimes to his home for a lobster dinner, hoping to make amends. However, Grimes only grows more incensed by Homer's ability to live such a comfortable life despite his sloth and ignorance, while Grimes has worked hard his whole life and has little to show for it. Denouncing Homer as a fraud, Grimes leaves in anger. The next day, Homer tries to earn Grimes's respect by being a model employee, but his efforts fail. Grimes rants about Homer to Lenny and Carl, who insist that Homer is a decent person despite his many faults. To prove Homer's lack of intelligence, Grimes tricks him into entering a contest (intended for children) to design a nuclear power plant. Grimes's plan backfires when Homer's model wins the contest. After Homer's co-workers applaud instead of ridiculing him, Grimes snaps and runs amok at the plant, mocking Homer's stupid habits. When he grabs ahold of high-voltage wires without safety gloves, Grimes is electrocuted to death. At Grimes's funeral, Homer falls asleep and talks in his dream, making Reverend Lovejoy and the attendees laugh as Grimes's coffin is lowered into the earth. In the subplot, Bart buys an abandoned factory for a dollar at a foreclosure auction. He and Milhouse spend their days wrecking the building until it collapses one night during Milhouse's watch, causing the rats in the building to swarm into Moe's Tavern. 

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The Simpsons need money to pay for a $900 repair after Bart damages the gas line. Marge tries to sell a family heirloom -- an "authentic" American Civil War doll -- to Cockamamie's, a campy collectibles shop. Marge is disappointed when John, the shop owner, reveals her precious heirloom is a cheap liquor bottle of little value. Marge, Homer, Bart and Lisa take an instant liking to John, who is invited to the Simpsons' house to see campy items that the family owns. The next morning, Homer tells Marge that he likes John and suggests they invite him and "his wife" over some time. When Marge informs Homer that John is gay, he is horrified. Homer's attitude towards John changes completely and he refuses to join the tour of Springfield that John has arranged. The rest of the family joins John for the tour and enjoy his company. Bart starts wearing Hawaiian shirts and dancing in a woman's wig, which makes Homer suspect that Bart is gay. Hoping to ensure Bart likes girls, Homer forces him to stare at a cigarette billboard featuring scantily clad women. This backfires when Bart craves slim cigarettes, considered effeminate because they are marketed to women. Homer takes Bart to a steel mill to revel in a manly environment; however, the entire workforce is gay, which Homer learns when the steel mill turns into a gay disco during breaks. Desperate, Homer takes Bart deer hunting with Moe and Barney. When they cannot find any deer, they decide to shoot reindeer at Santa's Village instead. The reindeer violently attack the hunters, who drop their macho posturing because of genuine fear. With help from Lisa and Marge, John uses a Japanese Santa Claus robot to scare away the reindeer and save the hunting party. Homer is grateful to John for saving their lives and grudgingly accepts him. As John drives everyone home, Homer tells Bart he is fine with however he chooses to live his life. Bart is confused until Lisa explains Homer thinks his son is gay. Bart is stunned as their car drives away blaring a gay anthem. 

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Bart and Milhouse go out to spend $50 that Bart won when he bet Homer that he could not eat a box of rotten baking soda that Lisa dug out of the back of the refrigerator. But they get into trouble at The Android's Dungeon when, after talking Martin Prince's mom out of selling Martin's rare and invaluable Star Wars items to Comic Book Guy for only five dollars, they are banned for life from the store. When they hear that special effects artist Tom Savini is to appear at The Android's Dungeon, they plot to sneak in, but are rebuked at the door. During the interview, Savini repeatedly plays tricks on Comic Book Guy, which causes him to get enraged due to the wounding of his pride, and as he lashes out at Savini and everyone else in the comic book store, he suffers a heart attack. Dr. Hibbert tells Comic Book Guy that he needs to take a break from running the store and to leave it in the care of friends. Since he actually does not have any friends, Comic Book Guy reluctantly leaves the store in Bart and Milhouse's care. The store becomes wildly successful under the management of the two boys, only to lose much of its newfound prosperity after Milhouse orders a shipment of two thousand comics depicting "Biclops", a superhero with thick glasses, which flops spectacularly. Meanwhile, Homer helps a recovering Comic Book Guy look for a friend, but his attempts fail until he meets Agnes Skinner. Comic Book Guy and Agnes become romantically involved. After arguing, the boys accidentally discover a secret stash of illegal video clips. Bart and Milhouse charge admission for viewing such clips as a "good version" of The Godfather Part III, a clip of Mr. Rogers drunkenly yelling at the director of his show, a secret government plan to use Springfield as a testing zone for nuclear missiles, and Ned Flanders' alerting the police that Homer released a radioactive ape in his house. The scheme works until Chief Wiggum conducts a raid on the store, and later arrests Comic Book Guy for his unauthorized videotapes, after which Agnes declares she is too old to wait for him to be released. Bart and Milhouse, freed from running the Android's Dungeon and having managed to keep the profits from their time managing the store, decide that they have had fun, but it is time to go back to school. The episode ends with Ned still under the thumb of the radioactive ape. 

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After the Second World War, Katherine "Kitty" Fremont, a widowed American nurse, is sightseeing in Cyprus following a tour of duty for the U.S Public Health Service in Greece. Her guide mentions the Karaolos internment camp on Cyprus, where thousands of Jews—Holocaust survivors—are detained by the British, who refuse them passage to Palestine. Kitty visits British General Sutherland, who knew her late husband. When Sutherland suggests she volunteer at the internment camp for a few days, Kitty declines, citing she would feel uncomfortable around Jews. She reconsiders shortly after another officer makes an anti-semitic remark. Haganah rebel Ari Ben Canaan, a former decorated captain in the Jewish Brigade of the British Army in the Second World War, obtains a cargo ship. He smuggles 611 Jews out of the camp and onto the ship for an illegal voyage to Mandate Palestine. Military authorities discover the plan and blockade Famagusta harbor, preventing the ship's departure. The refugees stage a hunger strike, during which the camp's doctor dies and Ari threatens to blow up the ship and the refugees. The British relent and allow the ship, rechristened the Exodus, set sail. While helping at the camp, Kitty meets Karen Hansen Clement, a Danish-Jewish teenager. Kitty grows fond of Karen and offers to take her back to America with her. Karen, whose mother and siblings died in the Holocaust, is searching for her missing father. She has also aligned herself with the Zionist cause, and, wanting to go to Palestine, eventually turns down Kitty's offer. Meanwhile, opposition to partitioning Palestine into separate Arab and Jewish states is intensifying. Karen's young beau, Dov Landau, is recruited into the Irgun, a radical pro- Zionist group. Ari Ben Canaan's uncle, Akiva, who heads the Irgun, first interviews Dov. Before swearing him in, Akiva forces Dov into confessing he was a Sonderkommando in Auschwitz and was sodomized by Nazis. This is where Dov acquired his bomb expertise. Akiva's violent activities run counter to his brother Barak, Ari's father, who heads the mainstream Jewish Agency working to create a Jewish state through political and diplomatic means. Barak fears the Irgun will derail these efforts, especially as the British have placed a price on Akiva's head. Karen goes to live at Gan Dafna, a fictional Jewish kibbutz near Mount Tabor near the moshav where Ari was raised.An actual kibbutz named Dafna is located near the present Lebanese border. Kitty and Ari have fallen in love, but Kitty pulls back, feeling like an outsider after meeting Ari's family and learning about his previous love: Dafna, a young woman kidnapped, tortured, and murdered by Arabs, who is the namesake of the Gan Dafna kibbutz. Ari helps locate Karen's father, Dr. Clement, who is a permanent in-patient at a Jerusalem mental hospital. He is in a dissociative state that is borderline vegetative, caused by the horrors he suffered in a concentration camp. When Karen visits, she is devastated that she is unrecognizable to him. When the Irgun bombs the King David Hotel in an act of terrorism resulting in dozens of fatalities, Akiva is arrested, imprisoned in Acre fortress, and sentenced to hang. To save Akiva's life and free Haganah and Irgun fighters imprisoned by the British, Ari plots an escape. Dov, who eluded capture after the hotel bombing, turns himself in to utilize his bomb-making expertise to facilitate the Acre Prison break. Hundreds of prisoners escape, including Akiva, though he is fatally wounded as he and Ari evade a roadblock. Ari is also wounded, but makes it to Gan Dafna where Dr. Lieberman removes a bullet from Ari. With the British on Ari's trail, he is taken to Abu Yesha, an Arab village near Gan Dafna, where his lifelong Arab friend, Taha, is the mukhtar. When a recovering Ari develops a life-threatening infection, Kitty saves his life. This rekindles their romance. Meanwhile, the British arrest Dr. Lieberman when they find an illegal weapons cache hidden within the children's village. An independent Israel is now in sight, but Arab nationals commanded by Mohammad Amin al-Husayni, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, plot to attack Gan Dafna and massacre the Jews, including the children. Taha warns Ari of the impending attack, though he reluctantly says he must join the Grand Mufti in fighting the establishment of Israel. Ben Canaan orders the younger children be evacuated to safety during the night as a small detachment of Palmach troops arrives to reinforce Gan Dafna's defenses. Karen, ecstatic over the prospect of the new nation, goes to find Dov (who is on night patrol at the Gan Dafna perimeter) and proclaims her love for him. Dov says they will marry when the war is over. As Karen returns to Gan Dafna, she is ambushed and murdered by Arabs. Dov discovers her lifeless body the following morning. The same day, Taha's body is found hanging in his village, killed by the Grand Mufti. A Star of David is carved into his body and a swastika and a sign saying "Jude" are on village walls. Karen and Taha are buried together in one grave. Ari eulogizes them, saying that someday Jews and Arabs will one day share the land in peace. While others in turn add a shovelful of dirt to the grave, Dov, angry and heartbroken, bypasses the shovel and moves on. Ari, Kitty, Dov, and a Palmach contingent board trucks, heading off to the battle. 

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In its minimal and non-traditional plot, the protagonist travels about the country meeting with various acquaintances when not taking part in various mundane, day-to-day activities. There is no real rising action or climax, and Linklater's character does not change substantially throughout the course of the film. 

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The PlayStation 2 and GameCube release of the game has an entirely different plot from that of the Xbox version. It is also peripherally connected to the plot of Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. 

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The story starts with young Euphemia Texas Ashby (Tina Majorino) and her older sister Sara McClure (Dana Delany). When Euphemia gets back to the house from picking flowers she finds out that Sam Houston is coming to the house. Santa Anna is on his way so they must head east in the Runaway Scrape. While they attempt to cross a river Sara suffers from a miscarriage while her young son Little Johnnie dies in Euphemia's arms. Many other young and old Texans die and Euphemia is almost lost in a sea of graves. After a month and a week, Sam Houston defeats Santa Anna's army and Texas is reborn as the Republic of Texas. They now live in a new home with their horses. Their sisters Fannie and Jane Isabella come to live with them after their father dies at sea. They are very different from Sara and Phemie (Annabeth Gish) and must adapt to their new brutal life. One year later, Sarah survives an encounter with Tarantula (Michael Greyeyes), a Comanche warrior, and his band of Comanches. Later, Euphemia's close friend Matilda "Maddie" Lockhart (Anne Tremko) is abducted by the Comanches and only later released. When given back, the Texans discover that she was brutally tortured, with the right side of her face disfigured by burn scars; the Comanche repeatedly awakened her by placing burning coals on her face. Maddie is bloody and shows signs of beating everywhere. She never fully recovers from her time with the Native Americans. Euphemia is now sixteen and almost gets attacked by a panther when William King (Matthew Glave), a boy who she dreams about frequently, saves her. They continue to talk every day for the next five years and then get married. Sara's own husband dies in battle, and she gets remarried to a musician. Euphemia has a few children with William while they live happily together with the slave Tildy (Khadijah Karriem). They have a few horses, including one called Dancer. Euphemia meets Tarantula once again at a show (he is one of the actors) and since he is walking far for an old man, she gives him Dancer, her best horse. He gives her the name "Brave Squaw Child". This is the end of Euphemia's life in the book. Cherokee (Julie Carmen) and Lewis (Michael York) want to leave Georgia because Cherokee is half Creek and they were being driven out. They wanted to leave before they were forced to. Georgia Lawshe Woods (Angelina Jolie) falls in love at the age of fifteen at Swann Lake when two dogs frighten her and make her fall and Colonial Doctor Peter Woods (Jeffrey Nordling) tends to her wounds. She finds herself falling in love with this man and they get married the same year. They have four children a few years later and head to Texas. Along the way Georgia has doubts but Peter wants to keep going. They live in Texas for a while but find out the river water is contaminated, which leads to many deaths from cholera. They move again, and Georgia and Euphemia meet when Sam Houston keeps them together. The story then switches to Bettie Moss. 

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The book is set in 1946/1947, shortly before India gained independence. Victoria is an Anglo-Indian, the daughter of a railwayman. Patrick Taylor, also an Anglo-Indian, considers himself her boyfriend, but her feelings towards him have become ambivalent since her experience of British Army staff culture (see below). Taylor is represented as a clumsy and resentful personality, tormented by conflicting feelings of social inferiority and racial superiority. In vigorously defending herself from a British army officer who is attempting to rape her, Victoria unintentionally kills him. She is persuaded not to report the matter by a subordinate of Patrick's, a Sikh, Ranjit, who hopes to marry her and whose family and friends help her to avoid detection. Victoria had earlier decided to escape the claustrophobic atmosphere of the Anglo-Indian community by becoming a Women's Auxiliary Corps (India) officer at army headquarters. With the war's end and her return home, however, she is confronted with the problem of her identity all over again. She decides to get engaged to the gentle and serious Ranjit in an attempt to become assimilated in wider Indian society—since British rule is visibly on its way out—but then she realises that such a marriage would require her to give up her name (and, essentially, her identity). She runs away from the Sikhs and literally into the arms of a veteran British officer, Rodney Savage (commander of a Gurkha battalion who "have come from the war, lots of wars"). Savage is, like John Masters, not only a professional soldier but also a member of a British family who have for generations served in India. Victoria originally dislikes Savage as hard and cruel but eventually becomes both his lover and his unofficial adjutant in the last hectic days of British rule in India. But in the end she realises that she cannot escape her origins, and—rejecting both the Indian man and the British one—chooses Patrick, an Anglo-Indian like herself. Rodney Savage recognises that he is losing out to his social and intellectual inferior, but realises that he is powerless to prevent it. Patrick for his part begins to realise that, in the new India, his children might have a chance of becoming anyone they want to, rather than having to stick to the Anglo-Indians' traditional role of working on the railways. 

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A screenshot showing the PC version of the game. The game's first two missions take place sometime during the film, in which the FBI Hostage Rescue Team (HRT) works to save hostages in a Charleston, West Virginia television station, and shut down operations from a West Virginian militia calling themselves the "Mountain Men". From the third mission on, John Clark recruits the team to work for the CIA and has the operatives work on seeking out and killing the conspirators behind an incident in Baltimore, Maryland, in which a nuclear bomb has been detonated during an American football game, killing a large number of people. 

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Eight months after the events of Re-Animator, doctors Herbert West and Dan Cain are working as medics in the middle of a bloody Peruvian civil war. In the chaos of battle and with plenty of casualties to work on, they are free to experiment with West's re-animation reagent. When their medical tent is stormed by the enemy troops, West and Cain return home to Arkham, Massachusetts. There, they resume their former jobs as doctors at Miskatonic University Hospital, and West returns to the basement laboratory of Cain's house to continue his research. Using parts pilfered from both the hospital's morgue and from a cemetery located next door, West discovers that his reagent can re-animate body parts by themselves. He becomes determined to create an entire living person from disparate body parts. West discovers the heart of Megan Halsey, Cain's fiancée, in the hospital morgue. With the promise to use her heart to re-animate a new Megan, West convinces Cain to help him with his project. Also stored in the morgue is the rest of the evidence from the previous "Miskatonic Massacre". Inside, pathologist Dr. Wilbur Graves discovers a vial of West's reagent and the severed head of Dr. Carl Hill. Using the reagent, he re-animates Hill's head. Meanwhile, police officer Lt. Leslie Chapham begins investigating West and Cain. He bears a grudge against the pair, as they were the only unaffected survivors of the Miskatonic Massacre; the dead body of Chapham's wife was re-animated into a crazed zombie during the incident. Chapham suspects West and Cain were responsible. When he stops by their house to question them, he discovers West's corpse-filled lab and the two get into a confrontation. A fight ensues and West kills Chapham by means of cloth treated with a chemical which causes cardiac arrest when inhaled (a product of West's research into obtaining the freshest possible corpses for his experiments). West then re-animates the police officer with the intention of covering up his crime. Chapham violently wanders out of the house and into the cemetery next door. Hill, who bears a grudge against West, uses psychic powers to command Chapham to force Dr. Graves to stitch bat wings onto his neck, giving him back his mobility. He also extends his mental control to all of the zombie survivors of the Miskatonic Massacre. When one of Cain's patients, Gloria, dies, West collects the last piece he needs for his creation: her head. With a complete body stitched and wired together, West and Cain inject the re-animation reagent into Meg's heart. While waiting for the reagent to take effect, a package is delivered to their house. West retrieves and opens it. From inside, Hill's winged head flies out. Simultaneously, the zombies Hill controls break into the house. West retreats back to the basement lab, where his creation, the Bride, has awoken. A catfight breaks out between the Bride and Cain's current girlfriend, Italian journalist Francesca Danelli, whom he met in Peru. Cain rejects the Bride's love and sides with Francesca. Heart-broken, the Bride rips Megan's heart out of her own chest and then literally falls to pieces. West diagnoses this as tissue rejection. Hill and his zombies force West, Cain and Francesca to retreat through the wall of the lab and into a crypt in the neighboring cemetery. Inside, all of West's prior test subjects arise and make their way towards him, stopping only when Herbert commands them to. The unstable crypt begins to collapse, trapping Hill, West and the zombies. Cain and Francesca manage to escape the debris and claw their way to the surface of the cemetery together. Hill, stuck in the debris, laughs manically, while Megan's heart, still in the hand of the Bride, stops beating. 

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For the past 13 years, Dr. Herbert West has been serving a prison sentence due to a murder at the hands of one of his zombies. With what scant supplies he has on hand in the prison medical center, Dr. West has been capable of performing only extremely basic experiments on rats. However, his lack of supplies does not prevent him from uncovering a key element in his re-animation process. Dr. West has discovered "NPE" (Nano- Plasmic Energy), an energy that can be extracted from the brain of a living organism through an electrocution-like process, to be stored in a capsule resembling a small light bulb. The capsule can then be connected to a corpse and used in conjunction with West's previously developed reagent to restore the former dead to a lifelike state. The NPE prevents the degeneration seen in previous instances, where the reanimated are nothing more than mindless zombies. Used together with the re-agent, reanimated corpses regain their skills, memories, and motor functions and nearly fully resemble normal humans. When a young doctor named Howard Phillips comes to work at the prison, West is assigned to assist the new doctor. Due to Phillips' interest with Dr. West's research, West is able to attain the supplies and tools needed to bring his experiments to the next level. It is revealed that Phillips is the younger brother of the teenage girl who was killed by West's zombie (he is shown watching West being taken away by the cops) and came to the prison for the explicit purpose of working with him. Despite his interest, Phillips still maintains an ethical reluctance to allow West's research to full completion. In the meantime, journalist Laura Olney, covering a story for her newspaper at the prison, meets and begins an affair with Dr. Phillips, and they fall in love. This new romance only temporarily postpones West's experiment, however. After the warden of the prison, also infatuated with Laura, attempts to seduce Laura himself, she resists and he angrily kills her. Crushed by Laura's death, Dr. Phillips succumbs to Dr. West's wishes and his experiments are allowed to literally take on new life. West & Phillips revive Laura with the NPE, although it is quickly seen that the dangerous side effects of West's past work are still present with the NPE. Eventually the warden of the prison uncovers West's experiments and moves to put an end to them, but he is killed by West, and subsequently re-animated. West uses the NPE from a prisoner's pet rat, causing some unexpected side effects in the warden's behavior. It quickly manifests itself as the prison descends into utter chaos as a riot breaks out, with vials of the reagent circulating through the population. Soon, it is unclear who is dead, who is alive, and who has been exposed to the agent. When the chaos finally settles from the bloody prison riot, West escapes captivity before the guards appear by stealing Phillips' I.D. when he comes across Phillips weeping over Laura's decapitated body. As police and authorities take control of the prison, Phillips is dragged away as he and Laura's head start laughing. Herbert West is shown putting on his glasses outside the prison, and disappears into the night to continue his research. 

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Set in New Mexico around the turn of the 20th century and told in flashback, the film tells the story of Jeb Rand (Mitchum), whose entire family was slaughtered when he was a child. In the aftermath of the massacre Jeb is found by Mrs Callum, a widow, who raises him in her family. Traumatized by the killings, Jeb does not recall anything of that night, except for vague images that he sees in a frequent nightmare. Mrs Callum raises him as her own son, together with her daughter Thor and her son Adam. Years later Jeb is shot at while riding a colt, but the shooter misses him; although Mrs Callum blames the incident on deer hunters she knows that it was an attempted murder by her brother-in-law Grant. She confronts Grant and it is revealed that there has been a long-standing feud between the Rands and the Callums. Jeb's father, with whom Mrs Callum was having an affair, took the life of her husband (Grant's brother) and, in an act of revenge, Grant killed Jeb's family. The night of the massacre, Grant's arm is so severely injured he eventually loses it. Mrs Callum pleads with her brother-in-law to leave Jeb alone, reasoning he is not a threat to anyone. Grant agrees to let Jeb live, at least until he grows up, in order to prove to Mrs Callum that one day Jeb will turn on her. Years later Jeb, Adam and Thor are adults and one day law officials arrive to recruit volunteers to join the US Army to fight the Spaniards. Jeb and Adam are told that one of them must join and, after agreeing on a coin toss, Jeb loses and signs up. He is injured in battle and, while recuperating in hospital, experiences again the flashbacks to the night of his family's murder. Due to his injuries he is honorably discharged from the army, sent home and awarded the Medal of Honor. It is apparent that adoptive brother and sister, Jeb and Thor have long been in love and, after his homecoming celebration, Jeb tries to convince Thor to run away with him and get married as soon as possible because he suspects that someone, or something, is following him. Thor refuses, saying that she wants to get married on her own terms and not out of fear. Jeb goes for a long horse ride in order to clear his head and stumbles upon an abandoned ranch which he suspects he has seen before. When he returns home, his mother confirms that the ranch he came across is indeed where he and his real parents lived when Jeb was a child and where the murders occurred. As Jeb prepares to leave to gamble at the casino in town, Adam shows him the money that had been set aside for him while he was in the army, and the profits he is entitled to according to their mother's wish that everything be split among the three. However, Adam calls Jeb's share the 'Rand share' and expresses resentment that there should be any money given to Jeb at all. The two agree that the ranch is not big enough for both of them and again agree to a coin toss to determine who will leave. Jeb loses; Adam relishes throwing him out and they end up in a fistfight. Jeb declares he will return the next day for Thor and promises that, if Adam tries to stop him, he will kill him. With only the coin with which to start betting Jeb has a big win at the casino and the owner, Jake Dingle, offers him a partnership. Meanwhile, having earlier researched Jeb's past and not wanting his sister to marry him, Adam ambushes Jeb on his way back from the casino, but is killed by Jeb, in self-defense. Jeb is acquitted of the murder in court but is shunned by Thor and Mrs Callum, who states that Jeb is dead to him. With no family, job or home of his own, Jeb accepts Jake Dingle's offer and becomes part-owner of the casino. Months later Jeb discovers that Thor is engaged to a man named Prentice and learns that Thor and Prentice will be attending a town dance. Jeb also attends the dance and forces Thor to dance with him. Grant Callum goads Prentice to defend Thor's honor and convinces him to make an attempt on Jeb's life. Jake Dingle warns Jeb that Prentice is coming for him. Jeb steps out the back door into the alley in an attempt to avoid the situation but Prentice is coming down the street. The two engage in a gun battle and Jeb is once again forced to kill in self-defense. Some time later Thor and Mrs Callum hatch a plan to gain revenge on Jeb for the pain he has caused them. Thor pretends to forgive Jeb and agrees to marry him, planning to murder him on their wedding night. When the moment arrives, Jeb reveals to her that he knows her plan; she cannot bring herself to carry out the murder and reconciles with him, somehow knowing in her heart that he is innocent and that he truly loves her. Tired of waiting, Grant Callum rounds up a gang of other Callums and they chase Jeb across the desert, intending to finish the job of killing all the Rands that Callum had begun all those years ago. Jeb finally recalls the night that his father and siblings were murdered, realizing that it was Grant who killed them and that Mrs Callum was there too. Thor finally learns that her mother had an affair with Jeb's father, and that when Mrs Callum's husband discovered it, he attempted to murder Rand, but was killed himself, resulting in Grant slaughtering Jeb's entire family to avenge his brother's death. On learning that Jeb survived the slaughter, Mrs Callum adopted him, out of guilt. Thor pleads with her mother not to allow Jeb to be hanged, stating there is still time to make up for her actions. As Grant is about to hang Jeb, Mrs Callum shoots him dead. She asks for and receives forgiveness from Jeb and Thor, and advises them to look to the future and enjoy their lives together. 

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Warlock is a small Utah mining town of the early 1880s. Cowboys working for Abe McQuown often come into town, killing on a whim, and beating or humiliating any deputy sheriff who tries to stand up to them. The Citizens' Committee decides to hire Clay Blaisedell, a renowned gunfighter, as town marshal in spite of the misgivings of some, such as old Judge Holloway. The town is not incorporated and does not have authority to have its own marshal. Blaisedell arrives with his devoted clubfooted friend, Tom Morgan, an expert gunman as well. Morgan has a reputation as a heavy-drinking gambler, but Blaisedell insists that he is part of the package. Their first encounter with McQuown's men is without bloodshed. The cowboys are intimidated by Blaisedell, and one, Johnny Gannon, stays behind, because he has become sick of their murderous ways. Morgan learns that his old flame, Lily Dollar, is coming to town on the stagecoach, accompanied by Bob Nicholson, brother of Big Ben Nicholson, who was recently killed by Blaisedell. Lily had left Morgan for Big Ben and knows that Morgan pushed Ben into challenging Blaisedell, who killed him. She wants Blaisedell dead to punish Morgan. Morgan sets out to meet the stagecoach, but sees from a distance it being robbed by some of McQuown's men. He takes advantage of the situation to kill Bob Nicholson unseen. Lily arrives in town and sees Morgan there. She believes that he pulled the trigger. The robbers are arrested without incident by Blaisedell and a posse. Before taking them to Bright City for trial, the sheriff, who disapproves of Blaisedell, accepts Gannon's offer to become Warlock's new resident deputy. The robbers, one of whom is Gannon's younger brother Billy, are cleared by a jury intimidated by McQuown. The cowboys, led by Billy, immediately confront Blaisedell and Morgan in the street. Deputy Gannon asks them to leave and tells Billy, "I ain't backin' him, because you're my brother, and I ain't backin' you, because you're wrong." A cowboy tries to shoot Blaisedell in the back, but is spotted by Morgan and shot. Blaisedell kills two others, including Billy, after giving him a chance to back down. McQuown's smooth-talking man Curley posts wanted notices for Blaisedell, declaring the cowboys "regulators" in mockery of his quasi-legal status. Gannon vows to stop any regulators who come into town, and McQuown angrily stabs him in his gun hand. Townspeople begin resenting Blaisedell and Morgan, exactly as Blaisedell had predicted. However, he has started a relationship with Jessie Marlow and decides to marry and settle down, much to the surprise of Morgan, who wants to move on. Despite his injured hand, Gannon faces the cowboys alone after Morgan pulls a gun on Blaisedell, who had volunteered to back the deputy. With help from the citizens and from Curley, who promised him "a fair fight", Gannon unexpectedly kills McQuown and breaks up the regulators for good. Morgan cannot tolerate the idea that Gannon is now more of a hero than Blaisedell, and he resents Lily's attraction to the deputy, too. In the course of an argument, Blaisedell learns the truth about the deaths of the Nicholson brothers and turns his back on Morgan. That evening, in a drunken state, Morgan calls Gannon out, intending to kill him. Blaisedell locks Deputy Gannon in his own cell, insisting, "Tom Morgan's my responsibility." Initially content to seem cowed, Morgan is pleased Blaisedell is a hero again, but when townspeople jeer and mock Morgan as he walks away, he challenges Blaisedell to a showdown. Morgan shoots off Blaisedell's hat before being fatally wounded a split-second later. Morgan's dying words are, "I won, Clay, I won!" A grief-stricken Blaisedell carries his friend's body into the saloon, which he burns down. Gannon tells Blaisedell that he will arrest him in the morning if he does not leave town. Blaisedell decides to leave. Jessie refuses to accompany him. The next day, Gannon and Blaisedell face one another. Blaisedell outdraws Gannon, but then throws his famous golden-handled revolvers into the sand, smiles at Gannon and rides away. 

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Jim Slater (Richard Widmark) meets Karyl Orton (Donna Reed) in Gila Valley, Arizona. She thinks that he is searching for a gold cache believed to hidden somewhere in the valley. When a man with a rifle starts shooting at him, Jim wonders if she can be trusted. After Jim kills his foe, he discovers the dead man was a deputy sheriff from Silver City. He takes the body there. When Sheriff J. C. Marson (Edward Platt) questions him, Jim reveals that he is after the person responsible for his father's death. Jim's father and four other men were besieged and killed by Apaches. Jim believes there was a sixth man who got away and could have gone for help, but instead decided he wanted the gold they found all to himself. Marston reveals that one of the men was the brother of the dead deputy. There are two other brothers, who will want revenge. When Jim refuses to leave town, Marston suggests he go see Sergeant George Lake (Barton MacLane) in Tucson. Lake led the detail that found the massacre victims. Jim takes his advice, but finds Lake and his men under siege at an isolated trading post. Lake tells Karyl that only three of the bodies could be identified. While there, Karyl stakes her claim to the gold; her husband was another victim of Gila Valley. Lake and Jim sneak out that night and stampede the Apaches' horses, allowing the party to escape. Lake, however, is mortally wounded. Before he dies, he reveals they found a horse bearing the brand of Carson's outfit in Texas. When Jim returns to Tucson, he encounters Karyl in a hotel, being forced upstairs by a stranger. Karyl calls him by name, whereupon the stranger draws his gun. Jim kills him and wounds another man gunning for him, though he himself is shot in the shoulder. Afterward, Karyl reveals that the dead man is Jeff Welker (Robert J. Wilke) and the survivor his brother Tony (Harry Morgan). Jim slaps her. She tracks him down, tends to his wound, and offers to trade information. Jim kisses her. When the pair reach their destination, Major Carson (Roy Roberts) tries to recruit Jim against Bonniwell (John McIntire), who has organized the local bandits. Jim is not interested in the upcoming range war, though he does learn that Bonniwell arrived in the region with $60,000, the same amount as the missing gold. One of Carson's gunmen, Johnny Cool (William Campbell), informs Bonniwell of Carson's plans. Bonniwell gathers his men in town, guns down Sheriff Olson (Robert Foulk) when he tries to keep the peace, and prepares an ambush. He finds Jim locked in the jail. He lets the prisoner out when he learns who he is, then reveals that he is Jim's father, whom Jim had not seen since he was a child. The gold came, not from mining, but via robbery. The others forced Bonniwell out, only to run afoul of the Apaches, leaving him to collect the gold. Disillusioned, Jim wants nothing to do with his father. Karyl pleads with Jim to leave immediately, but he wants to warn Carson. When he tries to fire a warning shot, he discovers that Bonniwell gave him back an unloaded gun. Bonniwell chases his son with a knife, but Jim manages to wrestle a gun from one of the bandits and fire. Alerted, Carson has his men surround the town, whereupon the bandits panic and flee. Bonniwell offers to step out of hiding and draw to see which Slater is faster, but he treacherously already has his gun in his hand. Carson's men ride in and fatally shoot him just before Jim steps out in the open. 

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The focus of Wilson's attention in Fences is Troy, a 53-year-old working class head of household who struggles with providing for his family. The play takes place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; although never officially named, it makes mention of several key locations in Pittsburgh. In his younger days, Troy was an excellent player in Negro league baseball and continued practicing baseball while serving time in prison for an accidental murder he had committed during a robbery. Because the color barrier had not yet been broken in Major League Baseball, Troy was unable to get into MLB to make good money or to save for the future. He now lives a menial, though respectable, blue-collar life of trash collecting; later in the play, he remarkably crosses the race barrier and becomes the first black truck driver in Pittsburgh instead of just a barrel lifter. Troy lives with his wife, Rose, his teenage son, Cory, and his younger brother Gabe, an ex-soldier whose war injury to his head has caused him noticeable psychological damage. Gabe had received $3000 from the government, and Troy took control of this money to purchase a home for his family, including a room for Gabe. A short time before the play's opening, Gabriel has rented a room elsewhere, but still in the neighborhood. Lyons is Troy's older son from a previous marriage, and lives outside the home. Bono is Troy's best friend and co-worker. The play begins on payday, with Troy and Bono drinking and talking. Troy's character is revealed through his speech about how he went up to their boss, Mr. Rand, and asked why black men are not allowed to drive garbage trucks; Rose and Lyons join in the conversation. Lyons, a musician, has come to borrow money from Troy, confident that he will receive it, and promises to pay him back because his girlfriend Bonnie just got a job. Troy, who is a rigid believer in hard work and responsibility, belittles his son because he refuses to find a real job as Troy did rather than pursuing his dream of becoming a musician. Cory tells Troy and Rose about an opportunity for a college football scholarship. Troy tells Cory he will not let his son play football for fear of racial discrimination, just as Troy believes he experienced when he wanted a career in the National leagues. However, it is suggested later on that Troy told Cory's coach that his son is no longer to play football. When Cory discovers this, he and Troy get into a fight resulting in Troy's kicking Cory out of his house. Later, it is revealed that Troy's age after serving a prison sentence, not his race, may have been the primary factor. Father and son argue about Troy's actions, but Troy stubbornly does not back down from his argument and sends Cory to his room. Later it is revealed that Cory enlisted in the military after this event. Troy admits to Rose that he has been having an affair and that his mistress, Alberta, is pregnant. Later, Alberta dies in childbirth. Troy brings his baby daughter Raynell home, and Rose agrees to raise the girl as her own, saying: "From right now . . . this child got a mother. But you a womanless man." She remains in the family home but the couple are estranged; she refuses to accept Troy back into her life. Seven years later, Troy has died. Cory comes home for a visit from the military where he is a corporal in the Marines. He initially refuses to go to his father's funeral due to long-standing resentment, but he is convinced by his mother to pay his respects to his father — the man who, though hard-headed and often poor at demonstrating affection, nevertheless loved his son. The family say their farewells to Troy and offer forgiveness that may not be fully deserved. 

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The movie is set in the Deep South of the United States prior to the American Civil War. Falconhurst is a run-down plantation owned by widower Warren Maxwell and largely run by his son, Hammond. Hammond and his cousin, Charles, visit a plantation where both men are given black women out of hospitality. Hammond chooses Ellen, who is a virgin. Both she and Hammond watch as Charles abuses and rapes the other woman, with Charles claiming that she likes it. Hammond asks Ellen if this is true, and she says no. Hammond then rapes Ellen. Warren Maxwell pressures him to marry, so Hammond chooses his cousin, Blanche, who is desperate to get out of her house to escape her brother Charles. It is implied that Charles raped her when she was 13. After their wedding night, Hammond is sure that she is not a virgin—a claim Blanche denies. On their way back from their honeymoon, Hammond returns to the plantation where Ellen is kept and purchases her as his sex slave. Eventually, he comes to genuinely care for her. Meanwhile, Hammond purchases a Mandingo slave named Ganymede. Nicknamed "Mede", the slave works for Hammond as a prize-fighter. He's forced to soak in a large cauldron of very hot salt water to ostensibly toughen his skin. Hammond also breeds Mede with female slaves on his plantation. Hammond makes a great deal of money betting on Mede's fights. Rejected by Hammond, Blanche becomes a slovenly alcoholic who does nothing all day long. While Hammond is on a business trip alone, Blanche discovers Ellen is pregnant. Correctly assuming the baby is Hammond's, Blanche beats Ellen. Ellen flees, but falls down some stairs, and miscarries. Hammond (who had promised Ellen that her baby would be freed), returns to Falconhurst and discovers Ellen lost the baby. Threatened with bodily harm by Warren, Ellen does not tell him how she miscarried. Hammond gives Ellen a pair of ruby earrings, which she wears while serving an evening meal. Hammond gave the matching necklace to Blanche, who becomes enraged to find Ellen being publicly favored by Hammond. Hammond leaves on another business trip, taking Ellen with him. A drunken Blanche demands that Mede come to her bedroom. Although the other slaves attempt to stop him, Mede does as he is ordered. Blanche says she will accuse Mede of rape if he does not have sex with her, so he spends the night with her. Blanche's sexuality is reawakened by Mede, whom she finds exceptionally well-endowed, and she has sex with him several more times. Hammond returns to the plantation. A great deal of time has passed since Hammond and Blanche's marriage, and Warren Maxwell is eager for a grandchild. Sensing that the marriage is troubled, Warren locks Hammond and Blanche in a room together and refuses to let them out until they reconcile. They appear to do so. A short time later, Blanche announces she is pregnant, but when the baby is born, it is clear the child is a mulatto. To avoid a scandal, the child is killed on doctor's orders. Sickened at Blanche's sexual indiscretion, Hammond asks the doctor if he has the poison he uses on old slaves and horses. He pours the poison into a toddy for Blanche. An outraged Hammond seeks out Mede, intending to kill him. As Hammond attempts to force Mede into a boiling cauldron of water, Mede tries to tell him that Blanche blackmailed him into having sex. Hammond shoots Mede twice with a rifle and the second shot throws Mede into the boiling water. Hammond uses a pitchfork to drown Mede. In a fit of fury, the slave Agamemnon (Richard Ward) picks up the rifle and aims it at Hammond. When Warren calls him a "crazy nigger" and demands that he put the gun down, the slave shoots and kills Warren. As he runs away, Hammond kneels helpless next to Warren's lifeless body. 

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Charlie Barret walks to his private table in a restaurant, only to see two young men sitting at his table – Avery and Max. Another young man who is friends with Avery and Max, Brett, joins them shortly after Charlie sits down and begins chatting with them. Charlie happens to know Avery's father, and after an initial reluctance, is willing to go with the boys for a "night on the town". Before meeting Charlie, they had previously planned to use chloroform to knock him out in their car. The plan goes awry, and Charlie fights back, almost wrecking the car before they can finally put him under. When Charlie wakes up, he sees himself surrounded by the three men, and a fourth friend, T. K., checks his vital signs. It is revealed that Charlie is Carlo Bartolucci, a former mob figure. The boys explain that Avery's sister, Elise, has been kidnapped, and that the kidnappers are demanding a $2 million ransom for her release. Unable to come up with the money on such short notice, they figure Charlie still has connections to get the money and set up an exchange. To ensure that Charlie knows how serious they are, Charlie is shown his cut-off finger, still wearing his signet ring, as the same was done to Elise. As incentive for his cooperation, they explain that they will do to him everything done to Elise. Charlie flies into a rage and threatens to kill them, though he eventually agrees to help. As Charlie requests continual alcoholic drinks and his blood does not properly clot, T. K., a medical student, explains that Charlie's alcoholism may cause him to die of blood loss if he is not taken to a hospital. Charlie contacts his lawyer, who in turn contacts Lono, Charlie's bodyguard, asking him to track Charlie down. Lono goes about his own investigation, asking for, and in some cases beating out, information from people. However, he shows he has a soft side as one of the people he beats up is the father of Jennifer, the hostess at the restaurant that Charlie and the boys frequent. Meanwhile, Charlie seems to take perverse pleasure in playing mindgames with his kidnappers. During the course of these conversations, Charlie unnerves the friends with stories of his early years as a gangster. Especially concerning some former neighbors of his that hed had killed, then feeding their remains to their Dobermans. Another story was how he got his signet ring. Meanwhile Marty, Charlie's attorney, conducts his own investigation. He speaks to Lydia, a successful madam, whose life Charlie had saved, many years ago, from her former lover and pimp. He wanted to kill her because she'd spent money on herself that he felt belonged to him. Lydia gives Marty a list of contacts. As Lono searches, Charlie takes advantage of the boys' naïvete. A fifth friend, Ira, shows up unexpectedly and demands an explanation – they are using his house under the cover story of a poker game. Ira is flustered by their carelessness in his parents' house and becomes even more worried when he realizes they have kidnapped a major figure in the mob. Charlie plays the friends against each other, slowly getting information out of them and using it to his advantage. After much cajoling and piecing information together, Charlie identifies Max, Elise's boyfriend, as an inside man. As his enraged friends plan to cut off his finger, Avery stops them, admits it was his plan, and says he recruited Max to help him. Avery made several unlucky bets, could not pay off his debts, and was approached by mobsters who had purchased his debt. They offered him a way out: become an inside man in his own sister's kidnapping. Lono eventually makes his way to Ira's house and has Charlie removed from his restraints, around the same time that the money is sent to the two thugs. Avery rushes to meet his sister at the appointed drop-off, but she does not appear. Charlie and Lono track down the two kidnappers, who insist they never kidnapped Elise and the whole operation was a con. Charlie and Lono kill the thugs, and it is revealed that Max and Elise set the whole thing up, splitting the ransom between them and the thugs. Charlie and Lono track Max and Elise to a boat off a tropic island where, although Charlie understands their reasons for conning him and agrees with Max on how special Elise is, he has Lono shoot them both dead. The screen dissolves to a rotoscope red and the film ends. 

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The story begins when Hilton Cubitt of Ridling Thorpe Manor in Norfolk visits Sherlock Holmes and gives him a piece of paper with the following mysterious sequence of stick figures. A diagram drawn by Conan Doyle Cubitt explains to Holmes and Dr. Watson that he has recently married an American woman named Elsie Patrick. Before the wedding, she had asked her husband-to-be never to ask about her past, as she had had some "very disagreeable associations" in her life, although she said that there was nothing that she was personally ashamed of. Their marriage had been a happy one until the messages began to arrive, first mailed from the United States and then appearing in the garden. The messages had made Elsie very afraid but she did not explain the reasons for her fear, and Cubitt insisted on honoring his promise not to ask about Elsie's life in the United States. Holmes examines all of the occurrences of the dancing figures, and they provide him with an important clue - he realizes that it is a substitution cipher and cracks the code by frequency analysis. The last of the messages causes Holmes to fear that the Cubitts are in immediate danger. Holmes rushes to Ridling Thorpe Manor and finds Cubitt dead of a bullet to the heart and his wife gravely wounded from a gunshot to the head. Inspector Martin of the Norfolk Constabulary believes that it is a murder-suicide attempt; Elsie is the prime suspect. But Holmes, after noting some inconsistencies in that theory, proves that there is a third person involved. Holmes writes a message--in dancing figure characters--and has it delivered to a lodger at a nearby farm. While waiting for the result of this message, Holmes explains to Watson and Inspector Martin how he cracked the code of the dancing figures. The last message, which caused Holmes and Watson to rush to Norfolk, read "ELSIE PREPARE TO MEET THY GOD". Slaney is arrested. The lodger, Abe Slaney, another American, unaware that Elsie is gravely wounded, arrives at Ridling Thorpe Manor and is seized as he comes through the door. Holmes had sent for Slaney using the dancing men, knowing that Slaney would believe the message is from Elsie. Slaney reveals that he had been engaged to Elsie, the daughter of the Chicago crime boss whom Slaney works for, and that she had fled to escape her old life. Slaney had come to England to get her back. When Slaney and Elsie were speaking through a window, Cubitt had appeared and shots were exchanged; Cubitt was killed and Slaney had fled. Apparently, Elsie then shot herself. Slaney is arrested and sentenced to hang, but his sentence is reduced to penal servitude because Cubitt had fired the first shot. Elsie recovers from her injuries, and spends her life helping the poor and administering her late husband's estate. 

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Holmes examines Violet Smith's fingers while Dr. Watson looks on. Holmes is contacted by Miss Violet Smith of Farnham, Surrey about an unusual turn in hers and her mother's lives. Violet's father has recently died and left his wife and daughter rather poor. There was an ad in the news asking about their whereabouts. Answering it, they met Mr. Carruthers and Mr. Woodley, the former a pleasant enough man, but the latter a bullying churl. They had come from South Africa, where they had known Violet's uncle Ralph Smith, who had now also died in poverty and apparently wanted to see that his relatives were provided for. This struck Violet as odd, since she and her family had not heard a word from Smith since his departure for South Africa 25 years ago. Carruthers and Woodley explained that before dying, Ralph had heard of his brother's death and felt responsible for his survivors' welfare. Carruthers began by offering Violet a job as a live-in music teacher for his ten-year-old daughter at £100 a year, about twice the going rate. She accepted after Carruthers said that she could visit her mother on weekends. That went well until Mr. Woodley came to stay for a week. He made the most oafish and clumsy sexual advances to her, and boasted that if Violet married him she would have a life of luxury. He even grabbed her and demanded a kiss, precipitating expulsion by his host, Carruthers. Violet has not seen Woodley since. The specific thing that has brought Violet to seek Holmes's services, however, is the strange man who follows her on his bicycle as she cycles to and from the railway station for her weekend visits to her mother. The strange man always keeps his distance behind her and disappears without a trace, never letting her near him, and always along the same lonely stretch of road. Violet does not recognize him, but he has a black beard. Holmes asks her about her admirers, and other than Woodley, if he can be styled as such, she can only think of Mr. Carruthers, who, although a perfect gentleman at all times, seems attracted to her. After Violet leaves, Holmes observes that it is odd that a household would pay £100 a year for a music teacher but be too cheap to pay for a horse and trap. He sends Dr. Watson to Surrey to see what he can find out. This turns out to be virtually nothing, except to establish that the lady's story is true, and that the mystery man comes out of and goes back into a local house, Charlington Hall. Holmes upbraids Watson for his lackluster results. They also receive a letter from Violet that evening saying that Carruthers has proposed to her, but she had to refuse since she is already engaged to a man named Cyril Morton, an electrical engineer in Coventry. Holmes goes to Surrey himself, and gets into a fight in a pub for his troubles; when he returns and tells Watson what happened, he actually considers his experience in Surrey to be hilarious. It seems that Mr. Woodley was in the taproom at the pub and heard his name mentioned in conversation. He came out and demanded to know who Holmes was and what he wanted. The discussion escalated to violence; Holmes emerged with a few bruises, whereas Woodley had to be carried home. The innkeeper merely mentioned that Woodley is a regular weekend guest at Charlington Hall, which is rented by Williamson, who, rumor has it, is a clergyman. Holmes returns to 221B Baker Street with his face somewhat marred, and another letter arrives from Violet, saying that her situation has become impossible owing to Mr. Carruthers's proposals, and Mr. Woodley's reappearance. She is quitting. Holmes knows that some intrigue is afoot, and he tells Watson that they must get themselves to Surrey to see that Violet makes it to the station. Carruthers has at last acquired a trap, and she need not ride her bicycle this time. Through a failure to realize that Violet might take an earlier train than usual, Holmes discovers that he is too late to meet Violet. The trap comes along the road, but by the time it does, no one is in it: Violet has been abducted. Holmes and Watson board the empty trap in an attempt to go after the kidnappers. They come face-to-face with the mysterious cyclist, who pulls a revolver on them; however, both parties quickly realise that they are on the same side – both have Violet's welfare in mind. The cyclist declares that the abductors are Woodley and Williamson. He evidently knows something of the intrigue. Carruthers and Holmes stopping the wedding. The group first find an unconscious groom, who was driving the trap, in the bushes, and then they find all three persons that they have been seeking on the Charlington Hall grounds, with the apparently defrocked clergyman performing a wedding ceremony between the other two. The bride is somewhat unwilling, judging from the gag over her mouth. Woodley's boast of having married Violet leads the mysterious cyclist, unmasking himself as Carruthers, to pull out his revolver and shoot Woodley, wounding him. The intrigue does indeed involve Uncle Ralph in South Africa. He was dying when Carruthers and Woodley left; far from being penniless at his death, it is revealed that in reality, Uncle Ralph had amassed a large fortune. As he was illiterate, he would surely die intestate, and therefore Violet would inherit his wealth as Ralph's next of kin. The two crooks made their way to England in the hopes that one of them would get to marry Violet – Woodley having won the chance in a card game on the ship – and they had to draw Williamson into the plot, promising him a share of the lucre. The plan went awry when first, Woodley proved to be a brute, and next, Carruthers fell in love with Violet, and thereafter wanted nothing to do with his former confederates. He took to disguising himself and following her as she rode her bicycle past Charlington Hall, where he knew Woodley and Williamson might be lying in wait for her. Heavy penalties await Woodley and Williamson, but Carruthers only gets a few months due to Woodley's less-than-savory reputation. Holmes reassures Carruthers the "marriage" performed by Williamson was void; not only was it performed against Violet's will, but Williamson had been defrocked and therefore had no authority to legalise a marriage. 

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Holmes receives a visit from Dr. Thorneycroft Huxtable, the founder and principal of a preparatory school called Priory School in Northern England. He beseeches Holmes to come back to Mackleton with him to look into the disappearance of one of his pupils, the ten-year-old Lord Saltire, whose father is the very rich and famous Duke of Holdernesse. Huxtable explains that not only the boy has disappeared, but also the German master, Heidegger, along with his bicycle. Once in the North, the Duke says to Holmes that he does not think that his estranged wife has anything to do with his son's disappearance, nor has there been a ransom demand. Holmes establishes that the boy and his kidnappers could not have used the nearby road without being seen, suggesting that they went cross-country. As if to confirm this, the police find the boy's school cap in some gypsies' possession. They swear that they simply found it on the moor, but the police lock them up. Holmes and Dr. Watson go hunting for clues. They find a bicycle track, but it is not Heidegger's; it does not match his tyres. Holmes observes that one tyre has a patch on it. Almost everything observable has been obliterated by cow tracks (which are the only marks on the ground anywhere). Eventually, Heidegger's bicycle tracks are found, and they end where he lies, dead. After that, Holmes and Watson arrive at the Fighting Cock Inn, and meet the innkeeper, Reuben Hayes, who seems startled indeed to hear that Holmes wants to go to Holdernesse Hall, the Duke's nearby house, to tell him news of his son. The two men have lunch there, and Holmes suddenly realises that he and Watson saw many cow tracks out on the moor, but never at any time did they see any cows. Furthermore, the patterns of the hoof prints were quite unusual, suggesting that the cow in question trotted, cantered, and galloped. Holmes and Watson sneak out to Hayes's stable and examine the horse's hooves. As Holmes has expected, there is evidence of recent shoeing, but with old shoes and new nails. Examining the nearby smithy, Holmes and Watson are rather belligerently asked to leave by Mr. Hayes. Holmes examines James Wilder's bicycle. Shortly afterwards, the two men hide as a cyclist comes along the road from the direction of the Duke's. It is James Wilder, the Duke's personal secretary, and he looks agitated. He arrives at the inn. Soon afterwards, a trap pulls out of the stable yard and goes along the road towards Chesterfield. A while later, someone else – it is getting dark and only a fleeting glimpse of the new visitor is caught – arrives at the inn. Coming closer, Holmes observes Wilder's bicycle tyres and notes that they are the same make as the first ones encountered on the moor. The next morning, they go to Holdernesse Hall, where they find that the Duke is not well. Nevertheless, Holmes demands from him a cheque for £6000 (This calculation assumes that the story takes place in 1901, which is suggested by Leslie S. Klinger in Volume I (p. 768) of The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes (W. W. Norton, 2005).), saying that he has earned the reward. His son is at the Fighting Cock, and the accused is the Duke himself, but the actual mastermind of this crime is James Wilder, who has a terrible secret: He is the illegitimate son of the Duke. He conceived a plan to kidnap Lord Saltire to force the Duke to change his will, knowing very well that his father would not call the police on him, as he abhorred the very idea of scandal. The plan began to unravel when Wilder hired Hayes – who has now fled, but been caught on Holmes's information – to do the actual kidnapping. Hayes killed Heidegger, and when Wilder heard the news, he confessed all to his father. So anxious was the Duke to avoid scandal, he agreed to let his younger son stay at the inn for another three days, and to keep quiet, so that Hayes could flee justice. All ends well, except for Hayes, who faces the gallows. Lord Saltire is brought home from the inn and the Duke writes to his estranged wife asking her to reconcile with him. This he feels she will be willing to do, for the source of the friction between them is going away: James Wilder is being packed off to Australia to seek his fortune. As for the cow tracks, they were accomplished by shoeing the horses with special shoes shaped like cow's hooves. 

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(l. to r.) Watson, Holmes and Charles Augustus Milverton. Holmes is hired by the débutante Lady Eva Blackwell to retrieve compromising letters from a blackmailer: Milverton, who causes Holmes more revulsion than any of the 50-odd murderers in his career. Milverton is "the king of blackmailers". He demands £7,000 (over £800,000 in 2015) for the letters, which if given to third parties would cause a scandal that would end Lady Eva's marriage engagement. Holmes offers £2,000, all Lady Eva can pay, but Milverton insists on £7,000. It is worth £7,000 to him, he explains, to make an example of Lady Eva; it is in his long-term interest to ensure that his future blackmail victims would be more "open to reason" and pay him what he wants, knowing he will destroy them if they do not. Holmes resolves to recover the letters by whatever means necessary, as Milverton has placed himself outside the bounds of morality. Holmes visits Milverton's Hampstead house, disguised as a plumber, in order to learn the plan of the house and Milverton's daily routine. He cultivates the acquaintance of Milverton's housemaid and even becomes engaged to marry her. This rather shocks Watson, but Holmes assures him that he has a hated rival who will step in when the plumber disappears. Holmes has learned where Milverton keeps his blackmail papers (a safe in his study), and plans to burgle Milverton's house that night. Watson comes along. They break into the study, but just as Holmes opens the safe, Milverton enters the study, even though he should be in bed asleep. Holmes and Watson hide behind a curtain, while Milverton has a midnight meeting with a supposed maidservant offering to sell letters that would compromise her mistress. Milverton's death The woman is actually one of Milverton's former victims, whose broken-hearted husband died when she wouldn't pay Milverton and he revealed her secret. Now she avenges her husband by shooting Milverton to death, then stamps on his face. Watson instinctively begins to rush out and stop the shooting, but Holmes restrains him. Holmes understands, and Watson instantly realises, "that it was no affair of ours; that justice had overtaken a villain..." The woman runs away, and Milverton's household is roused by the shots. During his final confrontation, Milverton's entire cache of blackmail papers had been in a safe with its door slightly ajar. Holmes now feeds this mass of compromising material into Milverton's burning fireplace, despite the risk of being discovered and caught. Then Holmes and Watson escape through the garden and over the wall. Watson has to kick himself free from a pursuer who has grabbed his leg. The next morning, Inspector Lestrade calls at Baker Street to ask for Holmes' help in investigating Milverton's murder, which he ascribes to the two burglars seen escaping over the garden wall. He has a description of one of them: "a middle-aged, strongly built man-square jaw, thick neck, moustache..." Holmes calls that vague. "Why, it might be a description of Watson!" he says, which amuses Lestrade. But Holmes refuses Lestrade's request: "My sympathies are with the criminals, and I will not handle the case." Later, Holmes recognises the face of the woman who killed Milverton. He shows Watson her photograph displayed in a shop-window among those of other celebrities. Watson recognises the name of her famous husband, but Holmes signals silence with a finger to his lips. Watson assures his readers that the killer in question is beyond the reach of the law [i.e deceased] and that certain details have been disguised to hurt no one. 

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Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson find themselves in a university town when a tutor and lecturer of St Luke's College, Mr. Hilton Soames, brings him an interesting problem. Soames had been reviewing the galley proofs of an exam he was going to give when he left his office for an hour. When he returned, he found that his servant, Bannister, had entered the room but accidentally left his key in the lock when he left, and someone had disturbed the exam papers on his desk and left traces that show it had been partially copied. Bannister is devastated and collapses on a chair, but swears that he did not touch the papers. Soames found other clues in his office: pencil shavings, a broken pencil lead, a fresh cut in his desk surface, and a small blob of black clay speckled with sawdust. Soames wants to uncover the cheater and prevent him from taking the exam, since it is for a sizeable scholarship. Three students who will take the exam live above him in the same building. The first, Gilchrist, is athletic, being a hurdler and a long-jumper, and industrious (in contrast to his father who squandered his fortune in horse racing); the second, Daulat Ras, is described as quiet and methodical; the third is Miles McLaren, a gifted man but thoroughly dissolute and given to gambling. Holmes examines the office. The cheater obviously took the papers over to the window one by one while he copied them so that he could see Soames returning, but as it happens, Soames did not come back the usual way. A nearby door leads to Soames's bedroom. Upon examining that, Holmes finds another, similar, sawdust- speckled blob of clay. He stuns Soames by telling him that the cheater, upon hearing his approach, hid in Soames's bedroom. He was there, hiding behind a curtain, all the time that Soames was questioning Bannister. The next morning, Holmes and Watson return to Soames's office. Holmes confronts Bannister who he believes is not telling all he knows. Bannister will not own up to anything, and insists that there was no-one in Soames's office while he was there. Holmes, however, sends for Gilchrist, and proceeds to lay out his results. Gilchrist, confronted by Holmes, breaks down The cheater was someone who knew the exam proofs were there. This could only be Gilchrist because the proofs' whereabouts had been kept secret, and Gilchrist was the only one tall enough to look in through Soames's window to see his desk. Holmes has also identified the blobs as the special clay found in the long-jump pit, further implicating Gilchrist. Gilchrist reveals his guilt by reproaching Bannister for his apparent treachery. Bannister was indeed the one who covered for Gilchrist. He felt that he had to, for old times' sake: Bannister was once Gilchrist's father's butler. Holmes then explains the remaining clues. The scratch on the desk was caused by Gilchrist's spiked jumping shoes as he grabbed them in his haste, and the clay blobs fell from his shoes. Bannister had collapsed in the chair to hide Gilchrist's gloves, which he saw had been left on the chair. For his part, Gilchrist credits Bannister with convincing him not to profit from his misdeed, and presents Soames with a letter stating his wish not to sit the exam, but accept an offer in South Africa for the Rhodesian Police. 

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One wretched November night, Inspector Stanley Hopkins visits Holmes at 221B Baker Street to discuss the violent death of Willoughby Smith, secretary to aged invalid Professor Coram. Coram had dismissed his previous two secretaries. The murder happened at Yoxley Old Place near Chatham, Kent, with a sealing-wax knife of the professor's as the weapon. Hopkins can identify no motive for the killing, with Smith having no enemies or trouble in his past. Smith was found by Coram's maid, who recounts his last words as "The professor; it was she." The maid further told Hopkins that prior to the murder she heard Smith leave his room and walk down to the study; she had been hanging curtains and did not see him, only recognizing his brisk step. The professor was in bed at the time. A minute later, a hoarse scream issued from the study, and the maid, hesitating briefly, inspected and found the murder. She later tells Holmes that Smith went out for a walk not long before the murder. The murderer's only likely means of entry was through the back door after walking along the path from the road, and Hopkins found some indistinct footmarks running beside the path, the murderer obviously seeking to leave no trail. Hopkins could not tell whether the track was coming or going, made by big or small feet. The professor's study contained a bureau; nothing seemed to have been stolen. Its drawers were left open, as was normal, and the cupboard in the middle was locked. The professor kept the key. Hard bridge pince nez glasses with chain and earhook. A lone piece of evidence was found in Willoughby Smith's hand: a pair of golden pince-nez glasses. Holmes examines these and from them alone deduces the following details of the murderer: *It is a woman; *She is of some good breeding; *She dresses like a lady; *She is a person of refinement, and is well dressed *She has a thick nose; *Her eyes are close together; *She has a puckered forehead, a peering look, and likely rounded shoulders; *She has been to an optician at least twice over the last few months. Holmes, Dr. Watson, and Hopkins head to Yoxley the next morning, and Holmes carefully examines the site. In the study, he notices a recent scratch on the bureau, and reasons that the murderer intended to access its contents. Smith was killed as his presence interfered with the burglary. No one saw the murderer leave, nor did anyone hear a door opening. Holmes notes that both the corridors, the one leading from the back door and the one leading to the professor's bedroom, are about the same length, and lined with coconut matting. Holmes interviews the professor in his bedroom, smoking many Egyptian cigarettes and dropping the ashes all over the floor. The professor claims utter ignorance regarding the murder, and ventures that Smith's death may be suicide. Holmes asks about the locked cupboard in the bureau. The professor hands over the key. Holmes simply inspects the key and returns it immediately, leaving the bureau sealed. Watson asks Holmes if he has a clue, and Holmes tells him the cigarette ashes might reveal the truth. Holmes meets the housekeeper in the garden and has a seemingly unimportant chat about the professor's eating habits; apparently he has eaten heavily today. Come the afternoon, the three men return to the professor in his room, and Holmes deliberately knocks the cigarettes over as an excuse to get a closer look at the floor. Holmes' suspicion is confirmed – there are footprints in the ash. At that moment the murderer, appearing exactly as Holmes deduced, emerges from a hiding place in a bookcase. The business unfolded thus: The woman came in secret to the professor's house to obtain some documents, using a duplicate key she gained from one of the former secretaries. She was surprised by Smith, whom she attacked with the nearest object to hand, the sealing-wax knife; she had not intended to kill him. She lost her glasses in the scramble to escape; unable to see clearly, she turned along the wrong corridor and wound up in the professor's room. Although surprised, he hid her. The murderer is in fact the professor's estranged wife, Anna, and they are both Russian. Years prior the pair had been involved with Nihilists; she and a non-violent nihilist friend were both betrayed by the professor for gain. Having finished her jail sentence in Siberia, Anna came in search of evidence that would exonerate her friend. Anna committing suicide. Anna had met Smith while he was taking his walk, explaining Smith's last words. The professor's increased appetite is of course explained by his having to feed a second, hidden person. Shortly after the final revelations, Anna dies from poison she took while in hiding. Her last wish is to ask Holmes to deliver the documents to the Russian Embassy, which he duly fulfills. 

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Mr. Cyril Overton of Trinity College, Cambridge, comes to Sherlock Holmes seeking his help in Godfrey Staunton's disappearance. Staunton is the key man on Overton's rugby union team (who plays at the three-quarters position, hence the story's title) and they will not win an important match the following day against Oxford if Staunton cannot be found. Holmes has to admit that sport is outside his field, but he shows the same care he has shown to his other cases. Staunton had seemed a bit pale and bothered earlier in the day, but late in the evening, according to a hotel porter, a rough-looking, bearded man came to the hotel with a note for Staunton which, judging from his reaction, contained rather devastating news. He then left the hotel with the bearded stranger and the two of them were seen running in the direction of the Strand at about half past ten. No one has seen them since. Overton has wired to Cambridge to find out if Staunton has been seen there; he has not. He has also wired Lord Mount- James, Staunton's very wealthy uncle and nearest living relative, but has heard no answer. Staunton is the almost-eighty-year-old Lord Mount-James's heir, but he must meanwhile live in relative poverty owing to his uncle's miserly behaviour. Meanwhile, Holmes questions the porter. The bearded man who brought the note was neither a gentleman nor a workman, and he seemed to be bothered by something too, for his hand was trembling as he handed Staunton the note. The only word that the porter overheard of their short conversation was "time". At six o'clock, the porter had brought Staunton a telegram, and he saw Staunton write a reply. Staunton told the porter that he would send it himself. Holmes looks at the telegraph forms in Staunton's room, and then at the blotter, finally finding a clue. The impression on the blotter yields a part of the message that Staunton sent: "Stand by us for God's sake". Obviously at least one other person is involved ("us"), and there is some kind of danger. Other papers left in the room yield clues. Lord Mount-James also briefly visits, but can give Holmes no useful information as to his nephew's whereabouts. The old miser seems utterly aghast at the possibility that it might be a kidnapping whose object would be to extort his wealth. Holmes and Watson then go to the telegraph office where Holmes uses a ruse to get the woman there to show him the counterfoil of the message that Staunton sent. It was addressed to Dr. Leslie Armstrong, a medical academic at Cambridge. They go to see him. Armstrong tells Holmes that Staunton is an intimate friend of his. He does not react when told that Staunton has disappeared, and claims not to know where he is, and not to have seen him recently. He also says that Staunton is very healthy, but Holmes then produces one of Staunton's papers, a thirteen-guinea bill from Armstrong. Furious, Armstrong refuses to answer any more questions, denies that he had the telegram from Staunton, and has his butler show Holmes and Watson out. They lodge at an inn just across the street from Armstrong's office, where they can watch him. Holmes conducts some inquiries. A man in the yard before the inn tells Holmes that Armstrong, although not in actual medical practice, regularly rides in his brougham out into the country somewhere. The round trip seems to take about three hours. Holmes tries following the brougham on one of its outings, hiring a bicycle for the purpose. He is thwarted by Dr. Armstrong, who makes it quite clear that he is aware that Holmes is following him. He gives Holmes the slip. The next day, Holmes's inquiries in all the local villages come to naught; no one has seen the doctor's brougham passing through their village. The mystery is at last unlocked by Pompey, a beagle-foxhound cross by appearance, who tracks the doctor's brougham to a cottage in the countryside after Holmes had coated the wheels in aniseed oil. What Holmes finds is not pleasant. Staunton is there, but is grieving over his young wife, who has just died of consumption. Her existence was kept secret, because Lord Mount-James would not have approved of the marriage and would have disowned his nephew. Armstrong had told the woman's father about her condition, and he, the bearded stranger, had unwisely told Staunton, who felt compelled to rush off forthwith. 

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Sherlock Holmes wakes up Dr. Watson early one winter morning to rush to a murder scene at the Abbey Grange near Chislehurst, Kent. Sir Eustace Brackenstall has been killed, apparently by burglars. Inspector Stanley Hopkins believes that it was the infamous Randall gang who have committed several other burglaries in the neighborhood. At Abbey Grange, Lady Brackenstall tells Holmes that her marriage was not happy; Sir Eustace was a violent, abusive drunkard. She then tells that about 11 o'clock, in the dining room, she encountered an elderly man coming in the French window, followed by two younger men. The older man struck her in the face, knocking her out. When she came to, she was gagged and tied to an oaken chair with the bellrope, which they had torn down. Sir Eustace came into the room and rushed at the intruders, one of whom struck and killed him with a poker. Lady Brackenstall fainted again for a minute or two. She saw the intruders drinking wine from a bottle taken from the sideboard. Then they left, taking some silver plate. Sir Eustace's corpse is still lying at the murder scene. Hopkins tells Holmes some unsavoury things about Sir Eustace: that he poured petroleum over his wife's dog and set it alight, and once threw a decanter at his maid Theresa. Theresa corroborates Lady Brackenstall's account of Sir Eustace being an abusive alcoholic. Examining the bellrope, Holmes notes that if it was tugged hard enough to tear it down, the bell would have rung in the kitchen, and asks why nobody heard it. Hopkins answers that it was late, and the kitchen is at the back of the house, where none of the servants would have heard. This suggests that the burglars must have known this, indicating a link between them and one of the servants. Oddly, the thieves stole only a few items of silver plate from dining room. The half-empty wine bottle and glasses interest Holmes - the cork had been drawn with the corkscrew of a "multiplex knife", not the long corkscrew in the drawer, and one of the glasses has beeswing dregs in it, but the others have none. Annoyed at being called to investigate a case that apparently has a ready-made solution, Holmes decides to catch the train back to London. However, after having mulled things over during the journey, Holmes thinks that Lady Brackenstall's story has too many holes in it and that probably she and Theresa have lied deliberately, staging a false crime scene. Upon returning to the Abbey Grange, Holmes, after examining again the supposed crime scene, reaches this conclusion: the killer cut the bellrope with a knife, and frayed the loose end to make it look broken. Holmes confronts Lady Brackenstall and Theresa, telling them he knows they are lying and demanding the truth, but they stand by their story. On the way out, Holmes notices a hole in the ice on the pond, and writes a note for Hopkins. Holmes searches for the killer: almost certainly a sailor (indicated by the knots and the active physique) who was previously acquainted with Lady Brackenstall, and whom she and Theresa would protect. Lady Brackenstall traveled by the ocean liner Rock of Gibraltar of the Adelaide-Southampton Line, which is now halfway to Australia. However, the ship's first officer, Jack Crocker, who has been promoted to captain, has remained in England and in two days will take command of the company's new ship, Bass Rock. Holmes takes a cab to Scotland Yard but does not go in. He tells Watson he is reluctant to name the criminal to the police until he knows more. That evening, Hopkins calls at 221B Baker Street, with two items of news: * As suggested in Holmes' note, the stolen silver was found at the bottom of the pond. Holmes suggests that the theft was a blind—a deliberate false clue. However, Hopkins rationalises that the pond was chosen as a temporary hiding place. * The Randall gang was arrested in New York that morning, so they couldn't have committed a murder in Kent the previous night. (l. to r.) Watson, Holmes and Captain Crocker. Later that evening, Captain Crocker comes to Baker Street, summoned by a telegram from Holmes. Holmes demands a full account of what happened at the Abbey Grange, warning Crocker that Holmes will summon the police if he lies or conceals anything. Crocker met a woman named Mary (Lady Brackenstall) on the voyage from Australia. He fell in love with her, but not she with him. Then he happened to meet Theresa, who told him of Sir Eustace's abusive behaviour. He met secretly with Mary at the house; the last time on the previous night. They were in the dining room when Sir Eustace burst in, insulted Mary, and struck her with a cudgel. He then attacked Crocker, who killed him with the poker in self-defence. Crocker adds that he has no regret whatever. To avoid the scandal that could ensue, Crocker and Theresa concocted the cover story of burglars caught in the act. He cut down the bellrope exactly as Holmes deduced; he opened the wine bottle with his pocket knife's corkscrew; he took some silver plate and dropped it in the pond. Holmes tells Crocker that the police don't yet know the truth, and that he will wait 24 hours before revealing it, allowing Crocker to get away. Crocker indignantly refuses the offer, insisting that he will only agree to any version of the case that will leave Mary out of it. But Holmes was only testing Crocker, and is impressed by his loyalty to Mary. He has given Hopkins "an excellent hint" and doesn't feel he must do more. He designates Watson as the "jury", and asks him to "render a verdict." Watson declares Crocker "not guilty." Holmes tells Crocker he will keep silent unless someone else is charged, and that he may come back to Mary in a year. 

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Like most of the Kroffts's productions, the show's opening sequence provides the setup of its fanciful premise: While loading food into various compartments to prepare a rocket for an upcoming mission, Barney instructs Junior to hit the "lunch" button, but Junior mistakenly hits the "launch" button. The rocket blasts off and takes them on various misadventures on alien planets. Typically, in each episode, their spaceship (a NASA lunar module) would be captured by aliens (one being played by John Carradine, who so impressed Denver with his acting skills during a scene that he was left speechless and missed his cue, requiring another take) and taken to some strange planet, or the spaceship would merely land somewhere. Then, either Barney and Junior, or the ship, would be taken away by the strange creatures on the planet. After some weird mission was carried out, the two astronauts would be reunited with the spaceship and be off on their next mission. 

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Holmes and Dr. Watson find themselves at Poldhu in Cornwall one spring for the former's health, but the holiday ends with a bizarre event. Mr. Mortimer Tregennis, a local gentleman, and Mr. Roundhay, the local vicar, come to Holmes to report that Tregennis's two brothers have gone insane, and his sister has died. Tregennis had gone to visit them in their village ('Tredannick Wollas'), played whist with them, and then left. When he came back in the morning, he found them still sitting in their places at the table, the brothers, George and Owen, laughing and singing, and the sister, Brenda, dead. The housekeeper had discovered them in this state, and fainted. The vicar has not been to see them yet. Tregennis says that he remembers one brother looking through the window, and then he himself turned to see some "movement" outside. He declares that the horrific event is the work of the devil. Mortimer Tregennis was once estranged from his siblings by the matter of dividing the proceeds from the sale of the family business, but he insists that all was forgiven, although he still lives apart from them. The doctor who was summoned, reckoned that she had been dead for six hours. He also collapsed into a chair for a while after arriving. Holmes goes to the house in question and, apparently carelessly, kicks over a watering pot, soaking everyone's feet. The housekeeper tells Holmes that she heard nothing in the night, and that the family had been particularly happy and prosperous lately. Holmes observes the remains of a fire in the fireplace. Tregennis explains that it was a cold, damp night. Afterwards, Holmes lays the case out to Watson thus: *Quite obviously, there is no point in attributing the tragedy to the Devil; therefore, what took place can only be the work of a human. *Whatever happened to those people happened right after Tregennis left, for they had not moved and everything was in the same place; *Mortimer Tregennis went swiftly back to the vicarage where he lives (a footprint sample was obtained in the watering pot "accident"); *The only suggestion of an explanation--the "movement"--comes from Mortimer Tregennis; *Given the weather, anyone appearing at the window and doing something horrifying enough to instantly kill someone would have had to come right up to the window thus trampling the flowerbed, which is still intact; *What on earth could this person at the window have done to cause such horror? None of this seems to make for an elementary case, but soon, new questions are raised. Dr. Leon Sterndale, the famous hunter and explorer, aborts his sailing from Plymouth after the vicar wired him (as the Tregennises and Sterndale are cousins) with the tragic news. He asks Holmes what his suspicions are, and is displeased when Holmes will not voice them. After Sterndale leaves, Holmes follows him discreetly. The morning after Holmes comes back to his room, apparently none the wiser for following Sterndale, the vicar arrives in a panic with the news that Mortimer Tregennis has now died in the same way as his sister. The two men, along with Watson, rush to Mortimer's room, and find it foul and stuffy, even though the window has been opened. A lamp is burning on the table beside the dead man. Holmes rushes about, examining many things. The upstairs window seems especially interesting. He also scrapes some ashes out of the lamp, and puts them in an envelope. Holmes deduces how the victims died or went mad and why people present when the death rooms were first opened fainted or felt unwell in each case. He tests his hypothesis by buying a lamp like the one in Tregennis's room, lighting it, and putting some of the collected "ashes" on the smoke guard. The smoke from this powder is so potent a poison that Holmes is immediately struck down. Watson is able to resist and drags Holmes out of the room just in time. It is clear to Holmes that Mortimer Tregennis poisoned his siblings, but who killed Mortimer? It is Dr. Sterndale, who left physical evidence at the vicarage clearly implicating himself. Holmes confronts Sterndale, who explains that he loved Brenda for years (but had been unable to marry her because of the current marriage laws which prevented him from divorcing his wife even though she abandoned him years ago) and killed Mortimer in revenge for the cruel murder. The poison is called Radix pedis diaboli ("Devil’s-foot root" in Latin),Q&A; New York Times 2 October 1990 Radix pedis diaboli does not exist in nature. Sterndale collected from Africa as a curiosity. The toxic contents of the plant root are vaporized by heat and diffuse into the local atmosphere. He once explained to Mortimer what it was and what it was capable of, who then stole some to murder his siblings by throwing it on the fire just before he left. Mortimer thought Sterndale would be at sea before news reached Plymouth, but Sterndale recognized the poison's effects from the vicar's description of the tragedy and deduced right away what had happened. Holmes's sympathies in this matter lie with Sterndale, and he tells him to go back to his work in Africa. 

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Sir James Damery comes to see Holmes and Watson about his illustrious client's problem (the client's identity is never revealed to the reader, although Watson finds out at the end of the story; it is heavily implied to be King Edward VII). General de Merville's young daughter Violet has fallen in love with the roguish and sadistic Austrian Baron Adelbert Gruner, who Damery and Holmes are convinced is a shameless philanderer and a murderer. The victim was his last wife, of whose murder he was acquitted owing to a legal technicality and a witness's untimely death. She met her end in the Splügen Pass. Holmes also finds out that the Baron has expensive tastes and is a collector and a recognised authority on Chinese pottery. Holmes's first step is to see Gruner, who is amused to see Holmes trying to "play a hand with no cards in it". The Baron will not be moved and claims that his charm is more potent than even a post-hypnotic suggestion in conditioning Violet's mind to reject anything bad that might be said about him. Gruner tells the story of Le Brun, a French agent who was crippled for life after being beaten by thugs after making similar inquiries into the Baron's personal business. Holmes gets some help with his mission in the form of Shinwell Johnson, a former criminal who now acts as an informer for Holmes in London's underworld. Johnson rakes up Miss Kitty Winter, the Baron's last mistress, who was ruined because of it. She is bent on revenge and will do anything to help Holmes. Kitty tells Holmes that the Baron "collects women" and chronicles his conquests in a book. Holmes realises that this book, written in Gruner's own hand, is the key to curing Violet of her devotion to the scoundrel. Kitty tells Holmes that this book is kept in the Baron's study. First, Holmes goes to see Violet, bringing Kitty with him, but Violet is proof against Holmes's words. Kitty then makes it clear that Violet might end up dead if she is foolish enough to marry Gruner. The meeting ends with Holmes narrowly averting a public scene involving the enraged Kitty. Next, Holmes is attacked by two men, and the newspapers imply that he is near death. Watson goes to 221B Baker Street only to discover that Holmes's injuries have been exaggerated to give the impression that he will be out of action for quite a while. Several days later, Holmes is sufficiently recovered to be out of bed. The Baron is planning a trip to the United States just before the wedding and will be leaving in three days. Holmes knows that Gruner will take his incriminating book with him, never daring to leave it behind in his study. Holmes orders Watson to learn everything that he can about Chinese pottery in the next 24 hours. The next day, Holmes presents Watson with a fake business card styling him as "Dr. Hill Barton" and an actual piece of Ming pottery, a saucer. He is to go to Baron Gruner's house, pose as a connoisseur of Chinese pottery, and try to sell the saucer. Watson does as Holmes tells him but cannot fool the Baron for very long. Gruner realises who has sent him. As Watson faces his murderous captor, a noise from another room alerts the Baron and he rushes into his study just in time to see Holmes jump out of the window. The Baron rushes to the window, but Kitty Winter, who has been hiding outside, throws vitriol in his face. Watson applies treatment to his injuries. During Holmes' visit he manages to steal the book. The Baron is now hideously disfigured, but Holmes says this will not put Violet off him. They still need the book to cure her. When Violet sees the book of conquests, written in her fiancé's handwriting, she realises what a rogue he is. An announcement in The Morning Post says that the marriage between Baron Adelbert Gruner and Miss Violet de Merville is off. It also says vitriol-throwing charges are being pressed against Kitty Winter. Extenuating circumstances reduce her sentence to the lowest possible for such an offence. 

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In January 1903, at Baker Street, James M. Dodd sees Holmes about a missing friend, Godfrey Emsworth. Dodd and Emsworth served together in the Imperial Yeomanry in South Africa during the Second Boer War, which has only just ended. Emsworth was wounded during this war. Dodd has not seen him since the report of his injury leading Dodd to believe something is amiss. Dodd tried writing to Colonel Emsworth, Godfrey's father, and was told in response that Godfrey went off to sea, however Dodd was not satisfied with this answer. Next, Dodd went to the Emsworth family home, Tuxbury Old Park, near Bedford. There were four people there—the Colonel and his wife, and an old butler and his wife. The Colonel was something less than a gracious host. He repeated the story about his son's world voyage, implied that Dodd was lying about even knowing Godfrey, and seemed irritated at Dodd's suggestion that he provide information that would allow him to send Godfrey a letter. Dodd was still determined to ascertain Godfrey's fate. That evening, in the ground-floor bedroom, Dodd talked to the butler, Ralph, when he came to deliver some coal. When Ralph mentioned Godfrey in the past tense, Dodd began to suspect that his friend was dead. Ralph indicated that no, he wasn't, but that it might be better that way. The mystery was further complicated when Dodd observed Godfrey's face in his window, finally proving that he was on the grounds and not at sea like the colonel had claimed. Dodd tried to chase him, but gave up shortly after hearing the sound of a closing door nearby. Dodd contrived to stay another day at Tuxbury Old Park, and went looking about the property. He saw a well-dressed man leaving an outbuilding, whose suspicion was aroused somewhat, as Dodd was aware that he was watching him. Dodd was convinced Godfrey must be in this outbuilding. Dodd went back to the outbuilding at night, and observed the well dressed man and another, who he assumed was Godfrey, through the window. Before he could investigate further, Colonel Emsworth appeared. Upset that Dodd would violate the family's privacy, he insisted Dodd leave immediately. Dodd comes straight to Holmes to relate the story. Holmes needs only to ask about the publication that the man with Godfrey was reading, and although Dodd cannot be absolutely sure of it, Holmes seems satisfied with the answer. Upon his arrival at Tuxbury Old Park, Holmes observes a tarry smell coming from the leather gloves that Ralph has just removed. The Colonel threatens to summon the police if Dodd and Holmes do not leave, but Holmes points out that doing this would cause the very catastrophe the Colonel wants to avoid. Convincing the colonel that he knows the secret, Holmes receives permission to visit the outbuilding, where he and Dodd hear Godfrey's story right from his own lips. The night he was wounded in South Africa, he found his way to a house and slept in a bed there. When he woke up in the morning, he found himself surrounded by lepers. A doctor there told him that he was in a leper hospital, and would likely contract the disease after sleeping in a leper's bed. The doctor helped heal his wounds, and once Godfrey got back to England, the dreaded symptoms began to appear. His family's fear of their son being put in an institution, and possibly the stigma attached to leprosy, have forced them to keep his presence secret. The story ends happily, however. Holmes has brought with him Sir James Saunders, a famous dermatologist from London. Dr. Saunders determines that Emsworth actually has ichthyosis, or pseudo-leprosy, a disease that is quite treatable. 

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The story begins with a visit to 221B Baker Street from Steve Dixie, a black man and a cowardly ruffian who warns Sherlock Holmes to keep away from Harrow. Although Dixie has come to intimidate Holmes, Holmes secures Dixie's future cooperation by threatening to tell what he knows about the suspicious Perkins death involving Dixie. Dixie's boss is Barney Stockdale, and he must be connected with the Harrow Weald case, of which Holmes has just learnt from a message from Mary Maberley, a lady who lives at Three Gables, a house at Harrow Weald. Mrs. Maberley is an elderly woman whose son has recently died in Rome. He was an attaché there. Some peculiar things have happened at Three Gables. Mrs. Maberley has lived there nearly two years and in all that time has attracted very little attention from her neighbours. Suddenly, however, a man came to her recently and offered to buy her house and all the furniture in it. She was not really willing to do it, especially after her lawyer, Mr. Sutro, told her that the legal agreement drawn up by this prospective buyer would forbid her to remove any possessions from the house when she moved out. As she is telling Holmes this story, he becomes aware that someone is eavesdropping on the conversation. He opens a door and drags in Susan, a wheezing maid. Holmes manages to establish that Susan communicated to Barney Stockdale the fact that her mistress was hiring Sherlock Holmes, and that precipitated Steve Dixie's visit. Holmes also finds out that a rich woman hired Barney Stockdale and his thugs to do her dirty work. Susan is also a member of the gang but will not give up all their secrets. She leaves in a huff. Obviously, this woman wants something that has come into the house quite recently. Holmes, seeing some trunks with Italian placenames on them, realizes that her late son Douglas's belongings must hold the key. He instructs Mrs. Maberley to try to get Mr. Sutro to spend a couple of nights at Three Gables, to keep the house guarded. Holmes finds Dixie outside, keeping the house under surveillance. Dixie is now inclined to help Holmes if he can, to avoid any indiscreet talk about the Perkins lad who met his end so tragically. He swears, however, that he does not know who has hired Barney Stockdale. Holmes and Watson go back to Three Gables to investigate a burglary that has happened there. The burglars chloroformed Mrs. Maberley and stole a manuscript from her son's belongings. She retained part of one sheet of paper from it when, coming round, she lunged after one of the thieves. The police inspector at the scene treats the matter as an ordinary burglary, but Holmes knows better. He examines the bit of manuscript retained by Mrs. Maberley, and it appears to be the end of a lurid novel. Holmes is struck by the peculiar wording; the story abruptly changes from third-person narration to first-person narration. It is in Douglas's handwriting; so it would seem that he was putting himself in a story that he was writing. Holmes and Watson go to see Isadora Klein, a wealthy woman who is used to getting what she wants. The happenings at Three Gables and the information from Langdale Pike have all added up to something. It turns out that Douglas Maberley was involved with Isadora Klein at one time. She broke the relationship off, and he almost wrought his revenge by writing a thinly veiled account of their affair, to be published as a novel. Everyone in London would know who the characters truly were, were the novel ever published. Isadora established that no copy had ever been sent to Douglas's publisher but realized that he must have a copy. She hired Barney Stockdale and his confederates to secure the manuscript. She tried legal means at first, and when that did not work, she resorted to crime. She has burnt the manuscript. Holmes forces Isadora Klein to write a cheque for £5000 to furnish Mrs. Maberley with a first-class trip round the world in return for his silence about Isadora's nefarious dealings. 

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Holmes receives a letter from a Nathan Garrideb of 136 Little Ryder Street,An actual London street, with a history going back to the seventeenth Century asking for help in a most peculiar quest. He is looking for another man with his unusual surname, for it will mean a $5 million inheritance for him. He has been approached by another man, John Garrideb of Kansas, who says that he needs to find others with the same last name. The American Garrideb comes to see Holmes and Watson at 221B Baker Street, and is apparently not very pleased that Nathan Garrideb has involved a detective. Garrideb, who claims to be a lawyer, spins a ridiculous story about Alexander Hamilton Garrideb, a millionaire land tycoon he met in Kansas. Hamilton Garrideb bequeathed his $15 million estate to John Garrideb on the provision that he find two more Garridebs to share it with equally. He came to England to seek out people with the name, having failed in his own country. So far, he has found only Nathan. During the interview, Holmes detects many discrepancies in John Garrideb's story, ranging from the time he has spent in London being obviously longer than he claims and his knowledge of a completely fictitious mayor of the town where Garrideb claims to have lived in before coming to England, but decides not to confront him. This piques Holmes' interest, and he decides to contact Nathan Garrideb to investigate further. Upon arrival at Little Ryder Street, Holmes observes Nathan Garrideb's nameplate outside the house. It has obviously been there for years; so Holmes concludes that Garrideb is at least his true surname. It turns out that Nathan Garrideb is an elderly eccentric who collects everything from ancient coins to old bones. Garrideb's rooms look like a small museum. He is obviously a serious collector, but has nothing of great value in his collection. Holmes finds out that John Garrideb has never asked for any money, nor has he suggested any course of action. Nathan Garrideb has no reason, it seems, to be suspicious of John Garrideb. This puzzles Holmes. During Holmes's and Watson's visit, John Garrideb arrives in a most jolly mood. He has apparently found a third Garrideb, as proof of which he shows a newspaper advertisement purportedly placed by a Howard Garrideb in the course of his everyday business. Holmes sees instantly that John Garrideb has placed the advertisement himself from various Americanisms in the spelling and wording. Despite Nathan Garrideb's objections—for he is a man who very seldom goes out, much less travels—John Garrideb insists that Nathan go to Birmingham and meet this Howard Garrideb. It has now become clear to Holmes what the "rigmarole of lies" is all about. John Garrideb wants Nathan Garrideb to be out of his rooms for a while. The next day brings fresh information. Holmes goes to see Inspector Lestrade at Scotland Yard and identifies John Garrideb as James Winter alias Morecroft alias "Killer" Evans, who escaped prison after shooting three men in the States. In London, he killed Rodger Prescott, a Chicago forger whose description matches the former occupant of Nathan Garrideb's room. Holmes and Watson go to Garrideb's home armed with revolvers. They do not have to wait long before Winter shows up. From their hiding place, Holmes and Watson see the criminal use a "jemmy" to open a trapdoor revealing a little cellar. They capture Winter, but not before he manages to shoot twice, striking Watson in the leg. For once, Holmes shows his human side; he is distraught over Watson's injury, and strikes Winter on the head with the butt of a gun hard enough to draw blood, vowing that the villain would have never left the rooms alive if he had killed Watson. Fortunately, Watson's wound is superficial. The little cellar contains a printing press and stacks of counterfeit banknotes, hidden there by Prescott, the man that Winter killed. Winter is sent back to prison. Nathan Garrideb ends up in a nursing home, so great is his disappointment, but many CID men are pleased that Prescott's equipment has at last been found. Watson seems the happiest at the adventure's outcome despite being hurt, declaring, "It was worth a wound, it was worth many wounds, to know the depth of loyalty and love which lay behind that cold mask", from the sight of Holmes's panic and rage over his friend's shooting. 

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Cover of The Strand Magazine featuring the publication of the last Sherlock Holmes story written by Arthur Conan Doyle: "The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place". Head trainer John Mason from Shoscombe Old Place, a racing stable in Berkshire, comes to Holmes about his master, Sir Robert Norberton. Mason thinks he has gone mad. Sir Robert's sister, Lady Beatrice Falder, owns Shoscombe, but it will revert to her late husband's brother when she dies. The stable has a horse, Shoscombe Prince, who Sir Robert hopes will win the Derby. He would be out of debt if that actually happened. Mason is not quite sure what he wants Holmes to investigate, but a number of odd changes have happened at the stable: *Why has Lady Beatrice suddenly forgone her usual habit of stopping to greet her favourite horse? Why does she just ride on by in her carriage? *Why has Sir Robert become so wild- eyed lately? *Why has he given his sister's dog away to a neighbourhood innkeeper? *Why does he go to the old crypt at night, and who is that man that he meets there? *Why have burnt human bones been found in the furnace at Shoscombe? Holmes decides to investigate on the spot. He and Dr. Watson go to Berkshire posing as anglers and learn some interesting things. The keeper of the inn where they are staying is the one who now has Lady Beatrice's dog, and it is quite an expensive breed, one that an innkeeper ordinarily could never afford. With the innkeeper's permission, Holmes takes the dog for a walk, and goes to Shoscombe, where he releases it as Lady Beatrice's carriage comes out of the gate. The dog dashes forward enthusiastically at first, but then flees in terror. Then, even though a maid and Lady Beatrice are supposedly the only two people in the carriage, it is a male voice that yells "Drive on!" Then there is the crypt. John Mason observes that a heap of bones there earlier is now gone. Holmes finds a coffin with a fresh, swathed body in it. Just then, Sir Robert arrives, catching Holmes and Watson in the act. After Holmes makes it plain that he has deduced most of the odd goings-on, Sir Robert invites him and Watson back to the house and explains everything. About a week earlier, Lady Beatrice died of dropsy, and Sir Robert felt compelled to keep the fact secret so that the creditors would not swoop down on Shoscombe before he had a chance to win the Derby and pay off all his debts. He and the maid's husband hid the body in the crypt, but also found that they had to dispose of an older body--in the furnace. This same man also dressed up in Lady Beatrice's clothes and took her place in the carriage each day. The dog knew what had happened and might have given the game away if its noise had aroused suspicion. Holmes refers the matter to the police, but the story ends happily. Shoscombe Prince wins the Derby, Sir Robert escapes any major judicial penalty for what he did to his sister's body, and he pays off all his debts with a great deal left over. 

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Sherlock Holmes is hired by a retired art supply dealer from Lewisham, Josiah Amberley, to look into his wife's disappearance. She has left with a neighbour, Dr. Ray Ernest, taking a sizeable quantity of cash and securities. Amberley wants the two tracked down. Holmes is too busy with another case at the moment; so he sends Dr. Watson to Lewisham to observe what he can, although Watson is keenly aware that this is more Holmes's province. He does his best, observing that Amberley is busy painting his house, which seems a bit odd. He even sees Amberley's wife's unused theatre ticket; she and her young man disappeared while Amberley went to the theatre alone after his wife complained of a headache. Watson notes the seat number. Watson also sees Amberley's strongroom from which his wife had taken the valuables. She, apparently, had a key of her own. He meets a lounger with a rather military appearance in the street, and later observes him running to catch the train at Blackheath Station as he is returning to 221B Baker Street. Holmes recognises the description; it is his rival in detection, Barker. It later turns out that Ray Ernest's family has hired him to find the missing doctor. A number of other things about Amberley are obvious. He is a miser, and as such is quite a jealous man. He is an avid chess player (indeed, so is Ernest, which is how they became acquainted), suggesting to Holmes that he also has a scheming mind. Holmes suspects something, and so sends Watson and Amberley on a fool's errand to the remote village of Little Purlington, near Frinton in Essex, just to keep Amberley out of the way while Holmes breaks into his house to investigate it. He is "caught" by Barker, but they decide to work together. They reach a conclusion, and later Holmes confronts Amberley with the dramatic question "What did you do with the bodies?" Holmes manhandles Amberley just in time to stop him taking a poison pill. Amberley is obviously guilty. Holmes explains how he reached his conclusion. Amberley's alibi fell apart when Holmes discovered that his seat at the Haymarket Theatre had not been occupied on the night in question, its number deduced from the ticket that Watson had seen. Also, the painting was a clue. Holmes realised that it was being done to mask a smell, and he soon discovered what that was: gas. He found a gas pipe leading into the strongroom with a tap outside. Amberley had lured his wife and her lover--for so he had believed Dr. Ernest to be--into the strongroom, locked them in, and turned the gas on, killing them out of jealousy. He had simply hidden the "stolen" valuables somewhere. In indelible pencil, one of the victims wrote "We we…", perhaps meaning to write "We were murdered." The bodies are found in a disused well in the garden, hidden under a dog kennel, just where Holmes suggested that the police look. Amberley apparently hired Holmes out of "pure swank", believing that no-one would ever find him out. Holmes believes that Amberley will likely end up at Broadmoor rather than on the scaffold, owing to his mental state. 

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Moll, Lora, and Belvera, the Elias sisters, are at odds again. Belvera seeks the secret power of their ancestors, three power units that transform the sisters' small daggers into powerful swords. She steals the units from Infant Island, but is thwarted by Fairy Mothra, Moll and Lora's pet, and fails to retrieve the proper unit for her sword. Moll and Lora end up with a unit that transforms Moll's sword. Shortly afterward, a huge meteor lands on Earth. The next day, preteen Shota plays ditches school to investigate. Meanwhile, children all over the city mysteriously vanish. Moll and Lora examine the meteor's remains and realize a great evil has been released. King Ghidorah, a three-headed space monster who visited Earth in its past and destroyed the dinosaurs, returns with the captured children to a secluded spot near the meteor; trapping them in an organic dome. Leo arrives in his Rainbow Mothra form to battle King Ghidorah, but the latter easily dominates the battle, forcing the former to escape. Later, Moll and Lora encounter Ghidorah, who hypnotizes Lora. Under Ghidorah's spell, Lora attacks Moll and attempts to drag them both into the dome, but Fairy Mothra saves Moll. Belvera, intrigued by Ghidorah's arrival, gets too close and is dragged inside as well. As the space monster wreaks havoc on the city, Moll encounters Shota, who learned that his brother Shuehei and sister Tamako were captured as well. Moll tells Shota about Ghidorah's plan to feed on the children's life force and convinces him to accompany her to see Rainbow Mothra. Communicating telepathically, Moll and Rainbow Mothra come up with a plan. Once the former gives the latter her remaining powers, Leo transforms into Light Speed Mothra so he can travel 65 million years in the past and confront a weaker version of Ghidorah when he first arrived on Earth. In the meantime, Moll gives Shota her sword and asks him to go inside the dome to find Lora and convince her to use her powers to help Mothra. After Shota reluctantly agrees, a weakened Moll falls into a state of suspended animation. Shota allows Ghidorah to capture him so he can find Lora. Inside, Lora encounters a worried Belvera, who tells her that Ghidorah plans to destroy the Earth. Lora takes Belvera's unit and uses it to transform her dagger. Still under Ghidorah's spell, the two fairies engage in a sword fight, with Belvera begging Lora to see reason and to work with her, to no avail. Shota finds Lora, but she attacks him. Belvera tries to stop her as Shota reminds her of who she is. Ghidorah's spell breaks and Lora falls into Shota's hands; her sword combining with Moll's. Belvera finally realizes that the Elias triangle represents the three of them, so she uses the last unit to transform her dagger, and combines her sword with Lora and Moll's. Using the newly created sword, she attempts to break open the dome as Lora recovers. Meanwhile, Leo reaches the past and turns back into Rainbow Mothra before engaging the past iteration of Ghidorah, but faces another losing battle. As the dome shakes violently, Shota realizes that Leo is losing the fight and asks Lora to use her powers to help him. As Lora sings, Leo recovers his energy and immobilizes Ghidorah long enough for him to drop the dragon into a nearby volcano, though not before a severed piece of Ghidorah's tail burrows itself into the ground. The volcano erupts, destroying Ghidorah. Seriously injured by the battle, Leo crashes to the ground, and is on the brink of death. However, three Mothra larvae of an ancient, primitive species arrive and wrap him in a cocoon, where he spends the ensuing 65 million years healing and undergoing metamorphosis. Back in the present, Ghidorah and the dome disappear, freeing the children and the fairies. Shota reunites with his siblings and join Belvera and Lora as they kneel by Moll's body; unsure of how to save her. As Belvera notes she should be awake since Ghidorah was destroyed in the past, a new Ghidorah suddenly appears and recaptures the children, being derived from the tail of Ghidorah that escaped destruction by Leo. Suddenly, the cocoon explodes, revealing Leo's strongest form yet, Armor Mothra. Another battle takes place, but Ghidorah loses and ends up disintegrated. Mothra tells Belvera and Lora to channel their powers through their sword to revive Moll. The fairies do as they are told and while the sword vanishes, Moll revives. The reunion is short-lived however, as Belvera flies off. The children are released once again and reunite with their parents. Shota, Shuehei, Tamako and their parents watch as Moll, Lora, Fairy Mothra, and Leo, now in a new Eternal Mothra form, fly off into the sunset. 

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The book begins with the main character describing the city they (the character's gender is unclear) live in, "the city you can not see out of". Many of the city's residents believe it is impossible to leave the city, but the main character suggests that he and the reader should leave, "because there is something I want to talk to you about". Leaving the city, the main character and the reader drive until their car breaks down, at which point they continue on foot until they come across a house where a strange person (who looks like what is presumably an alien on the explodingdog site) invites them in, offers them soup, and tells stories. The first story is the story of the king, a narrative about a king who believes he has improved the land he rules, making his people happy (by forcing them to wear happy masks, a point that is not mentioned in the narrative but clear from the artwork). The king has also built "an amazing army" and "wonderful weapons". Next, the alien host tells about the future. For example, in the future we will get our food over the internet. The title of the book comes from the statement that, "in the future, the rain will never mess up your hair". In the end, with the king's rockets raining down on them, the main character and the reader flee. The main character has decided that "I love you" and "I want us to be together". Torn to shreds by the rockets, they flee into the ocean, where they are eaten by fish. 

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Millions of years before time, a giant three-headed space dragon called Desghidorah arrives on Earth and battles a species of enormous and highly advanced moths. The moths are the protectors of the "Elias", a race of tiny, humanoid beings who inhabit the planet. After the ensuing battle, Desghidorah is defeated and sealed under the Earth. Only three Elias, Moll, Lora and Belvera, and one last moth, Mothra, remain. Moll and Lora are good- natured and benevolent, while Belvera has become vengeful and evil, eager to destroy the human race because she believes they will bring about the destruction of the Elias. To preserve her species, Mothra creates an egg in 1996; however, she becomes physically exhausted from the ordeal. Shortly thereafter, a logging company uncovers Desghidorah's subterranean prison and breaks the seal. Yuichi Goto, one of the workers, takes the seal home and gives it to his young daughter Wakaba as a souvenir. Seizing the advantage, Belvera controls Wakaba and uses her to torment her brother Taiki, reminding Belvera of her hatred towards her sisters. Moll and Lora, riding a smaller Mothra named Fairy, then battle Belvera for control of the artifact. Belvera prevails and manages to release Desghidorah from its rocky tomb to exact her warped plans for destruction of the human race. Mothra is summoned to halt the detestable dragon, which is absorbing the life out of the environment. She fights a long and difficult battle to repel her ancient adversary, and in response to her declining strength, her young son, named Mothra Leo, hatches prematurely to assist his mother. Though his energized silk seems to turn the tide of battle in the favor of the protectors, Desghidorah sinks the teeth of two of his heads deep into Leo and Mothra becomes desperate. She quickly airlifts her son to safety, and to keep Desghidorah at bay, lures the beast to a dam. With Desghidorah distracted by a wall of raging water, Mothra carries her son to safety. Mothra's wounds, age, and weariness are ultimately too much. Her strength fails, and after lowering her child carefully into the sea, she falls exhausted onto the waves and sinks to her death. The distraught larva attempts to save his beloved mother, but to no avail. Angered, the young moth creates a cocoon and began to change into his adult form. Desghidorah goes on a rampage, destroying everything in its path as the humans watch helplessly. Moll and Lora, who befriend Taiki and Wakaba, encourage them to have hope and remind them that Mothra would be reborn to save the Earth. Leo emerges into his adult form as a swarm of multi-colored butterflies. As the butterflies coalesce into one massive insect, Leo takes to the air and heads back towards Desghidorah, righteous fury burning in his wake. Arriving in a hail of energy beams, Leo relentlessly blasts the three-headed monster, throwing wave upon wave of searing beams and energy blasts at Desghidorah, who can only feebly attempt to defend himself against Mothra. Drawing upon an ancient legacy, Leo relentlessly assaults Desghidorah, eventually renewing the seal that bound the world destroyer beneath the soil of the earth; but his work is not done with the end of the fight. Drawing upon the power of life that filled his very being, Leo restores the balance to a blasted region that was deforested during the assault of Desghidorah. His work done for the time being, Leo travels to his ancestral home and planet Earth is once again safe from Desghidorah. Moll and Lora thank the children for helping them on their journey and return home to Infant Island with their pet Fairy, as Belvera, still vengeful, escapes into a hole in a tree. 

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In a 1960s working-class neighborhood in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a teenage boy nicknamed "Birdy" befriends his next-door neighbor Al Columbato, and relates to him his fascination with birds and their ability to fly. The two begin pursuing Birdy's hobby of catching pigeons and caging them in a large, wooden aviary that he has built outside his parents' home. One night, they climb atop a refinery building, where Birdy hangs on the ledge to catch the pigeons roosting on it. Birdy loses his grip and falls several stories, but lands on a pile of sand. Slightly dazed, he tells Al that during the fall, he flew. After Birdy is hospitalized for minor injuries, his parents dismantle the aviary. Birdy concedes to Al's wishes of pursuing another venture. After they purchase a 1953 Ford and restore it, Al's father registers the vehicle. Al drives Birdy to an Atlantic City boardwalk, but they are arrested the next day after Mr. Columbato reports the car stolen. After bailing the boys out of jail, Mr. Columbato sells the vehicle. Birdy later confronts him, claiming that the car was not his to sell, and refuses a sum of money offered to him on principle. Birdy builds a new aviary in his bedroom and purchases two canaries. He names the female Perta and the male Alfonso after his friend. Upon returning to school, Birdy encounters a classmate, Doris Robinson, and Al encourages him to ask her out on a date. At the prom, Birdy dances unenthusiastically with Doris, leaving her confused and humiliated. Afterwards, Doris drives him to a secluded spot, where Birdy lightly rejects her sexual advances. Birdy returns home to his bedroom and lies down naked in the aviary. In a semi-conscious state, he expresses that he wants to die and be born again as a bird. He then imagines himself flying like a bird around his room, throughout the house and outside in the neighborhood. Upon graduation, Al enlists and Birdy is drafted into the United States Army. During the Vietnam War, Birdy is placed in a mental hospital after being missing in action for a month. A flashback reveals that he was the sole survivor of a helicopter crash. Al is hospitalized in the same facility, his face heavily bandaged for injuries that he sustained from an exploding bomb. Major Weiss, a military doctor, informs him that, although Birdy's injuries are relatively minor, he has not spoken since he was found. Al speaks to Birdy at length, but grows increasingly frustrated by his lack of response. He is then elated when Birdy smiles at a joke he makes. Weiss dismisses the response as dissociative behavior. Al suspects Birdy of feigning insanity to hide from the world, and expresses to him that he too wishes to hide due to his own injuries. Birdy unexpectedly responds by telling Al that he is "full of shit". Al alerts Weiss to Birdy's response, but when the doctor arrives, Birdy remains silent. Not seeing any progress, Weiss orders Al to leave, but Al pushes the doctor aside. After Weiss flees, two orderlies are sent in to subdue Al, who fights them off and takes Birdy to the roof of the hospital. Birdy rushes to the ledge, raises his arms and jumps off the side of the roof as if he were about to fly. Al runs over to the ledge and finds Birdy on another level of the roof perfectly fine. 

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Orm and his Viking companions follow Almansur in his campaigns against the Christian kingdoms of the North. The first book covers the years 982 to 990. While still a youth, Orm is abducted by a Viking party led by Krok and they sail south. They fall captive to Andalusian Muslims and serve as galley slaves for more than two years, later becoming members of Almansur's bodyguard for four years, raiding Santiago de Compostela under his command. They return to Denmark to King Harald Bluetooth's court where Orm meets Ylva. Orm later returns to Scania with Rapp. Orm and Rapp join a Viking party raiding England again after a brief period of peace in that area following the reconquest of the Danelaw in the mid-10th century by King Edgar, Ethelred's father. Orm joins a party led by Thorkell the High in England and when he learns that Harald's daughter Ylva is staying in London, gets baptised and marries Ylva. They move to a neglected farm, his mother's inheritance in Göinge, northern Skåne, near the border with Småland. During the following years (992 to 995), Orm prospers, and Ylva gives birth to twin girls (Oddny and Ludmilla), a son, Harald, and later to another son (though possibly from Rainald), Svarthöfde (Blackhair in the Michael Meyer translation). Meanwhile, Orm also gets busy in converting the heathens in the district, with the help of Father Willibald. The year 1000 passes without Christ returning. In 1007, with Orm now forty-two, his brother Are returns from the east, bringing the news of a treasure ("Bulgar gold") he had hidden. Orm decides to travel to the Dnieper weirs in Kievan Rus for the gold, and together with Toke and the Finnveding chieftain Olof mans a ship. They recover the treasure and return home safely. But on their return they encounter an unexpected crisis at home - Rainald, the rather ridiculous failed German Christian missionary, had become a renegade, turned into a Pagan priest of the old Norse gods and the leader of a formidable band of robbers and outlaws, and causes great havoc before being finally overcome. Following this final crisis and from then on, Orm and Toke live in peace and plenty as good neighbours, and Svarthöfde Ormsson becomes a famous Viking, fighting for Canute the Great. The story ends with the statement that Orm and Toke in their old age "did never tire of telling of the years when they had rowed the Caliph's ship and served my lord Al-Mansur." 

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American single mother Ann Lake (Carol Lynley), who recently moved to London from New York, arrives at the Little People's Garden pre-school to collect her daughter, Bunny. The child has mysteriously disappeared. An administrator recalls meeting Ann but claims never to have seen the missing child. Ann and her brother Steven (Keir Dullea) search the school and find a sinister woman living upstairs, who claims she collects children's nightmares. In desperation, the Lakes call the police and Superintendent Newhouse (Laurence Olivier) arrives on the scene. Everyone becomes a suspect and Superintendent Newhouse is steadfast, diligently following every lead. The police and Newhouse decide to visit the Lakes' new residence. They find that all of Bunny's possessions have been removed from the Lakes' home. Ann cannot understand why anyone would do this and reacts emotionally. Superintendent Newhouse begins to suspect that Bunny Lake does not exist after he learns that "Bunny" was the name of Ann's imaginary childhood friend. Ann's landlord (Noël Coward), an aging actor, attempts to seduce her. Newhouse decides to become better acquainted with Ann to learn more about Bunny. He takes her to a local pub where he plies her with brandy and soda. On her return home, Ann discovers she still has the claim ticket for Bunny's doll, which was taken to a doll hospital for repairs. Regarding the doll as proof of Bunny's existence, she frantically rushes to the doll hospital late at night and retrieves the doll. Steven arrives later and, when Ann shows him the doll, Steven knocks Ann unconscious and burns the doll, trying to destroy it. He takes Ann to a hospital and tells the desk nurse that Ann has been hallucinating about a missing girl who does not exist. Ann is sedated and put under observation. Ann wakes and escapes from the hospital. She discovers Steven burying Bunny's possessions; he has sedated the child and hidden her in the boot (trunk) of his car. Steven implies an incestuous interest with his sister and complains that Bunny has always come between them; because he believes Ann loves Bunny more than him, the child threatens Steven's dream of a future with Ann. Realising that her brother is insane, Ann plays childhood games with him to distract him.Orr, John, Otto Preminger and the End of Classical Cinema, sensesofcinema.com, 2006, retrieved 24 July 2008Thompson, Nathaniel, Bunny Lake Is Missing on DVD, tcm.com, retrieved 24 July 2008 Newhouse, having discovered that Steven had lied to the police about the ship that brought the Lakes to England, arrives in time to rescue Ann and Bunny and apprehend Steven. 

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Oliver Crangle is an insane fanatic who lives in an apartment with his parrot Pete. He maintains records of people he believes to be "evil" and has convinced himself that the so called "evil" people (communists, subversives, thieves, murderers) are engaged in a world wide conspiracy and have taken over Washington. He makes phone calls to them and their employers at all hours, writes letters regarding their actions, demands their prompt firing, and threatens to involve higher authorities if they do not comply. Unsatisfied with the results of his anonymous calls and letters, he searches for a more effective way to eliminate evil from the world; he settles on the idea of shrinking all evil people to two feet tall. Throughout the episode, Crangle's parrot Pete periodically calls out "nut," asking for a nut to eat, which Crangle gives him, not realizing that Pete is unintentionally calling Crangle a "nut." His landlady Mrs. Williams arrives, whom he berates and treats horribly to make her leave. Mrs. Lucas also comes to Crangle's apartment and pleads for Crangle to leave her husband, a doctor, alone. Crangle is convinced that because her husband was unable to save the life of a woman in the ER who died from her injuries, that he is a murderer and evil. Due to Crangle's letter writing to the hospital, her husband has started to feel extremely guilty for the woman's death, and Mrs. Lucas wants Crangle to stop. Crangle simply believes that those people are also evil. Mrs. Lucas leaves, realizing that Crangle is insane. Crangle calls a number of government agencies, and Agent Hall of the FBI is sent to investigate. Crangle tells him of his plan to shrink every evil person at 4:00 that afternoon through sheer force of will, mentioning his belief about a global conspiracy involving the evil people of the world. He also mentions that he has tried such feats before (trying to turn wheels into triangle shapes due to believing that evil uses public transportation to move). He believes that by shrinking all evil people to two feet tall, that they will be unable to carry on their everyday lives and eventually become extinct. Hall asks Crangle if he has ever had any psychiatric help and tells Crangle that they do not need his kind of help because they have the law. Hall says that both support and help in upholding the law are appreciated, but what Crangle is doing is instead interference. Crangle accuses him of being in on the conspiracy. As Hall leaves, Crangle screams at him that he too will be two feet tall in just 20 minutes. When 4:00 rolls around, Crangle is horrified to find that he himself has been shrunk to two feet tall. He struggles in vain to get up to his window sill, and one last time Pete calls out the word "nut". In the radio adaptation starring Stan Freberg, the ending was altered to be more gruesome as Pete the parrot mistakes the now-shrunken Crangle for a "nut".The Twilight Zone Radio Dramas Vol. 4, Blackstone Audio, Inc., 

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This episode is set in August 1974, almost eleven years in the future at the time that this episode was made. As boxing between human fighters was criminalized in 1968, the sport is dominated by fighting robots. Former boxer Steel Kelly (played by Lee Marvin) manages a B2-model robot called "Battling Maxo". Maxo is an older model that is no longer in demand. Kelly and his partner, Pole, have used the last of their money to get to the fight venue. They are being given this chance because one of the scheduled fighters was damaged in transport. Kelly has to assure the fight promoter that Maxo will be able to fight. After the fight promoter leaves, Kelly and Pole argue about Maxo's fitness. Kelly feels that Maxo should be able to go through with the fight despite its age and condition. Pole tests Maxo's functions and an arm spring fails. They do not have the parts or the money to fix him. Kelly decides that he will disguise himself as Maxo in order to collect the money necessary for repairs. Despite a valiant effort, he is unable to damage the B7 robot he is fighting, even when he lands an unblocked punch directly in the back of its head. He is nearly killed but manages to last a little under three minutes. The crowd jeers and boos at Maxo's performance, not knowing that it is a human doing the fighting. Afterwards, the fight promoter will only give them half the prize money because of "Maxo's" poor performance; Kelly dares not protest, or the promoter will recognize him as "Maxo" and renege entirely. Kelly, bruised but stubborn as ever, tells Pole that they will use the money to get the parts to fix Maxo. 

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His birth was a long- awaited legend full of mystery and promise, among the outlaw Juska tribes along the western shore. Denoted by a unique mark on his right paw, the Taggerung is a fearsome fighter (In the story, the word 'Taggerung' literally means a warrior of unbeatable strength, courage, and savagery), a warrior the likes of which has not been seen for many seasons.(Sawney Rath's father was the most recent). When a seer from one tribe predicted his birth at Redwall Abbey, Sawney Rath, leader of the Juskarath, sets out to capture the Taggerung. In Mossflower Woods, Rillflag an otter from Redwall is completing a birth ritual with his newborn son, Deyna, when Sawney Rath and his tribe of vermin ambush him. Vallug Bowbeast, a deadly ferret archer of the Juska Tribe murders Rillflag and captures the legendary infant. Sawney renames the young otter Zann Juskarath Taggerung or "Tagg" for short, determined to raise him as his own son, and to bring the Taggerung under his control. US cover of Taggerung depicting Tagg with an Icelandic tail-cap. As Tagg begins to grow older, he finds himself at odds with his fellow tribe members. He refuses to become violent and soon finds himself as the only member of the tribe who has never killed for fun, or at all. When Sawney orders him to skin a runaway fox named Felch, Tagg refuses, enraging Sawney. Finding the roles reversed, Tagg flees and finds himself pursued by the ferret leader of the Juskarath. Unfortunately for Rath, his chase is short-lived, as he is soon murdered by the ambitious stoat Antigra with a slingstone. Antigra hates Sawney Rath because she wishes her son, Gruven to be named as the Taggerung, and because of that, Sawney Rath had murdered her husband. Sawney's death enables her bumbling son Gruven Zann to take control of the newly renamed Juskazann tribe. The vixen seer Grissoul tells Gruven he must hunt down the former Taggerung and bring back his head. Only then will some other ambitious Juska warriors accept him as their leader. To aid him in his quest, Gruven recruits a small band of vermin including Vallug Bowbeast, the deadly assassin, and Eefera, a high-ranking weasel, to continue the hunt for the Taggerung. Unfortunately for Gruven, his band of vermin would rather kill him than follow his orders, if only the opportunity presented itself. They are too accustomed to following Sawney's orders to listen to the newly appointed chief. Tagg runs away to find a pear tree, which he eats from and is reprimanded by two voles. They decide he won't hurt them and invite him back to their home to eat stew and meet their nice friends. He enjoys this very much and would love to stay, but sadly, he knows that the Juskarath are chasing him. He bids them a bittersweet goodbye and sets off in a boat they give him. In his travels, Tagg befriends a similarly mysterious (and, unlike Tagg, prone to telling lies) harvest mouse named Nimbalo the Slayer, by saving him from a deadly snake from the mountains. Finding themselves in the company of a pygmy shrew colony, they rest until they are attacked by Gruven and his slowly-diminishing band of vermin. Gruven and his band start a landslide, killing and burying many pygmy shrews. As Tagg chases the attackers of his newfound companions, the vermin scatter, leaving only one unfortunate member behind. Under the harsh gaze of Tagg, and the threat of being thrown to the pygmy shrews who lost loved ones in the landslide, the long-time member of Rath's old tribe reveals all, including the name of Tagg's true home: Redwall Abbey. At the same time, Eefera the weasel and Vallug Bowbeast, the most rebellious and intelligent vermin under Gruven's command, decide to desert Gruven, deciding that him and the other two remaining hordebeasts would die in the mountain. They, being better trackers than Gruven, decide to follow the Taggerung and kill him, to bring his head back to the tribe and claim leadership over the Juskas. But they are both silently trying to find an opportunity to kill the other; Vallug is the more dangerous as a killer, but Eefera is a better tracker and more cunning. When Tagg arrives at Redwall, he's mistaken for one of the members of the band of Juska supposed to be hunting him, knocked out and locked up in the cellars. He's then released on impulse by the assistant cook Broggle when the Juska, Eefara and Vallug, who have now captured Gruven and the other vermin, are threatening to kill Nimbalo, but then their plans go wrong. Tagg goes out to fight, and slays Vallug and Eefara, at the same time getting shot with an arrow by Vallug Bowbeast while Nimbalo goes after another rat. Then, Filorn, Tagg's mother, recognises her son. Cregga Rose Eyes, the ancient blind badgermum, after being shot in the chest with an arrow, appoints Deyna's sister, Mhera, as the new Abbess of Redwall, succeeding the now deceased Abbess Songbreeze, and then dies shortly after. Rukky Garge, a local otterfixer, manages to remove the distinguishing mark of the Taggerung from Deyna's paw, remove his tattoos, and remove the arrow. Deyna's quest is not quite over, however, as the fox Ruggan Bor, now commanding the remnants of the Juskazann tribe as well as followers of his own, the Juskabor, shortly arrives to attack the stronghold of Redwall Abbey. Due to Gruven's bragging on his return, they now believe the Taggerung is dead and seek to confirm this rumour. As chance may have it, however, the badger ruler of Salamandastron, Russano the Wise, arrives in time to fend off Bor's attack, sending him and his vermin crew crawling on their bellies off into the sunset. Russano then takes a medal from around his neck and drapes it over Cregga Rose Eyes's grave, as she was his adoptive mother many seasons before this terrible battle happened. This had been his reason for travelling to Redwall in the first place. 

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The wandering Noonvale companions travel to Redwall, where they wish to mount a show. On the way, however, they learn that the Marlfoxes will attempt to seize Redwall, and hasten onward to warn them, while Guosim from another part of Mossflower do the same. The Marlfoxes consist of High Queen Silth and her brood. They are different from other foxes in their fur, which gives them the ability to blend into almost any surrounding, invisible to all but the keenest eye. This ability has given rise to the false rumour that the Marlfoxes are magic, which they are not. However, Marlfoxes are highly agile and skilled with axes. Castle Marl, home of the Marlfoxes, is situated in the middle of an enormous inland sea, on the island that was once home to Badger Lord Urthwyte the Mighty. The Marlfoxes command a vast army of water rats, and they travel around the country seeking rare and priceless artifacts. US cover of Marlfox The Marlfoxes, backed by an army of water rats, mount a successful invasion of Redwall and steal the tapestry of the long dead hero, Martin the Warrior. The Marlfox Ziral is slain, however, and the remaining Marlfoxes swear revenge on the citizens of Redwall. Mokkan, one of the Marlfoxes, escapes with the tapestry, leaving his siblings behind. Three young Redwallers, Songbreeze Swifteye, Dannflor Reguba, and a Guosim shrew named Dippler set out after Mokkan, trying to retrieve the tapestry. They meet Burble, a water vole, and have many adventures and meet many friends who help them on their journey, such as the gigantic hedgehog Sollertree, who lost his daughter Nettlebud to the Marlfoxes and water rats, and the Mighty Megraw, a large osprey who used to live by the Marlfox island but was driven away in an ambush by magpies. Meanwhile, the remaining Marlfoxes lay siege to Redwall. After a series of battles, Songbreeze's father Janglur Swifteye, Dannflor's father Rusvul Reguba, Cregga Rose Eyes, and many others fight off the remaining army, killing the remaining Marlfoxes and restoring peace to Redwall. The surviving rats are divided into eight groups, with each group sent in a different direction. Song, Dann, Dippler and Burble meet some new friends and set out into the great lake to the island. Mokkan finds that Silth has been killed by one of his sisters, Lantur. He promptly kills her by pushing her into the lake full of pike, proclaiming himself King. However, the companions arrive and overthrow the water rat army. Mokkan escapes in a boat, but an escaped slave, whom we find out is Nettlebud, throws a chain at him and knocks him into the lake, where he is eaten by pike. The surviving water rats are left on the island to become peaceful creatures and farm the land, and the companions return home to Redwall, where Songbreeze Swifteye is named Abbess and Dannflor Reguba is named Abbey Champion by Cregga Rose Eyes, Redwall's blind badgermum. Dippler is named Log-a-log, and Burble is named Chief of the Watervoles. At the end of the novel is a note, stating that the entire tale was made into a drama, edited by one Florian Dugglewoof Wilffachop. 

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In the last two days of 1999, Los Angeles has become a dangerous war zone. As a group of criminals rob a Chinese restaurant, the event is recorded by a robber wearing a SQUID, an illegal electronic device that records memories and physical sensations directly from the wearer's cerebral cortex onto a MiniDisc-like device for playback. Lenny Nero, a former LAPD officer turned black marketeer of SQUID recordings, buys the robbery clip from his main supplier, Tick. Elsewhere, a prostitute named Iris, who is a former friend of Lenny's ex-girlfriend Faith Justin, is being chased by LAPD officers Burton Steckler and Dwayne Engelman. Iris escapes on a subway car but Engleman pulls off her wig, revealing a SQUID recorder headset. Lenny pines for Faith and relies on emotional support from his two best friends: bodyguard and limousine driver Lornette "Mace" Mason and private investigator Max Peltier. Mace has unrequited feelings for Lenny from when he was still a cop and stepped in as a dependable father figure for her son after her boyfriend was arrested on drug charges, but disapproves of his SQUID-dealing business. While Lenny and Max are drinking together at a bar, Iris drops a SQUID disc through the sunroof of Lenny's car before it is towed away. Mace picks Lenny up and takes him to a nightclub where Faith is going to sing. There, Lenny receives a SQUID disc from a contact and unsuccessfully tries to get Faith away from her new boyfriend, Philo Gant. Gant is a music industry mogul who managed the recently-slain rapper Jeriko One. While in the car with Mace, Lenny plays the disc the contact gave him and watches Iris being brutally raped and murdered by an attacker at the Sunset Regent hotel. As they approach the hotel, Iris is taken out on a stretcher. The next day, they take the disc to Tick, who cannot identify the source of the recording, but recalls that Iris was looking for Lenny. Mace deduces that Iris may have left something in Lenny's car, and the two go to the impound and find Iris's disc. Steckler and Engleman appear and demand the disc at gunpoint, but Lenny and Mace escape in her car before being forced to stop at a dock. Steckler pours gasoline on the car and sets it on fire, but Mace drives it into the harbor, extinguishing the flames. When they reach the surface, the cops have left. Mace takes Lenny to her brother's house and they watch Iris's disc, showing Iris was with Jeriko One when Steckler and Engleman pulled him over and murdered him because his anti-police lyrics and activism incited protests against the LAPD. The two return to Tick, whom Max reveals has been rendered brain-dead from forceful exposure to amplified SQUID signals. Lenny fears Iris' attacker covered his tracks by "killing" Tick and will come after Faith. Back at the nightclub, Lenny and Mace confront Faith, who reveals that Philo is afraid Iris' disc would reveal that he kept his artists under surveillance. Lenny and Mace disagree over whether to trade the disc to Philo for Faith's freedom or release it publicly, which could incite a citywide riot. As midnight approaches, Lenny and Mace sneak into a private party at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel that Philo is hosting for the city's wealthy elite. Lenny has a change of heart and tells Mace to give the disc to deputy police commissioner Palmer Strickland. In Philo's penthouse suite, Lenny finds Philo brain-dead on the floor and another disc, revealing that Max and Faith are lovers, and that Max "fried" Philo's brain with an amplified recording of them feigning rape. Faith explains to Lenny that Philo hired Max to kill Iris, but when Philo wanted Faith dead as part of the coverup, Max decided to frame Lenny for the murders. Lenny and Max struggle in a fight, which culminates with Lenny throwing Max off the balcony to his death. Meanwhile, on the crowded streets, Mace subdues Steckler and Engelman but other officers take down Mace. Strickland arrives and orders Mace's release and to arrest Steckler and Engelman for murder. Engelman commits suicide; Steckler threatens Mace but the officers gun him down. Lenny then finds Mace and the two share a kiss as the crowd celebrates the turn of the new century. 

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The Seventh Doctor and Ace arrive at a British naval installation near Maiden's Point on the Northumberland coast during World War II. Befriending the base personnel, they learn that the base, run by Commander Millington, is being used as a listening post to intercept and translate German coded messages using the Ultima supercomputer and to stockpile a supply of a lethal nerve gas. Meanwhile, wheelchair-user Dr. Judson has also been using Ultima to help decipher Viking runes found in catacombs beneath the base, warning of a being called Fenric, which has attracted Millington's attention, he believing that he can gain Fenric's power. Outside the base, the Doctor and Ace discover a covert squad of Soviet commandos, led by Captain Sorin, who are seeking to capture Ultima; the Doctor warns them to lie low, while Ace and Sorin become smitten with each other. A Haemovore, as shown at the Doctor Who Experience The Doctor and Ace find a glowing oriental vase, a treasure captured by the Vikings and left in the catacombs, but it is taken by Millington when they return to the base. As Millington and Judson prepare to use Ultima to decipher the writings on the vase, vampire-like Haemovores begin to emerge from the sea, attack and convert the English and Soviet troops and other residents into more Haemovores. When Judson runs Ultima with the vase, energy strikes him and he becomes infused with Fenric. Fenric begins to give orders to the Ancient One, an old Haemovore in control of the other monsters, to continue to assault anyone in their path and to destroy all humans by poisoning the Earth with chemicals at the installation. Ace is able to warn one of the WRNS, Kathleen, in time for her to escape with her newborn child, Audrey. The Doctor reveals he has faced Fenric, an ancient evil since the dawn of time, besting him by challenging him at a chess problem. Arranging another chess problem in the same room where the nerve gas has been stockpiled, the Doctor is able to delay Fenric, while he runs off to seek a more permanent solution. Sorin, the last remaining member of his squad, enters the room and prepares to shoot Fenric, but Fenric reveals that Sorin is one of his "wolves", having descended from the Vikings that carried the cursed vase to the English shores and takes over his body. When Ace returns to the room, she unwittingly helps Fenric, in Sorin's body, to solve the chess problem. The Doctor arrives too late, as Fenric can no longer be stopped. Fenric orders the Ancient One to attack the Doctor but a psychic barrier created by Ace's trust in the Doctor prevents the Ancient One from acting. The Doctor is forced to reveal to Ace that she too is one of Fenric's pawns, as it was he that created the time storm that transported her to the alien colony Iceworld. Furthermore, by saving Kathleen and Audrey, she has assured that the cycle remain unbroken, as Audrey will grow up to become Ace's mother whom she despises. Ace's faith is shattered, causing the psychic barrier to drop but, instead of attacking the Doctor, the Ancient One grabs Fenric, pulls him into a sealed chamber and releases a lethal dose of the gas. The chamber explodes, killing them both. As the Doctor and Ace recover along the shore, Ace takes a moment to contemplate why she hates her mother and to celebrate overcoming her irrational fear of the water, before she and the Doctor return to the TARDIS. 

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Mr. Burns sits in his office awaiting the arrival of Chuckie Fitzhugh, the leader of the Springfield chapter of the "International Brotherhood of Jazz Dancers, Pastry Chefs and Nuclear Technicians" trade union, who has mysteriously disappeared after promising to clean up the union. While perusing Fitzhugh's proposed contract, Burns becomes disgusted with its demands and reminisces about simpler times in which disgruntled workers were simply walled up in coke ovens. Burns then decides to challenge the union by arbitrarily revoking their proposed dental plan. Meanwhile, at Painless Dentistry, the Simpson children are getting their teeth checked. It is discovered Lisa needs braces. When Marge informs Homer, he tells her not to worry, as the dental plan the union had won during a previous strike will cover the cost. Later, at a union meeting, Carl announces that the newest contract requires them to give up their dental plan in exchange for a free keg of beer, much to the surprise of Homer, who slowly comprehends that giving up their dental plan would require him to pay for Lisa's braces and jumps into action, reminding everyone how their dental plan has helped them all. Carl proposes that Homer be the new union president and he is promptly elected by a nearly unanimous vote. Burns watches Homer on his hidden camera, and is intimidated by his energy. Burns invites Homer to his office with the intent of bribing him, but Homer misconstrues Mr. Burns' sly innuendos as sexual advances. Homer declares that he is not interested in "backdoor shenanigans" and promptly leaves, which Burns misinterprets for Homer being honest and incorruptible. Burns sends hired goons to the Simpson house in order to take Homer back to his manor to negotiate. While Burns is setting the agenda for the discussion, Homer is struck by the urgent need to use the restroom. Homer asks Burns where the restroom is and leaves, but his delayed attempts to find it lead Burns to conclude that Homer is a tough negotiator who is unwilling to hear him out. At a later union meeting, Homer tries to resign, tired of meeting with Burns. The union misinterprets his frustration, and the members nearly unanimously decide to strike. Burns is undeterred by the strike and tries several methods of breaking it up, but fails. On an edition of Kent Brockman's talk show Smartline, Burns is allowed an opening tirade and he threatens dire events if the strike is not concluded. Later, Burns and Smithers march to a secret room in the Power Plant and turn off the power for the entire town. The strikers do not lose hope and begin to sing. Burns, confident he has broken the union's spirit, steps out on his balcony to hear their reaction but is disarmed by their unity and optimism. Burns finally calls a meeting with Homer to concede to their demands on one condition: that Homer resign as union president. Homer celebrates madly, leading Burns to finally realize that Homer is not the "brilliant tactician" he thought he was. With the Simpson family insured again, Lisa gets her perfect new braces and she, the Simpson family, and the dentist gather and laugh due to the room filling with nitrous oxide."Last Exit to Springfield" The Simpsons.com. Retrieved on February 13, 2007 

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The Federation starship Enterprise answers a distress call from the planet Camus II, the site of an archaeological expedition. Among the survivors are Dr. Janice Lester, with whom Captain Kirk was once intimately involved, and the expedition's physician, Dr. Arthur Coleman. Coleman claims that Lester is suffering from radiation exposure. Dr. Coleman, Science Officer Spock and Chief Medical Officer Dr. McCoy leave to tend to the other survivors, leaving Lester and Kirk alone. Kirk explores the room, and as he examines an alien machine, she activates it, paralyzing him. She then joins Kirk in the machine and activates it again. From each of their bodies a ghostly image emerges and then disappears into the other's body. The person appearing to be Kirk then declares that Janice Lester has taken the place of Captain Kirk, and begins to strangle the person appearing to be Lester. Spock and McCoy return before “Kirk” can finish the job, and he orders the landing party and the remaining survivors back to the Enterprise. Once there, he gives Dr. Coleman full authority for treatment of “Janice Lester”, over McCoy's protests. Alone, Coleman and “Kirk” discuss the situation. It is revealed that the two conspired to kill the expedition's personnel. Lester has now achieved her lifelong goal of commanding a starship. Spock becomes suspicious when “Kirk” orders a course change to the Benecia Colony to drop off “Lester” for medical attention, despite the fact that Benecia's medical facilities are comparatively primitive, and that it would unnecessarily interfere with their current mission. McCoy invokes his authority to order a medical examination of the captain, including a personality test. “Lester” regains consciousness and seeks help from Spock and McCoy. “Kirk” slaps her back into unconsciousness, and orders her to be put in isolation. Spock interviews “Lester” and is somewhat skeptical of her story. “Lester” suggests that he use his telepathic abilities to learn the truth, and he is convinced. Spock tries to free “Lester” but is stopped by a security team led by the impostor Kirk, who accuses Spock of mutiny and orders a court-martial. Once on trial, Spock argues that Captain Kirk is really in the body of Dr. Lester. “Kirk” suggests that Spock's real goal is to take command himself and offers to drop charges if Spock will desist. Spock refuses, and “Kirk” flies into a hysterical rage. Shocked by Kirk's behavior, McCoy and Chief Engineer Scott confer secretly in the corridor. Scott believes that if Spock is acquitted, the "captain" won't let the decision stand, making it necessary to mutiny. “Kirk”, having monitored their conversation, declares McCoy, Scott, Spock, and “Lester” guilty of mutiny and condemned to death. On the bridge, Chekov and Sulu, having witnessed the trial, determine to resist the “captain”, and refuse to obey his orders. Loudly accusing them of mutiny, “Kirk” falls into his chair, and an image of Lester emerges from his body, only to return again. “Kirk” runs to Coleman, who tells him that the transfer is reversing itself, and that Kirk, in Lester's body, must die in order to prevent it. The two head to the brig intending to inject “Lester” with a toxic substance. “Lester” resists, and the reversal now completes itself. The hysterical Lester begs Coleman to kill Kirk. Coleman then pleads with Kirk to allow him to care for her. The Enterprise proceeds on its mission. 

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The Federation starship Enterprise arrives at the volcanic planet of Excalbia to conduct a geological survey. Impossibly, sensors detect carbon-based life on the planet's surface. The image of Abraham Lincoln drifts toward the ship on the viewscreen. Though skeptical that the figure is the real president, Kirk extends full presidential honors as he transports aboard the ship. Lincoln is human, has no knowledge of technology past the 19th century, but is somehow familiar with the Vulcan philosophy of Nom (meaning "all"). Lincoln invites Kirk and Spock to accompany him down to the planet where an area has appeared with Earth-like conditions. Despite the possibility that the livable conditions are an illusion, Kirk accepts, reasoning that the Enterprises mission demands they accept any offer of contact with new life. Once on the planet, Kirk and Spock discover their tricorder and phasers did not transport with them. They are met by Surak, "the father of Vulcan civilization", who died centuries before. A rock-like being with clawed hands and glowing eyes atop a bulbous head, named Yarnek, announces that the inhabitants of the planet wish to conduct an experiment to determine which human philosophy is stronger: good or evil. In this experiment, Earth warlord Colonel Phillip Green, Klingon warlord Kahless, a practitioner of unethical experiments on humanoids named Zora, and Genghis Khan, together representing evil, will be pitted against Kirk, Spock, Lincoln, and Surak (representing good) in a fight to the death. Colonel Green offers Kirk an alliance against the Excalbians so that they can all safely return to where they came from, but this is only a distraction for a surprise attack. Kirk and his companions fend off their opponents and run for cover. Kirk and his companions remain resolved that the Excalbians are the true enemy. Kirk attacks Yarnek, but the alien's body is too hot to touch. To force them to fight, Yarnek breaks down the shielding between the matter and anti-matter on the Enterprise, ensuring the ship will explode unless Kirk's force emerges victorious in four hours. Kirk and the others begin to manufacture spears. Surak, whose life experiences have taught him that persistent efforts at peace are the best course, obtains permission to go alone to the enemy camp and negotiate. Green's group kills Surak and lures the others in by mimicking Surak crying for help. Lincoln offers to sneak around and free Surak while Kirk and Spock provide a diversion. When Lincoln arrives, he finds Surak's corpse and the waiting Kahless and Green, who kill him. Though now outnumbered two-to-one, when Kirk and Spock confront Green's group in battle, they quickly flee. Despite the conditions of a fight to the death remaining unfulfilled, Yarnek announces that the experiment is over. He concludes that evil retreats when confronted, and that the methods and goals of the two philosophies are the same. Kirk demands that Yarnek justify his toying with other beings; Yarnek responds that he identifies with the same thirst for knowledge that led Kirk to beam down to Excalbia. The Excalbians allow Kirk and Spock to return to the Enterprise. Though the mystery of Lincoln and Surak remains unsolved, Spock offers the conjecture that the Excalbians, using their apparent ability to reform matter, reformed other living beings into the likenesses of Lincoln and Surak, and tapped Kirk and Spock's minds to create the personalities which they imagined those historical figures had. 

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The Federation starship Enterprise is in pursuit of the stolen space cruiser Aurora. In trying to escape, the Aurora overloads its engines and its six passengers are safely beamed aboard the Enterprise just as the Aurora explodes. The group consists of Tongo Rad, son of the Catullan ambassador; Irina Galliulin, an acquaintance of Ensign Chekov; Dr. Ton Sevrin, a noted Tiburonian electronics, acoustics, and communications researcher; Adam, a musician; and two other women. In responses to Kirk's questions, Dr. Sevrin says their destination is the planet "Eden", which Kirk responds is a myth. The group refuses to co- operate with Kirk, but are impressed by First Officer Spock, who is familiar with their movement. They are persuaded to go to Sickbay for a medical examination which reveals the party to be in good health, except for Dr. Sevrin, who is a carrier of a bacterium that is a product of artificial environments. Sevrin is quarantined in the brig, and tells Spock that the planet Eden will somehow "cleanse" him. Spock attempts to reason with Sevrin and offers to help him find Eden in exchange for his cooperation, but concludes that Sevrin is not sane. The rest of the group plan to take over the ship. After putting on a music concert, during which Tongo Rad frees Sevrin, the group takes over Auxiliary Control and puts the Enterprise on course for Eden. On arrival at the planet, Sevrin renders all Enterprise crew unconscious with an ultrasonic frequency broadcast through the intercom. When the crew regain consciousness, they discover that Sevrin and his followers have stolen a shuttlecraft. Kirk deactivates Sevrin's sonic device, and then joins Spock, Chief Medical Officer Dr. McCoy, and Chekov in a search for the group. The planet surface is lush and beautiful. However, all the plant life secretes a powerful acid, as Chekov discovers when he touches a flower. The team soon finds Adam, lying dead from poisonous fruit. Sevrin and the other survivors are then found in the shuttlecraft, all with burns on their feet. Kirk says they must leave, but Sevrin runs from the shuttle, bites into one of the fruits, and dies. Back on the Enterprise, Irina comes to the bridge to say goodbye to Chekov. Spock advises her and her friends not to give up their search for Eden, as he believes they will either find it, or create one for themselves. 

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The Federation starship Enterprise arrives at the planet Ardana to take on a shipment of zenite, needed elsewhere to halt a botanical plague. Captain Kirk and First Officer Spock beam directly to the zenite mines, where a group of miners, led by a young woman, attempt to take them hostage. High Advisor Plasus arrives with a security force, driving the miners off, and invites Kirk and Spock to return with him to the floating city of Stratos. Kirk and Spock are entertained as guests until the zenite can be recovered. They learn Ardanan society is divided between the Troglytes, who perform all physical labor, and city-dwellers who live in luxury. A group of Troglytes known as the Disruptors are rebelling against the elites. While Kirk is resting, Vanna, leader of the Disrupters, attempts to take him hostage. Kirk overpowers her, recognizes her as the woman he saw at the mine and questions her. She accuses the Stratos city-dwellers of using the Enterprise to intimidate the Troglytes. Spock and a Stratos security guard arrive, and Vanna is subdued. She is then taken for interrogation under the "rays", which induce intense pain as a form of torture. Kirk is outraged by Plasus's actions and demands the interrogation be stopped. Plasus instead orders Kirk and Spock to leave Stratos immediately and forbids them to return. The two return to the Enterprise where Chief Medical Officer Dr. McCoy reports that unprocessed zenite emits an odorless, invisible gas which diminishes mental capacity and heightens emotions. Spock believes that Troglytes serving aboard the floating city have been spared the effects of the gas, enabling them to organize the rebellion. Kirk contacts Plasus and offers special masks that filter the zenite gas. Plasus, however, regards Kirk's proposal as unwarranted interference in his government's affairs. Kirk then beams down to Vanna's holding cell, informs her of the effects of zenite gas, and makes his offer to her. Vanna is skeptical at first but appears to trust him, and she and Kirk escape and return to the zenite mines. Once there, however, she orders Kirk seized by two other Disruptors. Vanna's friends depart, and she puts Kirk to work digging for zenite. After a short while Kirk attacks her, regains his phaser, and fires at the ceiling of the mine, causing a cave-in that traps them. He then contacts the Enterprise and orders Plasus to be beamed to his location. An indignant Plasus is beamed in, and Kirk forces him and Vanna to dig for zenite. The effects of the zenite gas become apparent as Kirk and Plasus become increasingly irritable. A brawl between them breaks out, and Vanna, finally believing Kirk's story of the gas, signals the Enterprise for help. Back in the city, the zenite consignment is prepared for transport. Plasus has grudgingly allowed the distribution of the filter masks, and Vanna declares that her people's struggle for equality will continue. 

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The Federation starship Enterprise is en route to Memory Alpha, a planetoid that is home to the Federation's central library. A storm-like phenomenon moving at warp speed is also on course to the planetoid. The Enterprise intercepts the storm, which enters the ship, affecting some crew members' nervous systems. Lieutenant Mira Romaine, who has been assigned to Memory Alpha, faints from the effects of the storm. Chief Medical Officer Dr. McCoy examines Romaine, who seems unresponsive apart from strange grunting sounds. The storm proceeds to Memory Alpha, with the Enterprise in pursuit, and destroys the stations's computer core. Captain Kirk, along with Science Officer Spock, Dr. McCoy, and Mr. Scott beam to the station to inspect the damage. Meanwhile, Romaine has visions of corpses at Memory Alpha. The landing party finds the Memory Alpha's archives seriously damaged, and its staff dead, save one who makes the same guttural noises as Romaine, and dies from what McCoy determines to be a brain hemorrhage. Kirk then has Romaine beamed to the station. She is terrified to see the exact scene from her vision, and then warns that the storm is returning. Scans of the storm determine that it is actually a group of life forms, and Kirk tries to communicate with them through the universal translator, but gets no response. After firing phaser warning shots, Kirk resorts to a full attack, and as the beams strike the storm, Romaine seems to react in pain. Scott, noticing this, begs Kirk to stop the attack. During a discussion in the briefing room, McCoy reports that Romaine's brain wave pattern has been altered, and Spock reveals that the new pattern matches sensor data from the storm. They conclude that the alien life forms are attempting to take control of Romaine's body. To prevent this, they devise a plan to allow the aliens to take partial control and then subject Romaine to high atmospheric pressure. Before they can place her into the pressure chamber, the aliens finally enter Romaine's body, and begin to speak through her, identifying themselves as survivors from the long-dead planet of Zetar. They intend to live out their remaining existence using Romaine's body. With some difficulty, Scott succeeds in getting Romaine into the pressure chamber, and the aliens are eventually driven out and apparently destroyed. With the conclusion of the crisis, Spock, McCoy, and Scott all agree that Romaine is fit to return to duty, with a new assignment to oversee salvaging and repairs of Memory Alpha's archives. 

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The Federation starship Enterprise arrives at the planet Gideon to discuss diplomatic relations. The Gideons will permit only one representative, Captain Kirk, to set foot on their planet. Kirk beams down to the coordinates provided, but finds himself apparently still aboard the Enterprise, which is now devoid of any crew. First Officer Spock is informed that the Captain has not arrived on the planet, but the Gideon Ambassador, Hodin, refuses to allow a search team to investigate. Neither Starfleet Command nor the Federation bureaucracy is of any help, each referring the matter to the other. Meanwhile, Kirk wanders the deserted corridors and notices a strange bruise on his arm. He eventually encounters a beautiful young woman named Odona. She claims to have no idea how she got there, recalling only that she was in an overcrowded auditorium and struggling to breathe. For the moment, Odona is just relieved to have freedom of movement. Kirk insists that she must be from Gideon, but Odona denies any knowledge of the planet. Kirk learns from Odona that her home planet is severely overpopulated, with crowds of people everywhere and no privacy, because death is rare. To her, the privilege of being alone, even for a moment, is a dream come true. Kirk is taken by Odona's beauty, and the two share a passionate kiss. Neither notice the image of two dozen faces appearing on the view screen behind them. As Kirk and Odona leave the bridge, Kirk hears a strange sound outside the ship. He goes to a viewport and catches a glimpse of a crowd of people looking in. The scene quickly changes to a normal view of space. Kirk confronts Odona about what is going on, but she denies knowing what is happening. She then complains of a strange feeling and faints into Kirk's arms. Kirk carries her to sick bay, where he encounters Ambassador Hodin, who informs him that Odona, his daughter, is suffering from Vegan choriomeningitis, having been infected with Kirk's blood, which carries the virus. Hodin's plan is to infect the Gideon population with the virus, shortening their immense lifespans and relieving the population problem. Kirk is to supply the virus, while Odona's death is to serve as an inspiration for future volunteers. Questioned about alternatives, Hodin explains that the Gideon people's regenerative abilities would foil sterilization attempts, and that other methods of birth control would never be accepted. Having realized that Hodin has deceived him, Spock goes against Starfleet orders and beams down to Kirk's original coordinates. Once there, he finds the false Enterprise that was built to confuse Kirk. He soon reaches Kirk and Odona, and asks Hodin not to interfere as he, Spock, is in enough trouble already. Kirk, Spock, and Odona return to the real Enterprise, where Chief Medical Officer Dr. McCoy treats Odona's condition. Odona now plans to return to Gideon to supply the virus herself. Kirk forgives her for her deception. 

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The Federation starship Enterprise is on a mission to help decontaminate the polluted atmosphere of the planet Ariannus, when sensors detect a Federation shuttlecraft that was reported stolen. The craft is brought aboard along with its alien pilot, who identifies himself as Lokai, a political refugee from the planet Cheron. Lokai’s most striking feature is that his skin is ink-black on one side of his body and chalk-white on the other side. Shortly thereafter, sensors detect another spacecraft in pursuit of the Enterprise. The alien craft disintegrates, but not before its pilot, Bele, transports to the Enterprise bridge. He is colored black and white, similar to Lokai. Bele explains that he is on a mission to retrieve political traitors. His current quarry is Lokai, whom he has been chasing for 50,000 Earth years. Bele is taken to Lokai, and the two begin to argue about the history of their peoples, almost coming to blows. Bele demands that Captain Kirk take him and Lokai to Cheron. Kirk refuses, telling him he will have to make his case to Federation authorities. Some time later, the ship changes course to Cheron, and Bele announces that his "will" has taken control of the ship. Lokai demands the death of Bele, and Kirk orders both of them to be taken to the brig. Unfortunately, a force field generated by both aliens makes that impossible. With no other way to regain control, Kirk threatens to destroy the Enterprise, and begins the ship’s auto-destruct sequence. In the last seconds of the countdown, Bele relents, and the ship resumes its course to Ariannus. As Bele continues angrily to press his matter with Starfleet, he reveals the source of his conflict with Lokai. He, and all of his people on Cheron, are black on their right sides, while Lokai's people are all white on their right sides. The distinction is lost on the ship's officers, who leave it for legal authorities at the next starbase to decide, as Starfleet has no extradition treaties with Cheron, and the case requires due process. Once the Ariannus mission is completed, Bele takes control of the Enterprise again, this time disabling the self-destruct system. When the ship arrives at Cheron, Spock can find no sign of intelligent life. Lokai and Bele realize they are each the only ones left of their peoples, who have completely annihilated themselves in civil war. Enraged, they attack each other, their force fields threatening to damage the ship. Lokai breaks away, Bele pursues him, and the two eventually beam down to the planet. The bridge crew remark sadly on their unwillingness to give up their hate. 

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The Enterprise discovers a planet whose young age is inconsistent with its atmosphere and biology. As Captain Kirk, Dr. McCoy, Lt. Sulu and geologist D'Amato beam down, a woman appears in the transporter room, touches the transporter technician, and kills him instantly. As the landing party materializes, the surface of the planet is rocked by a violent tremor. Communication with the Enterprise is lost, leaving them stranded. At the same time, the Enterprise finds itself 990.7 light years from the planet. First Officer Spock orders the Enterprise back to the planet. Dr. M'Benga determines the cause of the transporter officer's death to be cellular disruption. The landing party splits up and explores their surroundings. As D'Amato surveys a rocky area, he comes face-to-face with the woman who appeared in the transporter room. After listing off his name and professional record, she says, "I am for you," and touches D'Amato, killing him. A failed attempt to cut a grave for D'Amato proves that the planet is artificial. The woman appears to Sulu and attempts to touch him, but only brushes his shoulder with her fingertips. Sulu's screams of pain bring Kirk and McCoy, who find him injured but alive. The woman touches Kirk's shoulder without effect. They conclude that she can only kill the person she specifically names. Chief Engineer Scott, sensing something wrong, orders Engineer Watkins to check equipment in a secluded area. The mysterious woman appears, kills Watkins, and disappears again. The ship begins to accelerate uncontrollably, and Scott discovers the emergency overload bypass has been sabotaged. Scott estimates that the ship will explode in 15 minutes if not brought back under control. Spock suggests manually cutting the matter-antimatter fuel flow to the warp engines. Scott begins the procedure as the Enterprise passes warp 13.2. Scott stops the matter–antimatter flow at the last second, and the ship continues its course to the planet. On the planet, the woman appears again, announcing she is "for Kirk", but Sulu and McCoy block her path. Questioned by Kirk, the woman says she is Losira, the station commander. She is alone, and her only purpose is to defend the planet from intruders. Kirk's questions unsettle her and she vanishes. Strong power emanations lead the landing party to a hidden entrance in a rock face. Passing into the hidden chamber, the landing party find a glowing computer. Three copies of Losira enter, one each for Kirk, Sulu, and McCoy. As they approach, Spock and a security officer materialize, and, at Kirk's command, destroy the computer. The three Losiras vanish. A projected image of Losira then appears on a wall, informing her fellow Kalandans that a disease has killed the station's personnel, and that the computer has been defending the station against intruders. McCoy surmises that the disease eventually wiped out the entire Kalandan species, and Spock suggests that the computer used images of Losira to do the job of defense. Kirk concludes that the landing party survived because the reproductions were so perfect that they experienced regret about killing. 

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A Night in the Lonesome October is narrated from the point-of-view of Snuff, a dog who is Jack the Ripper's companion. The bulk of the story takes place in London and its environs, though at one point the story detours through the dream-world described by Lovecraft in The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath. Though never explicitly stated, various contextual clues within the story (the most obvious of which being the appearance of Sherlock Holmes or "The Great Detective") imply that it takes place during the late Victorian period. The story reveals that once every few decades when the moon is full on the night of Halloween, the fabric of reality thins and doors may be opened between this world and the realm of the Great Old Ones. When these conditions are right, men and women with occult knowledge may gather at a specific ritual site to hold the doors closed, or to help fling them open. Should the Closers win, then the world will remain as it is until the next turning... but should the Openers succeed, then the Great Old Ones will come to Earth, to remake the world in their own image (enslaving or slaughtering the human race in the process). The Openers have never yet won. These meetings are often referred to as "The Game" or "The Great Game" by the participants, who try to keep the goings-on secret from the mundane population. The various "Players" during the Game depicted in the book are archetypal characters from Victorian Era gothic fiction – Jack the Ripper (only ever referred to as "Jack"), Dracula ("The Count"), Victor Frankenstein ("The Good Doctor"), and the Wolf Man (known as "Larry Talbot", the film character's name) all make appearances. In addition, there is a Witch ("Crazy Jill"), a Clergyman (Vicar Roberts), a Druid ("Owen"), a "Mad Monk" ("Rastov" – apparently modeled after Rasputin), and Hermetic occultists ("Morris and McCab" – often mentioned as a reference to a real hermetic of the time, MacGregor Mathers). Each Player has a familiar – a bestial companion with near-human intelligence that helps complete the numerous preparations for the ritual. The majority of the story describes the interactions and discussions of these familiars, all from Snuff's point of view. Throughout the book, the Players slowly take sides, form alliances, make deals, oppose one another, and even kill off their enemies. The plot accelerates until the night of October 31, when the rite takes place and the fate of the world is decided. 

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Charles Whitley (Ernest Truex), a retiree at Sunnyvale Rest Home, thinks he has discovered the secret of youth. He is convinced that if he acts young, he will become young. His oldest and best friend Ben Conroy (Russell Collins), whom he has known since childhood, thinks he is going crazy, and is able to persuade the home's superintendent, Mr. Cox (John Marley) that this is the case. Mr. Cox decides to put Charles in isolation and under observation. Ben tries to convince Charles to act as sedate as the other residents in order to avoid this fate, to no avail. While Ben sees aging as an inescapable fact of life, Charles is convinced that Ben's thinking of himself as old is what made him old. That night, Charles convinces a number of residents to play a game of kick the can with him. He tries to talk Ben into joining them, but Ben refuses. The residents light a firecracker and throw it out a window, the noise drawing the nurse's attention so they can sneak out the door. Meanwhile, Ben alerts Mr. Cox to what the other residents are up to. They run outside to find a group of children playing kick the can instead. Ben recognizes one of the children as Charles, who has become young again. He begs young Charley for a chance to go with him, but the boy seems not to know him, and dashes away into the darkness. Mr. Cox searches elsewhere for the elderly residents, while Ben walks slowly to the front steps of Sunnyvale and sits there with the can, alone, knowing that Mr. Cox can look all he wants for the residents... and that he will never find them. 

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Mohan Bhargava (Shah Rukh Khan) is an Indian who works as a Project Manager on the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) program at NASA in the United States. He keeps worrying about Kaveri Amma (Kishori Ballal), a nanny at his home in Uttar Pradesh who looked after him during his childhood days. After his parents' death, Kaveri Amma went to live in an old age home in Delhi and lost contact with Mohan. Mohan wishes to go to India and bring Kaveri Amma back with him to the US. He takes a few weeks off and travels to India. He goes to the old age home but learns that Kaveri Amma no longer lives there and went to a village named Charanpur a year ago. Mohan then decides to travel to Charanpur, in Uttar Pradesh. Mohan decides to rent a recreational vehicle to reach the village fearing that he might not get the required facilities there. Upon reaching Charanpur, he meets Kaveri Amma, and learns how his childhood friend Gita (Gayatri Joshi), after her parents died, brought Kaveri Amma to stay with her. Gita runs a school in Charanpur and works hard to improve the living conditions of the villagers through education. However, the village is divided largely by caste and religious beliefs. Gita does not like Mohan's arrival as she thinks that he will take Kaveri Amma back with him to the US, leaving her and her younger brother Chikku alone. Kaveri Amma tells Mohan that she needs to get Gita married first and that it is her responsibility. Gita believes in women empowerment and gender equality. This attracts Mohan towards Gita and he too tries to help her by campaigning for education among backward communities and also girls. Slowly love blossoms between Mohan and Gita. Kaveri Amma asks Mohan to visit a nearby village named Kodi, and collect money from a man named Haridas who owes it to Gita. The story gives a journey to Mohan very similar to what happened to Mahatma Gandhi after he came back from South Africa. Mohan visits Kodi and feels pity seeing Haridas' poor condition, which is such that he is unable to provide his family with meals every day. Haridas tells Mohan that since his caste profession of a weaver wasn't earning him any money, he shifted to tenant farming. But this change in profession led to his ostracization from the village and the villagers even denied him water for his crops. Mohan understands the pathetic situation and realises that many villages in India are still like Kodi. He returns to Charanpur with a heavy heart and decides to do something for the welfare of Charanpur. Mohan extends his leave by three more weeks. He learns that electricity inconsistency and frequent power cuts are a big problem in Charanpur. He decides to set up a small hydroelectric power generation facility from a nearby water source. Mohan purchases all the equipment needed from his own funds and oversees the building of the power generation unit. The unit works and the village gets sufficient, consistent power from it. However, Mohan is repeatedly called by NASA officials as the GPM project he was working on is reaching important stages and he has to return to the US soon. Kaveri Amma tells him that she prefers to stay in Charanpur as it will be difficult for her to adapt to a new country at her age. Gita also tells him that she will not settle down in another country and she would prefer it if Mohan stayed in India with her. Mohan returns to the US with a heavy heart to complete the project. However, in the US, he has flashbacks of his time in India and wishes to return. After the successful completion of his project, he leaves the US and returns to India with intentions of working at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Center, from where he can also work with NASA. The film ends showing Mohan staying in the village and wrestling near a temple. 

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After a five-day away mission spent apologising on the planet Kreetassa, the away team consisting of Captain Archer, Sub- Commander T'Pol, Ensign Sato, and Archer's dog, Porthos, return to the ship to decontaminate. Porthos has acquired a pathogen on the planet surface and must be quarantined. Archer learns from Commander Tucker of the ship's need for an extra plasma injector from the Kreetassans, but negotiations break down after it is discovered that Porthos had urinated on a sacred tree, insulting the Kreetassans. Archer reacts poorly to the news and is given a list of requirements he must meet in order to apologise. He and Doctor Phlox then tend to Porthos, and Archer spends the night in Sickbay to be with his pet. Throughout the night, as Porthos' immune system weakens, Archer experiences Phlox's side of life in Sickbay. During the night, as he dreams of Porthos' funeral, Archer also deals with unresolved and suppressed sexual tension with T'Pol. He also relates to Phlox how he met Porthos, and how he was the last in a litter of four male puppies, the 'Four Musketeers'. Through it all, Archer struggles to reach an emotional understanding with Phlox and T'Pol, as the two alien senior-crew members have little grasp of the human-pet relationship, and Phlox keeps offering Archer unsolicited advice about dealing with his apparent feelings for T'Pol. T'Pol, working out in the gym, also keeps urging Archer to apologize to the Kreetassans for Porthos' behavior, but Archer resists because he blames them for Porthos' illness. In the end, Porthos recovers following a pituitary transplant from an alien chameleon. Finally swallowing his pride, Archer then goes down to the Kreetassan capital and delivers an intricate ritual apology which involves slicing a tree trunk with a chainsaw, arranging the pieces of wood in a complex pattern on the ground, and chanting phrases in the Kreetassan language. Having successfully apologised to the Kreetassans, the crew finally manage to procure three plasma injectors prior to their departure. 

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A reclusive novelist named Bill Gray works endlessly on a novel which he chooses not to finish. He has chosen a lifestyle secluded from the outside world in order to try to keep his writing pure. He, along with his assistant Scott, believes that something is lost once a mass audience reads the work. Scott would prefer Bill didn't publish the book for fear that the mass-production of the work will destroy the "real" Bill. Bill has a dalliance with Scott's partner Karen Janney, a former member of the Unification Church who is married to Kim Jo Pak in a Unification Church Blessing ceremony in the prologue of the book. Bill, who lives as a complete recluse, accedes to be photographed by a New York photographer named Brita who is documenting writers. In dialogue with Brita and others, Bill laments that novelists are quickly becoming obsolete in an age where terrorism has supplanted art as the "raids on consciousness" that jolt and transform culture at large. Bill disappears without a word and secretly decides to accept an opportunity from his former editor Charles to travel to London to publicly speak on the behalf of a Swiss writer held hostage in war-torn Beirut. Meanwhile, Karen ends up living in Brita's New York apartment and spends most of her time in the homeless slums of Tompkins Square Park. In London, Bill is introduced to George Haddad, a representative of the Maoist group responsible for kidnapping the writer. Bill decides to go to Lebanon himself and negotiate the release of the writer. Cutting himself off from Charles, he flees to Cyprus where he awaits a ship that will take him to Lebanon. In Cyprus, Bill is hit by a car and suffers a lacerated liver which, exacerbated by his heavy drinking, kills him in his sleep while en route to Beirut. In the epilogue, Brita goes to Beirut to photograph Abu Rashid, the terrorist responsible for the kidnapping. The fate of the hostage is never revealed, though the implication is grim. The plot unfolds with DeLillo's customary shifts of time, setting, and character. 

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Dolemite is a pimp and nightclub owner who is serving 20 years in prison after being set up by a rival, Willie Green (D'Urville Martin) and framed by corruptive detectives (John Kerry) and the mayor (Hy Pyke). After being helped out of jail by Queen Bee (Lady Reed), fellow friend and pimp with lobbying for a pardon, he attempts to rekindle his reputation on the streets while trying to get his "The Total Experience" club back under control. He has to face Green (in league with the mayor to get black votes in exchange for immunity from prosecution) alongside corrupt detectives and drug dealers selling to the community. In the meantime, he trains his women to do kung fu before ultimately coming face to face with Green and the detectives while an FBI agent (Jerry Jones) lurks in the shadows watching the proceedings. 

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Stonekeep's mythology revolves around a variety of gods associated with planets of the solar system. In order, they are Helion (Mercury), Aquila (Venus), Thera (Earth), Azrael (Mars), Marif (Jupiter), Afri (Saturn), Saffrini (Uranus), Yoth-Soggoth (Neptune) the Master of Magick, and Kor-Soggoth (Pluto) the Brother to Magick. These gods were captured and imprisoned in nine orbs by the dark god Khull-Khuum 1000 years before the events of the game, during a cataclysm referred to as "The Devastation". Stonekeep is centered on a hero, Drake. Ten years before the events of the game, Drake's home, the castle of Stonekeep, was destroyed by the insane god Khull-Khuum, the Shadowking. Drake, at this time just a boy, was saved from the castle by a mysterious figure. Returning to the ruins of Stonekeep, Drake is visited by the goddess Thera, who sends his spirit out of his body into the ruins itself to explore, find the mystical orbs containing the other gods, and reclaim the land. Along the way, Drake makes many friends, including Farli, Karzak, and Dombur the dwarves; the great dragon Vermatrix; the elf Enigma; and the mysterious Wahooka, the King of goblins. Together, they embark on a quest of ridding the world of Khull-Khuum and his consort the Ice Queen. 

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Professor Ellis Fowler is an elderly English literature teacher at the Rock Spring School, a boys' prep school in Vermont, who is forced into retirement after teaching for 51 years at the school. Looking through his old yearbooks and reminiscing about his former students, he becomes convinced that all of his lessons have been in vain and that he has accomplished nothing with his life. Deeply depressed, he prepares to kill himself on the night of Christmas Eve next to a statue of the famous educator Horace Mann, with its quote "Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity." Before he can follow through, however, he is called back to his classroom by a phantom bell, where he is visited by ghosts of several boys who were his students, all dead, some of whom died heroically. The boys tell him of how he inspired them to become better men, and the difference he made in their lives. One posthumously received the Medal of Honor for actions at Iwo Jima; another died of leukemia after exposure to X-Rays during research into cancer treatments; another died at Pearl Harbor after saving 12 other men. All were inspired by Fowler's teachings. Moved to tears, Fowler hears the phantom bell again, and his former pupils disappear. Now accepting of his retirement, content that his life is fuller for having enriched the lives of the boys, he listens to his current students caroling outside his home. 

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The show involved a teenage boy named Mark (Butch Patrick) who fell into the hat of Merlo the Magician (Charles Nelson Reilly) following his show at Six Flags Over Texas and arrived in Lidsville, a land of living hats. The hats on the show are depicted as having the same characteristics as the humans who would normally wear them. For example, a cowboy hat would act and speak like a cowboy. The characters' houses were also hat-shaped. Mark (Butch Patrick) helps the hats defeat HooDoo. The villain of the show was a magician named Horatio J. HooDoo (also played by Charles Nelson Reilly in a magician's costume and make-up). The vain, short-tempered, but somewhat naive HooDoo flew around in his Hatamaran, blasting the good citizens of Lidsville with bolts of magic (referred to as "zapping") and keeping them in fear, demanding that they pay him their Hat Tax. Mark helped the good hats resist as he attempted to find a way back home. HooDoo, trying to reclaim control of the androgynous Weenie the Genie from Mark, often enlisted the services of four Bad Hats. Mark was seen as a suspected spy against HooDoo on behalf of the good hat people and was captured at Derby Dunes by HooDoo's minions the Bad Hats the moment he had fallen into the world of Lidsville. He escapes from his clutches alongside a genie named Weenie (Billie Hayes). In his high hat home, HooDoo was besieged by the taunting music of the Hat Band, as well as all of his talking knicknacks (the parrot, Mr. Skull, the mounted alligator head, the sawed-in-half lady, etc.). HooDoo also experienced further aggravation at the hands of his aides, the dimwitted Raunchy Rabbit and his two-faced card guard Jack of Clubs. HooDoo watched the action going on in downtown Lidsville from his hat home by using his Evil Eye, a device similar to a TV set that resembled an eyeball. He also had a hot chatline phone. The show relied on an endless array of puns based on hats. One such pun was "Derby Dunes," an area in Lidsville which sand dunes were shaped like derby hats. Many of the episodes were about Mark trying to get back home, but the evil HooDoo prevented him from leaving. Weenie, being a nervous bumbler, was in fact a genie, but many of the tricks and spells did not work correctly anymore after being a slave to HooDoo for so long. In the show's final episode, scenes from some of the past episodes were featured as HooDoo's mother (played by Muriel Landers, but not listed in the closing credits) had paid a visit to find out what has been going on in Lidsville while making sure that her son is still bad. Unfortunately for Mark, he did not return home at the end. Music was also a part of the show, with songs being performed by the characters in several episodes. 

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Sandy Ricks (Elijah Wood) is sent off for the summer to stay with his Uncle Porter (Paul Hogan) in the seaside town of Coral Key. Initially, Sandy is unenthusiastic and disappointed that he isn't going to a Red Hot Chili Peppers concert. His mood remains unchanged even after meeting Cathy (Chelsea Field), a local shopkeeper with whom his uncle carries on a flirtatious relationship, and Kim (Jessica Wesson), a girl his own age. While out on Porter's fishing trawler, they meet Porter's enemy, Dirk Moran (Jonathan Banks). Nearby, a pod of dolphins is frolicking near Dirks boat. As a big game fisherman, Dirk Moran makes it plain that he hates just about every other fish-eating animal on earth and shoots at the pod ending with a dolphin being fatally shot. Sandy meets a dolphin that escaped Dirk's shooting, and eventually names it Flipper. The next morning, Porter and Sandy are paid a visit by the sheriff Buck Cowan (Isaac Hayes), who explains that they could not keep the dolphin unless he is in captivity. That night, Sandy and Kim set out on a dinghy to look for Flipper. They fail to locate the dolphin, but see the dumping of barrels off of Dirk Moran's boat. The next morning, as Kim arrives looking for Sandy, Pete, Porter's pet brown pelican, comes running, as if asking her to follow him. Pete leads Kim to Flipper who is beached on the shore and sick. They manage to cure Flipper anyhow. Cathy determines that Flipper has been poisoned by toxic waste, which is also shown to have been ruining the local fishing. The group uses Flipper's ability of echolocation and a special camera attached to his head to help them locate the barrels of toxic waste. Flipper also manages to locate the rest of his pod, and reunites with them, in the process, dropping the camera. Porter rushes back to alert the sheriff about the barrels. Sandy, however becomes concerned that something has happened to Flipper, without informing anyone except Kathy's young son, Marvin (Jason Fuchs), who sets off in the dinghy to find him. Sandy barely survives an encounter with Dirk Moran's boat, which dismantles the dinghy. He sees an approaching dorsal fin and thinks it is Flipper, but it is actually Scar, a large great hammerhead shark that has been lurking in the island's waters. Sandy swims for his life towards Dirk's boat. As Scar is about to attack Sandy, Flipper appears and starts nose-butting him in the gills. There is a harrowing moment when Scar proves stronger than Flipper, but Flipper's dolphin pod comes to his aid in the nick of time and drive Scar away. Dirk Moran is then arrested by the sheriff for illegally dumping toxic waste and attempting to kill Sandy since he knew that he saw them that night. The next morning, when Sandy's mom (Mary Jo Faraci) & younger sister (Allison Bertolino) arrive to pick him up, there is a commotion. It is Flipper, who has come to see Sandy off. 

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The story begins more than eight years before any other Sin City book takes place, with policeman John Hartigan on his final mission before his forced retirement (he suffers from severe angina). Roark Junior, son of one of the most powerful and corrupt officials in Basin City, is indulging his penchant for raping and murdering pre-pubescent girls. It is Hartigan's mission to rescue Junior's latest quarry, an 11-year-old named Nancy Callahan. Hartigan succeeds in rescuing Nancy by disabling Junior's getaway car, which was being guarded by Burt Schlubb and Douglas Klump, two guns-for-hire with "delusions of eloquence". Hartigan knocks them out and kills the twin guards Benny and Lenny. He chases the escaping Junior to the pier and then proceeds to use his revolver to surgically shoot off Junior's left ear, right hand, and genitals. Before he can finish Junior off, Hartigan's corrupt partner Bob, who fears angering Senator Roark, shoots Hartigan several times. Hartigan then stalls Bob for as long as he can to save Nancy when backup arrives, going so far as to pull a spare gun and have Bob unload his gun on him. Bob leaves the fallen Hartigan, who passes out with Nancy in his arms. Roark Jr. lapses into a coma from his injuries, and Senator Roark takes issue with the abuse of his son. Hartigan survives and recovers thanks to the senator, who wants Hartigan to suffer for the rest of his life. He is framed for raping Nancy, branded as a pedophile and sentenced to a lengthy prison term amid a public outcry that brands him one of Sin City's most hated citizens. He remains silent about his pain, knowing that Senator Roark would execute anyone who ever found out the truth. The only one to whom Hartigan speaks in the hospital is Nancy, who sneaks out against her parents' wishes to see the man who saved her. Hartigan tells her to stay away from him, so Nancy tells Hartigan she will write him letters instead. She will sign her name as "Cordelia" to hide her identity. Before leaving, Nancy tells Hartigan she loves him. After his stint in the hospital, Hartigan is seen tied to a chair, cuffed and being beaten by Det. Liebowitz in order to force him to sign a false confession. Amid the hours of repeated punching and being tempted by prison luxuries and even sex with an Old Town prostitute, Hartigan doesn't crack under the pressure, although he hallucinates that he is granted the strength of Hercules, breaks from his cuffs and kills Liebowitz by exploding his head. Afterwards, alone in prison and abandoned by his wife Eileen (who remarries and finally has children) and his friends, he finds solace in the carefully disguised weekly letters he receives from Nancy. Hartigan quickly develops a paternal love for young Nancy, and sees her as the daughter he never had. For eight years, he drags himself through his jail time, his only respite the letters his young admirer sends him, until finally the letters stop coming. Although he initially believes Nancy has merely outgrown her childhood hero, Hartigan soon becomes increasingly worried that Senator Roark has finally found her. His fears are confirmed when a deformed, hairless visitor with sickly yellow skin who smells distinctly like garbage arrives at his prison cell and punches him out. Hartigan awakens and discovers the same type of envelope Nancy always uses containing an index finger from the right hand of a 19-year-old girl. Cover to That Yellow Bastard #4. Art by Frank Miller. Roark Jr. reborn as the Yellow Bastard. Believing Nancy to be in imminent danger, Hartigan decides to find some way out, and contacts his lawyer, Lucille (the lesbian parole officer from The Hard Goodbye). Much to her surprise and disgust, Hartigan decides to claim responsibility to the crimes of which he was accused. At his parole hearing, he is humiliated again when Senator Roark piously offers to forgive him. Hartigan knows it's a ruse to insult him, but asks Senator Roark for forgiveness in order to win parole. Hartigan is finally released, apparently due to Senator Roark's satisfaction over his confession and submission. Back on the streets, the now 60-year-old Hartigan sets off to find Nancy. He goes to her apartment, but finds it empty and in disarray. The only clue to her whereabouts is a pack of matches from Kadie's bar. Following the lead, Hartigan discovers that she is now a woman who works in the club as an exotic dancer - and is unharmed. The envelope containing the finger was merely a ploy to lead Roark to Nancy. Hartigan smells a set-up, and something far worse: the distinct odor of rotting garbage. "That Yellow Bastard", the man who arrived at the cell with the envelope, has followed him and found Nancy. Nancy recognizes Hartigan and jumps into his arms, kissing him. They leave Kadie's and get into her car. There is a high-speed pursuit, with the "Bastard" close on their tail, Hartigan uses Nancy's revolver to fire a precise shot that hits the "Bastard" in the neck. Hartigan insists on stopping to confirm the kill; accompanied by Nancy, he discovers the "Bastard's" foul-smelling blood everywhere, but no body. Eventually, he and Nancy hide out in a motel. There, they share a kiss, where Nancy reveals she is in love with him; but Hartigan refuses to move any further because of his age and the paternalistic nature of his relationship to Nancy. Unknown to them, the "Bastard" has hidden in the backseat of Nancy's car, and emerges while they talk. Hartigan, in the shower, is ambushed once again by "That Yellow Bastard", who reveals himself to be none other than Roark Junior. Senator Roark used his vast financial resources to resurrect his son using new medical techniques to re-grow his severed body parts. As a result, Junior lives, but with some "side-effects". Junior knocks Hartigan down, lynches him naked with a noose, and boasts of raping and killing dozens of girls over the past eight years. He then taunts Hartigan with the promise that Nancy will suffer the same fate. Roark Jr. kicks the desk out from under Hartigan and escapes with Nancy. That Yellow Bastard #6. Art by Frank Miller. Hartigan is shown beating Roark Jr to death. At first, Hartigan resigns himself to death but, in a sudden bout of determination, he revives himself through sheer will, breaks a window and cuts his hands free with a glass shard. Schlubb and Klump arrive to dispose of Hartigan's body, but Hartigan subdues them and forces them to reveal Junior and Nancy's whereabouts. He learns that Junior has fled to the Roark Family Farm (described as "a place where bad things happen"). Racing to the Farm, Hartigan suffers a severe angina attack, but soldiers through the pain. Meanwhile, Nancy is being flogged by Junior but, like Hartigan, resists the urge to scream in order to deny her torturer the satisfaction; she then realizes that Junior is impotent unless he hears his victims scream. Hartigan takes down four other corrupt police officers guarding the Farm and confronts Junior, who by that time has Nancy at knife point. Hartigan fakes a heart attack to catch Junior off guard. He stabs Junior, castrates him (this time with his bare hands), and beats him to death. Nancy and Hartigan share another, more passionate, kiss, and Hartigan tells Nancy to flee, assuring her that he will call up some old police friends of his to clean up the scene of the crime. After Nancy leaves, Hartigan narrates that he had to lie to her in order to protect her; Senator Roark will want to punish Hartigan for killing his son, and would not hesitate to use Nancy in order to do so. Knowing full well that no sane attorney would try to prosecute Senator Roark, Hartigan realizes that there is only one way to end the entire ordeal. In an act of pure love and sacrifice, Hartigan shoots himself in the head to save Nancy and end Roark's vendetta. 

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Inside her apartment, a frightened Shellie is comforted by Dwight - with a new face since the events of A Dame To Kill For - as the drunken Jackie Boy bangs on the door. Dwight tells Shellie to let Jack and his entourage in, confident he can 'handle them'. Jackie Boy enters and insists Shellie call her fellow barmaids to join his pub crawl but she refuses, and Jack hits her. He goes to the bathroom where Dwight ambushes him with a straight razor and tells him to stop bothering Shellie, dunking his head in the toilet. Jack storms out with his posse. Shellie finds Dwight on the ledge outside the building; determined to stop Jack from causing more trouble, Dwight pursues him, ignoring Shellie's muffled yell that sounds like "Stop!". Speeding after Jack's car, Dwight catches the attention of police, who follow them to the border of Old Town, the area of Sin City populated by prostitutes. Walking alone, Becky rejects Jack’s request for her services. In pursuit, Dwight meets Gail, one of Old Town's most experienced hookers and guardians, who advises him to let the girls handle Jack themselves. Spotting Miho on the roof, he agrees. When Jack pulls a handgun on Becky, Miho throws a Manji-shaped shuriken that cuts off Jack's hand, then descends on the car and kills his entourage. Jack aims his gun at Miho, who throws a plug into the barrel. Jack tries to shoot Dwight and the gun shatters, embedding the slide into his forehead. Miho finishes him off by slicing his neck, making "a Pez dispenser out of him". thumb As the girls loot the corpses, Dwight finds Jack’s police badge, revealing him to be Detective Lieutenant "Iron" Jack Rafferty - he realizes that Shellie had screamed "COP!" As Jack’s death would break Old Town’s shaky truce with the police, Dwight recommends disposing of the bodies in the tar pits. The bodies are sliced up to fit in the trunk of a car, leaving Jack in the passenger seat, and Dwight begins the rainy drive to the Pits. He is taunted by Jack’s corpse and is pulled over by police, who let him off with a warning for a broken taillight. At the Tar Pits, Dwight is attacked by Irish mercenaries and is seemingly killed by a shot to the chest. The mercenaries finds Jackie Boy's badge, having stopped the bullet, and Dwight disposes of several of them but is knocked into the pits with the sinking car. A mercenary removes Jackie Boy's head as proof of his murder, and leaves Dwight for dead. Miho rescues Dwight, and he deduces that an informant in Old Town has told the mob of Jack’s death. Dwight takes off with Miho and her driver, Dallas, in pursuit of the remaining mercenaries. In Old Town, Gail is kidnapped and tortured by Manute, having survived his previous encounter with Dwight and Miho. Gail refuses to "facilitate" the process of surrendering Old Town; she learns Becky has sold them out, and bites a chunk off of her neck. Dwight recalls the Battle of Thermopylae, where King Leonidas defeated his enemies in a narrow trap (a story Miller would later tell in 300). They catch up to their targets in the Projects. Dallas rams the car into the mercenaries' and is gunned down. Dwight corners the last mercenary, Brian, in the sewers, but is caught off guard by grenades until Miho kills Brian. Recovering the head, they return to Old Town. As the gangsters prepare to further torture Gail and kill Becky, Miho shoots a henchmen with an arrow bearing a note, offering to trade Jack's head for Gail's life. The gangsters find Dwight alone in a narrow alley. He hands over the head and takes Gail, then triggers a grenade taped inside Jack’s mouth. The gangsters realize their fatal mistake as the heavily armed girls of Old Town appear on the rooftops, opening fire until, in Dwight's words, "the things we're pumping bullets into are nothing but twisted toppling screaming smudges of movement." 

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Shot in a docudrama style (with subtitles identifying the different participants), the film opens in the days leading up to D-Day, concentrating on events on both sides of the English channel. The Allies wait for a break in the poor weather while anticipating the reaction of the Axis forces defending northern France. As Supreme Commander of SHAEF, Gen. Dwight Eisenhower makes the decision to go after reviewing the initial bad weather reports and the reports about the divisions within the German High Command as to where an invasion might happen and what should be their response. Multiple scenes document the early hours of June 6: Allied airborne troops being sent in to take key locations inland, away from the beaches, and the French resistance reaction to the news that the invasion has started. Also chronicled are important events surrounding D-Day: British troops' glider missions to secure Pegasus Bridge, the counterattacks launched by American paratroopers scattered around Sainte-Mère-Église, the infiltration and sabotage work conducted by the French resistance and SOE agents, and the response by the Wehrmacht to the invasion. Also shown is the uncertainty of German commanders regarding whether this is a feint in preparation for Allied crossings at the Strait of Dover (see Operation Fortitude), where the senior German staff had always assumed that the invasion would begin. Set-piece scenes include the parachute drop into Sainte-Mère-Église, the advance inshore from the Normandy beaches, the U.S. Ranger Assault Group's assault on the Pointe du Hoc, the attack on Ouistreham by Free French Forces, and the strafing of the beaches by two lone Luftwaffe pilots. The film concludes with a montage showing various Allied units consolidating their beachheads before they advance inland by crossing France to eventually reach Germany. 

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The film begins in March 1836 in the town of San Antonio de Bexar, showing the aftermath of the Battle of the Alamo. The film then flashes back to a year earlier. Sam Houston (Dennis Quaid) attends a party where he tries to persuade people to migrate to Texas and encounters David Crockett (Billy Bob Thornton), recently defeated in his bid for re- election to Congress. In San Felipe, Texas, the Texas provisional government is meeting to discuss what action to take after the recent capture of the Alamo and Bexar by the Texans at the first Battle of San Antonio de Bexar. Texas has rebelled against Mexico, and its dictatorial president Santa Anna is personally leading an army to retake the Alamo. The Texan War Party calls for the Texas army to depart Bexar, cross into Mexico and confront the Mexican forces at Matamoros. The Opposition Party seeks to rebuild the Texan army and establish a permanent government. The provisional government votes out Sam Houston as commander of the Texas army; a disgusted Houston tells Jim Bowie to go to San Antonio and destroy the Alamo. The provisional government in turn orders William Barret Travis (Patrick Wilson) to take command of the Alamo. Travis, feeling that the Alamo's small force cannot withstand the Mexican Army, sends a rider to deliver a plea for reinforcements. As small groups of Texans arrive, Travis oversees defense preparations, hoping that enough reinforcements will arrive before the inevitable attack. Crockett arrives in San Antonio, where he finds the other defenders impatient for Santa Anna to arrive. When Santa Anna arrives earlier than anticipated, the Texans retire to the Alamo compound despite its vulnerability, and begin fortifying it as best they can. Travis continues to write for reinforcements, but only few men arrive. Santa Anna's army surrounds the compound, and the siege begins. Bowie meets with Mexican General Manuel Castrillón (Castulo Guerra) to talk things over, but Travis stubbornly fires a cannon at the Mexican camp, abruptly ending their conversation. Bowie returns to tell Travis that Santa Anna has offered the opportunity to surrender. Travis passes this to his men, but the defenders decide to stay and fight. With his hopes of an easy victory foiled, Santa Anna orders to grant no quarter against the Alamo defenders. Bowie becomes ill and is rendered bedridden. On the final day of the siege, the Mexicans launch a surprise attack before dawn. Despite taking heavy casualties, they breach the walls of the mission, and Travis is killed. Overwhelmed, the Texans fall back to the buildings, where they, including Bowie, are all slain. Crockett and the last remaining defenders retreat to the church, where they make their last stand. Crockett is taken prisoner, and in a final act of defiance he mockingly offers to safely lead Santa Anna to Sam Houston. Santa Anna angrily orders Crockett to be executed. Days later, after hearing that the Alamo has been taken, Houston, once again in command of the Texan army, orders a general retreat eastward. They are pursued by the victorious Mexican Army, led by the confident Santa Anna. In an attempt to catch the retreating Texans, and against the advice of his officers, Santa Anna splits his army, leaving only a few hundred men to defend him. A few weeks later, Houston halts his retreat near the San Jacinto, where he decides to face the Mexicans in a final stand. With the support of two cannons and a small group of mounted Tejanos, Houston surprises Santa Anna's army during its afternoon siesta, and in the ensuing rout the vengeful Texans massacre at least seven hundred Mexican soldiers and capture Santa Anna. In exchange for his life, Santa Anna agrees to order all Mexican troops to withdraw from Texas and accept Texan independence. The film ends with Crockett standing on a roof of the Alamo, playing his violin and overlooking the compound. 

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The film depicts the Battle of the Alamo and the events leading up to it. Sam Houston leads the forces fighting for Texas independence and needs time to build an army. The opposing Mexican forces, led by General Santa Anna, are numerically stronger as well as better-armed and -trained. Nevertheless, the Texans have spirit and morale remains generally high. Lieutenant Colonel William Travis is tasked with defending the Alamo, a former mission in San Antonio. Jim Bowie comes with reinforcements and the defenders prepare. Meanwhile, Davy Crockett arrives with a group of Tennesseans. Santa Anna's armies arrive and surround the fort. The siege begins. An embassy from the Mexican Army approaches the Alamo, and as they list the terms of surrender, Travis fires a cannon, signalling his refusal to surrender. In a nighttime raid, the Texans sabotage a super-sized cannon used by the Mexicans. They maintain high hopes as they are told a strong force led by Colonel James Fannin is on its way to break the siege. Crockett, however, sensing an imminent attack, sends one of his younger men, Smitty, to ask Houston for help, knowing this will perhaps save Smitty's life. The Mexicans frontally attack the Alamo. The defenders hold out and inflict heavy losses on the Mexicans, although the Texans' own losses are not insignificant, and Bowie sustains a leg wound. Morale drops when a messenger informs Travis that Fannin's reinforcements have been ambushed and slaughtered by the Mexicans. Travis chooses to stay with his command and defend the Alamo, but he gives the other defenders the option of leaving. Crockett, Bowie and their men prepare to leave, but an inspired tribute by Travis convinces them to stay and fight to the end. The noncombatants, including most of the women and children, leave the Alamo. On the thirteenth day of the siege, Santa Anna's artillery bombards the Alamo, and the entire Mexican army sweeps forward, attacking on all sides. The defenders kill numerous Mexicans, but the attack is overwhelming and the fortress' walls are breached. Travis tries to rally the men, but is shot and killed. Crockett leads the Texans in the final defense of the fort, but the Mexicans swarm through and overwhelm the defenders. Crockett is killed in the chaos when he is run through by a lance and then blown up as he ignites the powder magazine. Bowie, in bed with his wound, kills several Mexicans but is bayoneted and dies. As the last Texan is killed, the Mexican soldiers discover the hiding place of the wife and child of Texan defender Captain Dickinson. The battle eventually ends with a total victory for the Mexicans. Santa Anna observes the carnage and provides safe passage for Mrs. Dickinson and her child. Smitty returns too late, watching from a distance. He takes off his hat in respect and then escorts Mrs. Dickinson away from the battlefield. The subplot follows the conflict existing among the strong-willed personalities of Travis, Bowie, and Crockett. Travis stubbornly defends his decisions as commander of the garrison against the suggestions of the other two - particularly Bowie with whom the most bitter conflict develops - as well as trying to maintain discipline among a force made up primarily of independently minded frontiersmen and settlers. Crockett, well liked by both Bowie and Travis, eventually becomes a mediator between the other two as Bowie constantly threatens to withdraw his men rather than deal with Travis. Despite their personal conflicts, all three learn to subordinate their differences, and in the end, bind themselves together in an act of bravery to defend the fort against inevitable defeat. 

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In the near future the world is divided between those who live "inside", in high- density cities, and the poor underclass who live "outside." Access to the cities is highly restricted and regulated through the use of health documents, known as "papeles" in the global pidgin language of the day (composed of elements of English, Spanish, French, Arabic, Italian, Farsi and Mandarin). Most city residents venture outside only after dark since direct sunlight is now considered hazardous to their health (UV rays can cause melanoma). However, a few residents still venture outdoors during the day. The government appears to be authoritarian and dystopian.15 Underseen And Overlooked Dystopian Futures In Film. indiewire.com (19 March 2014). Retrieved on 28 August 2020. Society is regulated by various "codes". The code of the movie title prohibits "genetically incestuous reproduction", which may occur as a result of the various medical technologies which have become commonplace, such as cloning. William Geld, an insurance fraud investigator, is sent to Shanghai to interview employees at a company known as "The Sphinx", which manufactures "covers", ostensibly "insurance cover documents" but which in fact regulate the movements of people among cities and "inside" and "outside". William's assignment is to identify employees who are suspected of forging "covers". After interviewing numerous Sphinx employees, he identifies a young worker named Maria Gonzalez as the forger. He is able to do this using a genetically engineered "empathy virus," which allows him to gain information from people if they voluntarily reveal something about themselves. Maria tells William that she has the same dream each birthday: she is traveling the subway to meet someone she cannot identify. Each birthday she is one station closer to her destination, where she expects to meet the person. William is captivated by her, and instead of turning her over to security, he identifies another employee as the forger. William then meets up with Maria and they begin an affair. Putting complete trust in a man who could have had her arrested, Maria reveals how she was able to smuggle papeles out of her workplace. In a nightclub they meet Damian, a naturalist who longs to travel to Delhi to study bats. He has applied for cover for eight consecutive years but has always been refused. Maria supplies Damian with a papel. William is upset by this and indicates that he should turn Maria over to the authorities, but Maria knows he won't. William explains that there are legitimate reasons why Damian is unable to obtain the proper clearances legally. Maria believes that some risks are worth taking to fulfill one's dreams. Back at her apartment, Maria shows William her "memory scrapbook" (an electronic booklet that records video from the user's mind), which contains memories of her parents and friends. Other movies show her passing papeles to various people. She thinks they are beautiful and their eyes are full of desire and dreams, and that they have a different look from "everyday" people. As Maria sleeps, William finds a forged cover in her room and takes it. William's travel cover will expire the next day so he returns home to his family. On the way to the airport, he gives the forged cover to a street vendor at the city's perimeter checkpoint, an act of humanity which could change the vendor's life. Later, he learns that Damian died in Delhi after exposure to a virus to which he had no immunity. William is reprimanded for not discovering the true Sphinx forger. He explains that he had trouble with his empathy virus and requests that someone else be sent, as there may have been an accomplice to the innocent man he fingered as the guilty party. However, he is ordered to deal with the problem and to return to Shanghai. Upon his return William discovers that Maria has gone. Her apartment is abandoned and the only clue is a medical clinic appointment. He visits the clinic and, using his empathic abilities, learns that Maria was pregnant and that the pregnancy was terminated due to a violation of Code 46. William knows that this means Maria is somehow genetically related to him, but he has no idea how. William discovers that Maria has been taken to have her memory of the episode erased. He talks to Maria, but finds her memory of him is gone. He succeeds in getting the clinic to release Maria into his care by telling them she is a witness in his fraud investigation. After she is released, William proves to Maria that she knows him by his intimate knowledge of her and by showing her the memory recording of when she gave Damian the papel, which includes a shot of William. William tells her about the memory erasure and about how he didn't report her for fraud. Maria is disturbed by this information and becomes very distressed. William gives her a sleeping pill and, while she is sleeping, he cuts some hair from her head and takes it to a facility providing instant DNA analysis. There he discovers that Maria is fifty percent genetically related to him, a biological clone of his mother, who was one of a set of twenty-four in-vitro fertilised clones. This knowledge does not affect William's feelings, but instead of going back to Maria he decides to go home to his family. However, when he tries to leave he is not allowed to do so as his 24-hour cover is now expired. William then realises that his only hope of returning home is to get a papel from Maria. He returns to her apartment and tells her about his inability to leave. She agrees to help him. She tells him she must acquire a papel and meet him at the airport later. She goes to work to obtain a papel, but is unable to forge one herself, as she was moved to another area of work, so a co-worker makes the cover for her. While taking a train to meet William she remembers her birthday dream, and that he was the person she is looking for in the dream. She recalls her feelings for him. She meets William, gives him the papel and tells him so. He decides not to leave her. William and Maria then travel to Jebel Ali in the Middle East, which does not require special travel clearance. The two hide out in the old city where they book a room. Here William reveals to Maria that, in addition to the memory wiping, she has been given a virus that induces a terrorising adrenaline rush in response to physical contact with the person who brought about the Code 46 violation. However, Maria still wants to make love with William, so he ties her down to prevent her from fleeing once the adrenaline rush kicks in. Afterward Maria enters a somnambulistic state, also caused by the virus, which forces her to report the further Code 46 violation to the authorities. She is unconscious of this, though William is aware of the virus's reaction. They then rent an old car and travel away to escape the authorities who are tracking them. William crashes the car while avoiding a collision with camels and pedestrians and they are both knocked unconscious. When William awakes in the hospital he finds himself in Seattle with his wife and child. He has no memory of Maria or the Code 46 violation, as all memories of her and their time together have been completely flushed from his mind and replaced with memories of a successful investigation. The authorities had brought William before a tribunal, but decided the empathy virus had affected his judgment. He attempts to use the empathy virus to read his son's thoughts on the drive back from the hospital, but is unable to because the virus was permanently removed, and antibodies implanted to render reinfection impossible. Maria is more severely punished, in effect, by not having her memories of William loving her erased (instead being altered to make them stronger), essentially forced to remember him and exiled to the place she hated the most, the desert, outside of "cover". Her final words of the film (portrayed through voiceover of the end-of-film events and a montage of her poor, "beggar" life and existence) are, "I miss you." 

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César (Charles Boyer) is a barkeeper in Marseille in the early 1920s. His 18-year-old son Marius (Horst Buchholz) works for him at his bar, but wants nothing more than to go to sea and leave his boring existence behind. The only thing holding him back is Fanny (Leslie Caron), an 18-year-old girl with whom he grew up. Fanny works selling fish with her mother down at the waterfront. Fanny has been in love with Marius her whole life. She flirts with him, but Marius always rejects her. Fanny invites Marius to a Sunday-night dance, but he rejects her once more. Unbeknownst to Fanny, Marius is planning to leave the next day. Encouraged by his friend, the “Admiral” (Raymond Bussieres), he has secretly signed on as a sailor on a round-the-world scientific expedition. Offended, Fanny leaves. Meanwhile, elderly merchant Panisse (Maurice Chevalier) asks to meet with Fanny's mother Honorine (Georgette Anys), who believes he wants to propose to her. To Honorine's surprise, Panisses wants to marry Fanny, even though he knows she loves someone else. Although disappointed, Honorine does not object: Panisse is worth 600,000 francs. Fanny tells Marius that she has rejected Panisse's proposal because she loves him and is willing to wait until he returns. Marius tells her he will be away for five years and to forget about him. They declare their love for each other and go to Fanny's house, where they are alone. The following morning, Honorine discovers Fanny and Marius in bed together. She and César begin to plan their children's wedding, but Fanny urges Marius to leave. She even lies to him, telling him that she would rather marry a rich man like Panisse than him. But, in truth, she is afraid that, eventually, he will grow to hate her for depriving him of this great opportunity. About two months after Marius goes off to sea, Fanny discovers that she is pregnant with his child. She tells Panisse, who is happy to marry her anyway, overjoyed by the possibility of a male heir to carry on his name. They marry, and Fanny gives birth to a boy. César, knowing the baby's true father, collaborates with Panisse to give the baby the name Césario Marius Panisse. On Césario's first birthday, Panisse takes the train to Paris on business. While he is gone, Marius returns, on a short leave. He visits Fanny, and upon learning her child is his, apologizes to Fanny. He knows now that she said those things only to make him go. Marius tells her that he wants her back, but César comes in before anything can happen. Panisse arrives home early. Knowing that Fanny will not leave without the boy, he says that he will not try to stop Fanny from going with Marius, but he will not part with the child. Fanny tells Marius she loves him, but she will not take Césario from Panisse. Marius leaves without Fanny or his child. Ten years later, Césario (Joel Flateau) is looking forward to his birthday party. After being taken to the waterfront, Césario wanders off and meets the Admiral. The Admiral takes the boy sailing without telling anyone and reunites him with Marius, though Césario has no idea who Marius is. Marius, who is now working in a garage, is overjoyed to see his son, but when Panisse is told the boy is missing, he is stricken and taken to his room. Fanny is shocked to find Césario with his father. She announces that Panisse is dying, and Marius drives them home. When they arrive at the house, Panisse calls for Césario to sit with him. Fanny goes outside and talks with Cesar and Marius. Marius expresses his bitterness and announces his plans to leave for the United States the next day. Fanny explains to Marius that she never told him about the baby because on the day he left, she hoped he would turn around and not get on the boat. When he did not, she felt betrayed and angry. Fanny goes in to Panisse. On his deathbed, Panisse dictates a letter asking Marius to marry Fanny and be a father to Césario. His only request is that the boy keep the last name, Panisse. 

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With an original total running time of just 15 minutes, Kalem's "Roman Spectacle" only highlights some of the principal events described in the novel, although notably excluding Judah Ben-Hur's encounters with Jesus Christ or his presence at Christ's crucifixion. The film company in its advertising in 1907 describes the release being composed of "Sixteen Magnificent Scenes" with intertitles introducing screen presentations such as "Jerusalem Rebels Against Roman Mis- rule", "The Family of Hur", "Ben Hur in Chains to the Galleys", and "Ben Hur and Messala—The Challenge". A significant portion of the film's latter content is devoted to portraying the story's chariot race. Just four chariots, including those driven by Ben-Hur and Messala, are depicted, with each being drawn by teams of four black horses. Virtually all of the contest's action is implied visually, occurring off-camera, and not shown to viewers of the film. Roman spectators on screen cheer as they pretend to watch the charioteers racing three laps around the track of the Circus Maximus. Only brief footage shows the contestants speeding by the static camera as their vehicles are supposedly completing each of the laps. After Judah wins the race against Messala and the two other competitors, the intertitle "Ben Hur Victor" appears. The film then ends with spectators continuing to cheer; Judah being awarded a laurel wreath by the emperor; and Messala, who was injured during the race, lying on a stretcher and gesturing toward his former friend. 

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In AD 26, Judah Ben-Hur is a wealthy Jewish prince and merchant in Jerusalem, living with his mother, Miriam and his sister, Tirzah. The family's loyal slave, the merchant Simonides, pays a visit with his daughter, Esther. Seeing each other for the first time since childhood, Judah and Esther fall in love, but she is betrothed to another. After several years away from Jerusalem, Judah's childhood friend Messala returns as commander of the Fortress of Antonia. Messala believes in the glory of Rome and its imperial power, while Judah is devoted to his faith and the freedom of the Jewish people. This difference causes tension between the friends, and results in their split after Messala issues an ultimatum demanding that Judah deliver potential rebels among the populace to the Roman authorities. During the parade for the new governor of Judea, Valerius Gratus, loose tiles fall from the roof of Judah's house. Gratus is thrown from his horse and nearly killed. Although Messala knows this was an accident, he condemns Judah to the galleys and imprisons Miriam and Tirzah. Simonides confronts Messala, and is also imprisoned. Judah swears revenge upon Messala. As he and other slaves are marched to the galleys, they stop in Nazareth to water the Romans' horses. Judah begs for water, but the commander of the Roman detachment denies it to him. Judah collapses, but is revived when Jesus of Nazareth gives him water. After three years as a galley slave, Judah is assigned to the flagship of the Roman Consul Quintus Arrius, who has been charged with destroying a fleet of Macedonian pirates. Arrius admires Judah's determination and self-discipline, and offers to train him as a gladiator or charioteer. Judah declines the offer, declaring that God will aid him in his vengeance. When the Roman fleet encounters the Macedonians, Arrius orders all the rowers except Judah chained to their oars. Arrius' galley is rammed and sunk, but Judah unchains the other rowers and rescues Arrius. In despair, Arrius wrongly believes the battle ended in defeat and attempts to atone by falling on his sword, but Judah stops him. They are rescued by Romans, and Arrius is credited with the Roman fleet's victory. Arrius petitions Emperor Tiberius to free Judah, and adopts him as his son. Wealthy again, Judah learns Roman ways and becomes a champion charioteer, but longs for his family and homeland. Judah returns to Judea. Along the way, he meets Balthasar and an Arab, Sheik Ilderim. After noting Judah's prowess as a charioteer, the sheik asks him to drive his quadriga in a race before the new governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate. Judah declines, even after learning that Messala will also compete. Judah returns to his home in Jerusalem. He finds Esther and Simonides, who made a new friend, Malak, in prison and was subsequently released. Judah learns Esther's arranged marriage did not occur and that she still loves him. He visits Messala, demanding his mother and sister's freedom. The Romans discover that Miriam and Tirzah contracted leprosy in prison, and expel them from the city. The women beg Esther to conceal their condition from Judah so that he may remember them as they were before, so Esther tells Judah they died. Angry at God, Judah smashes his family Mezuzah, then departs to seek vengeance on Messala by competing against him in the chariot race. During the race, Messala drives a Greek style chariot with blades on the hubs to tear apart competing vehicles. He attempts to destroy Judah's chariot but wrecks his own instead. Messala is dragged behind his horses and trampled by another chariot, while Judah wins the race. Before dying, Messala informs Judah that "the race is not over", and tells Judah to search for his family in the Valley of the Lepers. Judah visits the leper colony, where he confronts Esther while she delivers supplies for his mother and sister. Esther convinces Judah to remain hidden from them and not break Miriam's wishes. Blaming Roman rule for his family's fate, Judah visits Pilate and rejects his patrimony and Roman citizenship. He returns with Esther to the leper colony, reveals himself to Miriam and learns that Tirzah is dying. Judah and Esther take Miriam and her daughter to see Jesus of Nazareth, but the trial of Jesus has begun. As Jesus is marched through the streets, he collapses while carrying his cross. Judah recognizes him as the man who gave him water years before, and reciprocates the gesture. Judah witnesses the crucifixion of Jesus, and Miriam and Tirzah are miraculously healed during the rainstorm following the crucifixion. Judah returns home a changed man and embraces Esther, Miriam, and Tirzah. 

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In a prologue set in Paris in the year 1924, a young 14-year-old Gilda Bessé, the daughter of a French aristocrat and an emotionally unstable American mother, is reluctantly told by a fortune teller that the life line on her palm doesn't extend past the age of 34. Fast forward to a rainy night in 1933, when Gilda stumbles into the room of Guy Malyon, an Irishman who is a first-year scholarship student at Cambridge University. She has had a lover's quarrel with one of the dons, and rather than turn her out into the storm, Guy gallantly allows her to spend the night. Later, they become lovers, but the two are separated when Gilda's mother dies and she opts to leave England. A few years later, Guy sees her as an extra in a Hollywood film, and shortly after he coincidentally receives a letter from her inviting him to visit her in Paris, where she's working as a photographer. Guy discovers that Gilda is living with the Spanish-born nursing student/model Mia and has a lover, whom she quickly discards when Guy moves in. The trio are enjoying their unusual living arrangement, but world events are beginning to affect their existence. It is the height of the Spanish Civil War, and idealistic Guy, a long-time supporter of the army of the Second Spanish Republic, is determined to do what he can to help them as Francisco Franco's nationalists gain strength. Mia, too, is anxious to come to the aid of her native land. Gilda, however, has no interest in politics or anything else that might disrupt her life of luxury, and pleads with the two to ignore the conflict, but they feel compelled to act and depart for Spain. By January 1938, Guy becomes a soldier, while Mia becomes a nurse and tends to the wounded. They cross paths one night and, before sleeping with Guy, Mia confesses she was Gilda's lover. In the morning, her ambulance is destroyed by a land mine resulting in Mia's death as well as the ambulance driver. A few months later in July 1938, Guy returns to Paris, where he is ignored by Gilda, who feels his abandonment of her was a form of betrayal. Six years later, Guy is working as a spy with the underground in occupied Paris under the auspices of British intelligence. He learns that Gilda has taken Nazi Major Franz Bietrich as a lover and visits her in their old apartment, where the two make love. The following morning she tells him their affair is over and the two can never see each other again. D-Day is approaching, and Guy throws himself into his work. One day he arrives at a café to meet a contact, but instead is approached by Gilda, who has overheard her German lover plotting a trap and has come to help him escape in cleric's clothing she has concealed in the restaurant's washroom. That night, he and his associates destroy a rail station, but only Guy manages to elude the German soldiers. Guy returns to London, where he discovers Gilda joined the Resistance a few years earlier. With the occupation of Paris having come to an end, he realizes that the locals, who had long regarded Gilda as a Nazi sympathizer and traitor, will seek revenge. As he returns to Paris to find her, Guy is unaware that Bietrich has been killed in Gilda's apartment and that she has been taken captive by a mob intent on avenging the deaths of their loved ones. She is finally killed, off-camera, by a local youth to avenge the death of his sister. The movie ends with Guy in Gilda's ransacked apartment reading the last letter written by her to him. 

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The demon Mephisto has a bet with an Archangel that he can corrupt a righteous man's soul and destroy in him what is divine. If he succeeds, the Devil will win dominion over earth. The Devil delivers a plague to the village where Faust, an elderly alchemist, lives. Though he prays to stop the death and starvation, nothing happens. Disheartened, Faust throws his alchemy books in the fire, and then the Bible too. One book opens, showing how to have power and glory by making a pact with the Devil. He goes to a crossroads as described in the book's procedure and conjures up the forces of evil. When Mephisto appears at the roadside, he induces Faust to make a trial, 24-hour bargain with the Devil. Faust will have Mephisto's service till the sand runs out in an hourglass, at which time the Devil will rescind the pact. At first, Faust uses his new power to help the people of the village, but they shun him when they find out that he cannot face a cross. They stone him and he takes shelter in his home. Faust then makes a further deal with Mephisto, who gives Faust back his youth and offers him earthly pleasures and a kingdom, in return for his immortal soul. Mephisto tempts Faust with the vision of a beautiful woman. He then takes him to a wedding feast in Parma, to meet the subject of his vision, an Italian Duchess. Faust departs with her, leaving the Devil to kill her groom. Just as Faust is making love to her the sands run out. He is obliged to seal the deal permanently in order to continue his love-making; he is Mephisto's forever. Faust soon grows weary of debauchery and yearns for "Home". Here Faust falls in love with an innocent girl, Gretchen, who is charmed into loving Faust by a golden chain left by the Devil. Faust comes to Gretchen's room. The devil rouses the mother who sees them and drops dead from shock. The devil then incites her soldier brother, Valentin, to run home to catch her lover. Valentin and Faust fight a duel. The Devil intervenes and stabs Valentin in the back. He then goes around town shouting "murder". Faust and Mephisto flee on the back of a hellish steed. Valentin condemns Faust for his murder and his sister as a harlot in his dying breath. She is put in the stocks and subjected to jeering. The girl has a child (by Faust) and ends up in the streets. In a blizzard she sees a vision of a warm cradle and lays her child down on the snow, where the child dies. Soldiers find her and she is sent to the stake as a murderess. Faust sees what is happening and demands Mephisto take him there. Faust arrives just as the fire has been started to burn his lover. Faust wishes he had never asked to have his youth back. Mephisto smashes the mirror with Faust's reflection and he loses his youth. He runs through the assembled mob towards Gretchen; and it is as an old man that Faust throws himself onto the fire to be with his beloved. Gretchen recognizes Faust and sees him in her heart as a young man again as the fire consumes them together. Their spirits rise to the heavens. The angel reveals to Mephisto that he has lost the bet because Love has triumphed over all. 

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Principal Skinner sends the Springfield Elementary students on a "go to work with your parents day". Unable to stay home with Marge because school forms state that homemaker is not a "real job", Bart goes to the DMV with Patty and Selma, and Lisa goes to the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant with Homer. At the DMV, Bart makes himself a fake driver's license, which he, Nelson, Martin, and Milhouse use to rent a car. Using an alibi concocted by Bart, the boys tell their parents they are travelling to the National Grammar Rodeo in Canada. Instead they use the rented car for a road trip to the World's Fair in Knoxville, Tennessee. Once they arrive, they discover the fair was held fourteen years earlier; all that remains is a wig outlet. The boys each buy a wig and Martin spends the last of their money on an Al Gore doll. When Nelson accidentally knocks the Sunsphere (renamed the Wigsphere) on their car, crushing it, they are left stranded. Bart places a collect call to Lisa — who has spent the entire spring break with Homer at work — to help him return home while concealing the ordeal from their parents. On her advice, Bart becomes a courier, but he fails to earn enough money to get home. When he is spotted by Skinner during his first assignment flying organ transplants to Hong Kong, Bart again asks Lisa for help. After making Homer promise he will not get upset, Lisa reveals Bart's predicament. To get Bart home, Homer orders equipment for the power plant from Oak Ridge, Tennessee. He ships it from nearby Knoxville, with Bart as the courier and the boys stowed inside the crate. While Lisa and Homer quietly fume at Bart at the dinner table, Marge remains clueless about his misadventures. At night, Marge receives telephone calls alluding to Bart's mishaps from Principal Skinner, the Tennessee State Police, and the courier service. Homer nervously ducks under the covers and quietly laughs as Marge remains oblivious. 

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In the 1890s American West, outlaws Bill Bowdre, Jesse Coe, and Tom Fitch rob, torture and brutally kill the white father and Kiowa mother of young Max Sand. Max sets out to avenge their deaths. While traveling in the desert, Max uncovers a rusty old gun. Coming upon Jonas Cord, a traveling gunsmith, Max tries to rob him. Cord, recognizing that Max's revolver is non-functional, convinces Max he has failed. Max tells Cord about his vengeful journey. Cord, sympathetic, shelters him and teaches him to shoot. Max hunts the killers, who have since separated. He tracks down Jesse Coe to Abilene, Texas. With help from Neesa, a Kiowa dance hall girl, he confronts Coe in a saloon. A knife fight ensues in a nearby corral. Coe is killed but Max is severely wounded. Neesa takes him to her tribe's camp and nurses him back to health. Soon after, they become lovers. Once recovered, Max continues his pursuit. He learns that Bowdre is in a prison camp located deep within Louisiana's swamps. Max deliberately commits a bank robbery to be sent to the same prison as Bowdre. Max persuades Bowdre to escape with him, planning to kill him in the swamp. Pilar, a local Cajun girl working in the rice fields near the convicts’ camp agrees to help Max. Unaware of Max's plan to kill Bowdre, she obtains a boat and navigates the trio through the swamp. The boat capsizes early on and Pilar is bitten by a venomous snake. Max kills Bowdre and Pilar dies from the snakebite. Max has escaped and is now hunting Fitch, the last murderer. Still blinded by revenge, Max infiltrates Fitch's gang, calling himself, "Nevada Smith". Fitch knows Max Sand has killed Coe and Bowdre and is coming for him. Though he accepts "Nevada" into the gang, Fitch is wary. As the gang rides out to commit a gold-transport robbery, Max is spotted by Cord, who calls out his name. Max ignores him and the gang rides on. Fitch now suspects one of his men is Max. As the gang greedily scoops up the stolen gold, Max watches from a hill. Fitch, realizing "Smith" is Sand, grabs his share and flees. Max pursues him and corners him at a creek. Fitch tries shooting Sand while pretending to surrender, but Sand, faster, shoots Fitch's hand. Fitch gives up and wants Max to quickly kill him. Max shoots Fitch several more times, inflicting flesh wounds. As Fitch lies in the creek, bleeding profusely, Max demands Fitch beg for his life. Fitch calls Max a coward for refusing to kill him. Max decides Fitch is not worth killing and rides away as Fitch continues shouting at Max to kill him. 

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The protagonist of the series is a twelve-year-old girl named Shiina Tamai. She bonds with a starfish-shaped "dragonchild" (baby "shadow dragon") whom she calls Hoshimaru. The series is mainly about the interaction between Shiina and other young people who have also bonded with dragons. The manga, especially the original Japanese version, is known for the gruesome material that appears as the plot progresses. Despite the young main characters, cute monster designs, and the initial appearance of a Pokémon-esque series, the story quickly takes on a much darker and more disturbing tone, with later volumes involving some graphic depictions of gore and sexual violence. The English- and German-language versions of the manga have some edited scenes; entire pages of content were removed from the seventh volume of the English- language release. 

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Professor Philip Brainard (Williams), of Medfield College, is a mad scientist who is developing a new energy source in an attempt to raise enough money to save the college from closure. His preoccupation with his research distracts him from his fiancée, Sara Jean Reynolds (Marcia Gay Harden), who is the president of the college; he has already missed two wedding dates as a result of this, much to Sara's anger. On the day of the third attempted wedding, Brainard is approached by his former partner Wilson Croft (McDonald), who has profited from ideas he has stolen from the chemist and now desires to steal Sara from Brainard and make her his wife, an intention that he declares directly to Brainard, who takes it as a joke. Before he can make it to the wedding, his latest experiment shows quick progress, forcing him to miss this latest wedding date. The resulting substance created from the experiment is a sentient green goo with enormous amounts of elasticity and kinetic energy. It increases in speed as it bounces and proves to be difficult to control, wreaking havoc on the neighborhood before the professor finally manages to capture it. Weebo (voiced by Jodi Benson), Brainard's hovering robot assistant, classifies the substance as "flying rubber", leading Brainard to christen it "Flubber". Brainard continues to work on Flubber into the early morning, looking to stabilize the Flubber's movement as opposed to stimulation. Brainard's incorrectly set watch alarm goes off at 6:30 am, and Weebo informs him that he has missed the wedding. Brainard goes to Sara's office and unsuccessfully attempts to explain the situation to her. Meanwhile, Medfield College sponsor Chester Hoenicker (Barry) is disappointed that Brainard has failed his son Bennett (Wheaton) in chemistry class. That night, Hoenicker sends his security guards Smith (Brown) and Wesson (Ted Levine) to Brainard's house in an attempt to persuade Brainard into giving Bennett a better grade. However, Brainard is too busy experimenting with the Flubber to even notice them and unknowingly knocks them unconscious with a Flubber-coated golf ball and bowling ball. He uses Flubber to give his vintage Ford Thunderbird flight. During a test run, he discovers Wilson flirting with Sara (making a bet that she will buy him dinner if Medfield wins, or join him for a weekend in the mountains if they lose). Afterward, Weebo attempts to confess her love of Brainard, only to be shrugged off as a computer. In response, she secretly creates a holographic human version of herself named Sylvia (Leslie Stefanson) in hopes of winning him over. Before Weebo can kiss Brainard in this form as he sleeps, Brainard awakens with another idea for Flubber. He enters a vacant basketball arena and tests the effects of Flubber on a basketball and his shoes. Later, he gives Flubber-padded shoes to the unskilled Medfield basketball team to increase their abilities and defeat their opposing team, Rutland. Back in Brainard's home, looking to have some fun, Weebo unleashes Flubber from his case, allowing him to dance around the house and cause general mayhem. After the close but successful basketball game, Brainard's attempt to win Sara back into his favor fails. Upon returning home, Brainard releases his emotional baggage on Weebo, saying his absent-mindedness is due to his love of Sara. Weebo records Brainard's ramblings and shows the footage to Sara, who then reconciles with Brainard. Brainard demonstrates Flubber's abilities to Sara and they discuss how it can be used for profit. However, Hoenicker discovers Flubber's existence, and after failing to convince Brainard and Sara to sell it to him, summons Smith and Wesson to raid Brainard's house and steal Flubber. Weebo attempts to fend off the henchmen, only to be struck down by Wesson with a baseball bat. Brainard and Sara return to find the home a wreck and find Weber (Brainard's house-robot) cleaning up, Flubber stolen, and Weebo destroyed. Later, Brainard discovers that Weebo had downloaded backup data of herself onto his computer in the event of her destruction, as well as a video recording of Weebo's hologram professing her love for him. Brainard and Sara confront Hoenicker and attempt to save Flubber, under the guise of accepting Hoenicker's offer. While there, they discover that Wilson is allied with the millionaire who wanted to sell it for a profit. Brainard and Sara then reveal their ruse and unleash Flubber, starting a battle between the villains and them. In the end, Brainard and Sara defeat Wilson, Bennett, Hoenicker, and his henchmen, retrieve Flubber, raise enough money to save the college, and finally have a successful wedding, along with Flubber and the "daughter" of Weebo, called Weebette. The film ends with the family heading to Hawaii in the Thunderbird, flying at an altitude of 30,000 feet. 

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Major Ivan Kuchenko (Martin Landau), a KGB agent who is attempting to defect, is trapped inside a hotel room in an unnamed, politically neutral country. Commissar Vassiloff (John van Dreelen), a hitman, and Boris (Robert Kelljan), his assistant, are watching Kuchenko from a room across the street. Vassiloff, who considers himself an artist, has an elaborate plan for Kuchenko's assassination. After Vassiloff tricks Kuchenko into drinking a sleeping drug, Kuchenko awakes to find a taped recording from Vassiloff in which he explains that he has booby-trapped an object in the room. If Kuchenko finds and disarms the object within three hours, he will be allowed to live; if he tries to leave the room before then or turn out the lights, he will be shot by Boris, an expert sniper. Vassiloff tells Boris he has hidden a lethal bomb in the telephone, but it will be triggered only by picking up an incoming call. Thus, when Kuchenko picks up the phone without it ringing, nothing happens. Kuchenko grows increasingly nervous and desperate as the ordeal continues, even begging Vassiloff to shoot him at one point. With ten minutes of time left, Vassiloff places a call to Kuchenko's room. Kuchenko puts his hand on the receiver, but hesitates. When Vassiloff tries to call him a second time, Kuchenko bolts out of the hotel room, narrowly escaping a spray of bullets from Boris. Later, Vassiloff and Boris enter the room to dispose of evidence. The telephone rings, and Boris and Vassiloff are both killed after Boris unthinkingly answers it. On the other end of the line is Ivan Kuchenko, calling from a phone booth at the airport. The operator tells him she is unable to reach his party, but Kuchenko states, "It’s alright, operator. I... I have reached them.” He then leaves to board a plane flying to New York City, as Vassiloff and Boris are shown lying dead amidst the rubble of Kuchenko's room. 

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A musical western, the story is set near the end of the American Civil War, with Orbison portraying a Southern spy with a bullet- shooting guitar given the task of robbing gold bullion from the United States Mint in San Francisco in order to help finance the Confederacy's war effort. 

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Sheriff Koch (Michael Constantine) cannot sleep the night before the execution of a man, as he feels conflicted about the situation. His wife Ella (Eve McVeagh) is no comfort as she snarls, "What time do they string him up; you know what I mean...what time does he get hung?" Her attitude represents the hateful sentiment of the town that looks forward to the fate of Jagger, a man who is to be hanged after being wrongfully convicted of killing a bigot in self-defense and who is unrepentant about the killing. On the day of his execution, the sun does not rise in the morning, and it seems that this is the only place in the world where this is true. There is still some dispute as to whether Jagger is guilty. The sheriff is conflicted, while the deputy is convinced Jagger is guilty; the latter accused of perjury by the town news reporter. At 9:00 AM, just before the hanging, it is still dark; the radio now reporting the darkness confined to this one small village. The sheriff admits he feels guilty because he didn't question the lack of autopsy of the victim, and didn't care that there were powder burns on the victim despite the deputy testifying that Jagger shot the victim from across a room. The sheriff wanted to be reelected, and as such went along with the status quo. However, Jagger is hanged anyway at 9:30, much to the delight of the town. The town clergyman, although a different faith and race than Jagger, steps in and says that he is thankful to him for having stood up for him in the past. The clergyman also reluctantly agrees to the execution, and the deputy says that for having gone along with the execution, that the clergyman has "seen the light". The clergyman replies that the sky is black because of all the hatred in the world, namely the hatred surrounding Jagger's execution. The sky becomes even darker after the execution. The deputy is convinced that the darkness is nothing more than fog, which will eventually lift, but neither the sheriff or reporter are convinced. Later, a radio broadcast reveals that the town is not the only place where this disturbance is happening. The sky has turned dark over North Vietnam, a section of the Berlin Wall, a political prison in Budapest, a section of Chicago, a street in Dallas, Birmingham, Alabama, a section of Shanghai and other places of hate around the world. 

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Samantha Madison lives in Washington, D.C and is a sophomore at John Adams Preparatory School. An outcast, she has only one friend, Catherine. Sam is a huge fan of Gwen Stefani and often laments that she is not more like Gwen, though she is against most other aspects of popular culture and dyes her entire wardrobe black because she is "mourning for her generation." A middle child, Sam often feels inferior because her older sister, Lucy, is a cheerleader, and therefore one of the most popular girls in school, and her younger sister, Rebecca, is so intelligent that she takes college-level classes at a school for gifted kids. Sam is very different from her traditional parents—her father is an international economist at the World Bank and her mother is an environmental lawyer. Sam also believes she is in love with Lucy's boyfriend Jack. Jack is the complete social opposite of big sister Lucy, having an artistic yet rebellious attitude to life and claiming that teenagers need to fight the system. Sam is an aspiring artist and draws celebrity portraits during her German class, which she has a C- in. Her sister Lucy finds out and shows them to the family at dinner. As a punishment, her parents decide to enroll her in bi-weekly art classes at local artist Susan Boone's studio. Sam goes to her first class where she is reprimanded by Boone for drawing what she knows and not what she sees. Offended, Sam decides to skip the next class choosing to occupy her time at the nearby Capitol Cookies and Static (a record store). While she is waiting for her housekeeper to pick up from art class, she notices a man she saw earlier at Static who was listening to Billy Joel's "Uptown Girl". The man turns out to be an assassin and as he takes a gun to shoot the President who is exiting Capitol Cookies, Sam jumps on him and causes him to misfire. She breaks her arm in the process as the man falls on top of her when she jumps on him. In the aftermath, Sam becomes a celebrity and is declared a national hero. She is also appointed Teen Ambassador to the United Nations. She is no longer a social outcast and becomes popular at school, where she receives numerous social invitations and even gets sucked up to by Kris Parks, her nemesis. When she meets the President, she also meets his son who turns out to be David from her art class at Susan Boone's. As she gets closer to David, she deals with her conflicting feelings for Jack—who she thought was her soulmate—and the President's son. 

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In the fall of 1954, the Kurtzmans, a Jewish family, live in Forest Park, a suburban neighborhood in the northwest section of Baltimore. Nate, the father, runs a burlesque theatre, and engages in a numbers racket. His wife Ada stays home and takes care of the household. Van, the older son, attends the University of Baltimore, while Ben is finishing his final year in high school. Ben meets Sylvia, an African-American girl, who begins attending his school after the district has been integrated. Ben immediately starts to develop feelings towards Sylvia, and introduces himself. The two become close based on a mutual love for Little Richard, James Brown, jazz, and black comedians. Sylvia's father, an affluent doctor, disapproves of their relationship and forbids them to see one another. On Halloween, Ben dresses up as Adolf Hitler, which offends his parents greatly. Van and his friends head over to a party in a predominantly bourgeois, gentile section of town. Van is attracted to a mysterious blonde woman. A fight between one of Van's buddies and a gentile erupts and Trey, one of the party-goers, drunkenly crashes his car into the house. Van must leave the mystery woman. Trey goes to court for the car crash. Van and his friends are there as witnesses. After the court session expires, Van asks several of the other party attendants about the blonde woman he met. Trey discovers that the girl Van has fallen in love with is Dubbie, Trey's own girlfriend. Meanwhile, Nate's burlesque theatre has problems. In order to boost returns on the numbers game, an additional bonus number is added which will increase the pay-off. Little Melvin, a local drug dealer, makes a large bet, defies expectations and hits the number. Unable to pay on such big win, Nate is forced to cut Melvin a 'slice of the pie'. When Nate offers Melvin the numbers business instead, Melvin claims that Nate is trying to "Jew" him out of his money and a fight breaks out between their bodyguards. Sylvia gives Ben two tickets to see James Brown & The Famous Flames in concert. At the concert Ben and his friend are the only white patrons in the audience. Van and his friends head out to a gathering, where he again runs into Dubbie and learns of her relationship with Trey. Little Melvin then spots Nate's car off of Pennsylvania Avenue in the African-American neighborhood where James Brown is in concert and after seeing Ben and his friend inside, he deduces that one of them must be Nate's son. After the concert, Melvin abducts Ben, Sylvia, and their friends from the concert in a payback to Nate's racket. Van has word that Trey is in surgery after a car accident. He and Dubbie go see him in Virginia. Nate and his associates at the nightclub are charged and booked with prostitution and racketeering. Before leaving for prison, he manages to attend Ben and Sylvia's high school graduation. She is attending Spelman College in Atlanta; he is staying to attend the University of Maryland. Ben's family is attending a Jewish ceremony as the father walks out of the synagogue and blows a kiss to his wife. 

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Harvey Swick is a 11-year-old boy bored with school, teachers, homework, and his day-to-day life. In response to Harvey's frustrated plea for change, a man named Rictus visits Harvey and tells him about a kid's paradise called the Holiday House. At the Holiday House, there are all the sweets a person could ask for, four seasons in a day, Halloween every evening, Christmas, with whatever gifts you could wish for every night, and everything else you could dream of. One week after his encounter with Rictus, Harvey hesitantly visits the house, entering through a wall of mist. Harvey stays at the Holiday House for 31 days, becoming friends with two other children staying alongside him, Wendell and Lulu. There is also a woman, Mrs. Griffin, who cooks all the meals for the children. She claims to have been there longer than anybody. And though she seems sweet, she appears to be keeping a secret about the house and its creator, Mr. Hood. Harvey eventually discovers that the house's creator, Mr. Hood, has sucked all of the children's souls away and turned them into fish, imprisoning them in the mysterious, dark, gloomy lake. Lulu is turned into a fish the night of Harvey's escape, but Harvey and Wendell still manage to flee the house by following a cat named Blue Cat through the mist barrier that constantly surrounds the property of the house at night. When both Harvey and Wendell come home, they soon discover that for every day they had spent in the Holiday House, one year had passed in the rest of the world. When Harvey meets his parents, he thinks he went to the wrong house, but he is wrong. His parents also realize who he is and invite him in. He takes a long nap and then tells them what happened. They go on the search of the House, but Harvey had forgotten all the roads he took coming home. They try all day, but Harvey and his parents can't find the house. Harvey's father finally decides to go to the police station. Harvey's mother decides to go out shopping and Harvey goes up to his room. When he is in his room, he sees Wendell in the street walking towards Harvey's house. Wendell tells Harvey that Wendell's mother is old, fat, and divorced. Harvey also tells Wendell what happened to him. They both think about what happened in the Holiday House and decide that the only way to regain their lost time is to return to the Holiday House. Upon doing so, Harvey learns that Hood runs the entire house on magic and illusions. Harvey defeats Hood by tricking him into using up all of his magic by wishing for as many things he can think of as fast as he can. With his power drained, an exhausted Hood allows Harvey one more wish. Harvey wishes for all the seasons at once, resulting in a furious lightning storm that burns down the house. Hood seems to perish in the fire, but he manages to rebuild a body from the debris of the house, and remarks at Harvey's courage. He contrasts Harvey with Wendell, who has succumbed to the House's lures and wishes to stay forever in a trance. Hood then offers Harvey, whom he calls "A Thief of Always," the chance to become a vampire with him and be immortal. Harvey refuses, and the confrontation ends with Mr. Hood being sucked into the lake, which has turned into a whirlpool. The children all leave the remains of the house to go back to their respective times. People * Harvey Swick'– An 11-year-old boy, who is straw-haired and brown-eyed, and impulsive, is bored with his everyday life and wishes to go to a place that is a kids' paradise. His wish is granted when Rictus enters through the bedroom window and persuades him to come to this kids' paradise known as the Holiday House and agrees to come. When he arrives, Harvey becomes flabbergasted by the magic and wonders the Holiday House possessed. Harvey then discovers when he stays in the world of the Holiday House, all of the years of his life are stolen by Mr. Hood and he himself has realized that he has stolen the lives of children, including one of his friends Lulu, must put an end to all of the dark magic of Mr. Hood, destroy the House and all of its pitiful creatures that hide in its shadows. Harvey is bored and frustrated with his life in the first chapter, but he's very observant, smart, clever, and kind and does everything to help his friends and the children become free from the Holiday House and discovers in the end that there's nothing more powerful than the love of his family and friends and is the brightest child in the story. *Rictus – One of four servants of Hood's. Rictus is six inches taller than Harvey, wears gentlemen's clothes, a tall brim hat, and wears spectacles. He's very thin, has yellowish skin, and has a grin that can stretch wider than any grin, resembling the bizarre Cheshire Cat from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Rictus's name means "a fixed grimace or grin." *Jive – One of four servants of Hood's. Jive's downfall occurs when he attempts to change Harvey's mind to stay at the Holiday House with pie and ice cream. Harvey tricks him by saying that the food's not real, but Jive unwillingly eats both plates of the pie and ice cream, which causes him to fall down and crawl on the stairs as he spews dirt and dust out of his mouth screaming for his master's help, and suddenly turns to a pile of dirt and dust. Jive's name means "deceitful or worthless." *Marr – One of four servants of Hood's. A grotesquely overweight female who is said to resemble a slug. Marr possesses the unique ability to manipulate human flesh into whichever shape she desires (similar to how one would mold clay). Marr's downfall occurs when Harvey forces her to see herself as the wretched slob that she is. Marr melts into a puddle of brackish, fleshy liquid. Marr's name is similar to the word "mar" which means to "impair the appearance of; disfigure." *Carna – One of four servants of Hood's. Carna's name could be alluding to the word "carnivore", which means "an animal that feeds on flesh."Carna is not a human. *Wendell – A naive, obnoxious boy who loves to be in the Holiday House and becomes friends with Harvey. At some point in the book, he becomes obese due to the food in the house, and wants to stay in the house, but ultimately leaves when the house burns down. *Lulu – A girl about the same age as Harvey, who's been there longer than both he and Wendell. She has a room full of Christmas presents, as she has been there for months. She eventually has her soul taken by Mr. Hood. *Mrs. Griffin – The housekeeper, and a fantastic cook. She has been there longer than anyone and seems to know more than she lets on. *Mr. Hood – The owner of the Holiday House and is a part of the house. *The Holiday House – The place where every day is perfect, and children can go to live out the rest of their lives if they are not careful. *Blue Cat – Owned by Mrs. Griffin, who according to Mrs. Griffin, "has a good sense of direction" and helped Harvey and Wendell leave the holiday house. Blue Cat also dies because once Wendell and Harvey leave, Mr. Hood kills it. *Clue Cat – Owned by Mrs. Griffin, who happened to die during lunch from burning alive due to a number of factors. *Stew Cat – Owned by Mrs. Griffin. 

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Decades prior to the book's opening, a magical race known as the Seerkind combined all of their powers to create a secret world known as "the Fugue", a carpet into which they wove their most beloved locations, animals, possessions and themselves as a safe haven. Their aim was to avoid persecution by humans (who call them demons and fairies) and eradication by a destructive being known as the Scourge. This creature's nature is entirely unknown to the Seerkind, as no-one has survived to describe it. The Fugue, resembling an ordinary, albeit exquisitely woven, carpet is left in the care of a normal woman, Mimi Laschenski, who married one of the Seerkind and resides in Liverpool, England. Mimi reaches old age and is hospitalised following a stroke. A young man named Calhoun Mooney, chasing an escaped homing pigeon, accidentally glimpses the Fugue hidden in the carpet, which profoundly affects him. Simultaneously, Mimi's granddaughter Suzanna Parrish, arrives in the city at Mimi's behest. The mystery surrounding Mimi and the full potential of the carpet brings Cal and Suzanna together and quickly into confrontation with the primary antagonists: Immacolata, an exiled and extremely powerful Seerkind bent on revenge; Shadwell, a human salesman with limitless ambition; and Hobart, a conscientious policeman. Cal and Suzanna acquire new allies and abilities in their goal of protecting the Fugue from destruction, venturing into it themselves twice. When Shadwell's actions result in the Fugue's seemingly total obliteration, the surviving Seerkind scatter. In a last desperate attempt to finish them, Shadwell locates and awakens the Scourge, which begins systematically destroying any and all traces of magic it can find. Cal, Suzanna and their remaining allies make a final stand against Shadwell by using his own tactics against him and convince the Scourge to abandon its cause and leave the planet in peace. In the aftermath, a severely traumatised Cal is cared for by Suzanna whilst their friends adjust to permanent life amongst humanity. Eventually, Cal emerges from his withdrawal with the knowledge of how the Fugue is still alive and can be restored to its full glory. 

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An unnamed man rides out of the desert into the isolated mining town of Lago in Inyo County, California in the American Old West. Three men follow him into the saloon, taunting him, then follow him to the barbershop. When they challenge him, he kills all three with little effort. Townswoman Callie Travers deliberately bumps into him in the street, knocks his cigar from his mouth, and loudly insults him. He drags her into the livery stable and rapes her. That night, in his hotel room, the Stranger dreams of a man being brutally whipped. The dream morphs into a flashback in which Jim Duncan, a federal marshal, is whipped to death in front of the hotel by outlaws Stacey Bridges and brothers Dan and Cole Carlin as the citizens look on. The next day, Sheriff Sam Shaw approaches the Stranger and offers him the job previously held by the men he killed: defending the town from Bridges and the Carlins, who are about to be released from jail. He declines. Shaw, in desperation, offers him anything he wants in return. The Stranger learns that the townspeople were complicit in Duncan's murder; they hired the outlaws to kill him after he discovered that the town's only source of income, the mine, was on government land. They then double-crossed the hired murderers and turned them in. Upon learning this, the Stranger accepts the job and takes full advantage of the deal. He appoints barbershop employee Mordecai as sheriff and mayor, and provides a Native American and his children with supplies at the shopkeeper's expense. He orders the hotel owner and his guests to vacate the premises, leaving him its sole occupant. The hotel owner, Lewis Belding, and his wife Sarah, object. Callie and some of the resentful townsmen conspire to do away with the Stranger. Callie and the Stranger have sex in his room but Callie later sneaks out thinking he's asleep. This is when some of the townspeople go after the Stranger in his hotel room, only to be blown up when he tosses a stick of dynamite into the room while they are beating a dummy in the bed, which wrecks most of the hotel as well. He drags Sarah, kicking and screaming, into her bedroom and they sleep together. The next morning, while discussing the imprisoned murderers, Sarah tells the Stranger that Duncan cannot rest in peace because he is buried in an unmarked grave outside of town. The Stranger instructs the townspeople in defensive tactics, but they lack the competence for the job. He also orders that every building in town be painted blood red. Then, without explanation, he mounts his horse and rides out of town, pausing to replace "Lago" on the town sign with "Hell". Meanwhile, Bridges and the Carlins have been released from prison and are heading to Lago. The Stranger harasses them with dynamite and long-range rifle fire, leaving them to ponder the identity of their attacker. Returning to Lago, the Stranger inspects the preparations—the entire town painted red, townsmen with rifles stationed on rooftops, picnic tables laden with food and drink, and a big "WELCOME HOME BOYS" banner overhead—then he remounts and departs again. The Bridges gang arrives and easily overcomes the inept resistance of the townspeople. Bridges shoots several of the civic leaders who double-crossed them. By nightfall the town is in flames, and the terrified citizens are huddled in the saloon with the Bridges gang, who taunt them. A sound is heard in the street; Cole Carlin, while standing by the entrance to the saloon, is caught by a whip around the throat, dragged outside and everyone listens as he is whipped to death. Dan Carlin is then found dead, too, hanging from another whip. As Bridges investigates, the Stranger appears, beats Bridges to the draw, and kills him. On his way out of town the following morning, the Stranger pauses at the cemetery as Mordecai is finishing a new grave marker. "I never did know your name", Mordecai says. "Yes, you do", the Stranger replies. As he rides past a bewildered Mordecai to vanish into the desert heat haze, the writing on the new grave marker is revealed: Marshal Jim Duncan – Rest in Peace. 

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King Edward IV of England (Sir Cedric Hardwicke) has been placed on the throne with the help of his brother, Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Sir Laurence Olivier). After Edward's coronation in the Great Hall, with his brothers George and Richard watching, he leaves with his wife and sons. Richard contemplates the throne, before advancing towards the audience and then addressing them, delivering a speech that outlines his physical deformities, including a hunched back and a withered arm. He goes on to describe his jealousy over his brother's rise to power in contrast to his lowly position. He dedicates himself to task and plans to frame his brother, George, Duke of Clarence (Sir John Gielgud), for conspiring to kill the King, and to have George sent to the Tower of London, by claiming George will murder Edward's heirs. He then tells his brother he will help him get out. Having confused and deceived the King, Richard proceeds with his plans after getting a warrant, and enlists two ruffians (Michael Gough and Michael Ripper) to carry out his dirty work: George is murdered, drowned in a butt of wine. Though Edward had sent a pardon to Richard, Richard stopped it passing. Richard goes on to woo and seduce the Lady Anne (Claire Bloom), and though she hates him for killing her husband and father, she cannot resist and ends up marrying him. Richard then orchestrates disorder in the court, fueling rivalries, and setting the court against the Queen consort, Elizabeth (Mary Kerridge). The King, weakened by exhaustion, appoints his brother, Richard, as Lord Protector, and dies soon after hearing of the death of George. Edward's son, soon to become Edward V (Paul Huson), is met by Richard whilst en route to London. Richard has the Lord Chamberlain, Lord Hastings (Alec Clunes) arrested and executed, and forces the young King, along with his younger brother the Duke of York (Andy Shine), to have a protracted stay at the Tower of London. With all obstacles now removed, Richard enlists the help of his cousin the Duke of Buckingham (Sir Ralph Richardson) to alter his public image, and to become popular with the people. In doing so, Richard becomes the people's first choice to become the new King. Buckingham had aided Richard on terms of being given the title of Earl of Hereford and its income, but balks at the idea of murdering the two princes. Richard then asks a minor knight, Sir James Tyrrel (Patrick Troughton), eager for advancement, to have young Edward and the Duke of York killed in the Tower of London. Buckingham, having requested his earldom at Richard's coronation, fears for his life when Richard (angry at Buckingham for not killing the princes) shouts "I am not in the giving vein today!" Buckingham then joins the opposition against Richard's rule. Richard, now fearful because of his dwindling popularity, raises an army to defend his throne and the House of York against the House of Lancaster, led by Henry Tudor (Stanley Baker), the Earl of Richmond and later Henry VII of England, at Bosworth Field (1485). Before the battle, however, Buckingham is captured and executed. On the eve of the battle, Richard is haunted by the ghosts of all those he has killed in his bloody ascent to the throne, and he wakes up screaming. Richard composes himself, striding out to plan the battle for his generals, and gives a motivational speech to his troops. The two forces engage in battle, with the Lancastarians having the upper hand. Lord Stanley (Laurence Naismith), whose loyalties had been questionable for some time, betrays Richard, and allies himself with Henry. Richard sees this and charges into the thick of battle, side-by-side with his loyal companion Sir William Catesby (Norman Wooland) to kill Richmond and end the battle quickly. Eventually Richard spots Richmond and they briefly engage in a duel before being interrupted by Stanley's men. Richard and Catesby are able to escape the oncoming forces, but, in doing so, Richard is knocked off his horse, loses his cherished crown, and becomes separated from Catesby, who is off seeking rescue. Searching desperately for Richmond, whom he has lost sight of, Richard cries out: "A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!" Catesby finds the king and offers him withdrawal, but Richard refuses to flee. Catesby is then killed by Richmond's men without Richard noticing. Richard then spots Lord Stanley, and engages him in single combat. Before a victor can emerge, the Lancastarian troops charge Richard, and fatally wound him. The wounded murderous king convulses in spasms, offering his sword to the sky, and eventually dies of his wounds. Stanley orders Richard's body to be taken away and then finds Richard's crown in a thorn bush. He then proceeds to offer it to Henry, leaving the crown of England in safe hands once again. 

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Jonathan West (Cooper) is an unsuccessful Irish ventriloquist. He is perpetually broke, selling valuable keepsakes like his grandfather's watch to pawnbrokers in exchange for petty cash. At the boarding house where he lives, he is mercilessly taunted by a little girl, Susan (billed as Susanne Cupito), for failing to find a job. But unbeknownst to everyone, Jonathan's evil ventriloquist dummy, "Little Caesar", has a mind of his own and talks to him at will. Despite Jonathan's reassurances that they are on the verge of a big break, Caesar apathetically tells him that they've hit bottom. When Jonathan and Caesar go to a nightclub for an audition, the performance is poorly received. The following day, Jonathan is unable to find employment because of his lack of vocational experience and immigrant status; he may soon leave the boarding house because he is behind on his rent. Caesar berates Jonathan for being a hopeless "clod", but has a solution to his money woes: burglary. A reluctant Jonathan—directed by Caesar in his suitcase—breaks into a delicatessen and steals its money. Jonathan uses it to pay his rent, but Caesar, during a conversation overheard by Susan, pressures him into committing more burglaries. Susan—now aware that Caesar can talk—sneaks into Jonathan's room in his absence to unsuccessfully speak with the dummy. Jonathan catches her coming out of the room and runs her off. Inside, Jonathan expresses a desire to flee, but Caesar cajoles him into carrying out the next burglary. The duo sneaks into the nightclub to break into the manager's office. However, they are caught by a night watchman after they steal money from the nightclub's safe. They manage to bluff their way past him by giving an impromptu routine. When Jonathan and Caesar arrive home, Susan eavesdrops on their ensuing argument. The next morning over breakfast, Susan hears her aunt, Mrs. Cudahy, read about the nightclub theft from a newspaper. She calls the police to tip them off about Jonathan and Caesar. Two detectives arrive at the boarding house and interrogate Jonathan, who tries to make Caesar talk about his role in the crime. The dummy, however, remains silent. Mrs. Cudahy and the detectives stare at the one-sided exchange, thinking Jonathan mad. Jonathan now realizes that Caesar has abandoned him, and is willingly arrested. After the detectives lead Jonathan out of the room, Caesar turns his head around and addresses Susan. He says that he likes her for her "hip attitude" and offers to help her run away to New York City. Caesar assures Susan that Jonathan will now be gone "for a long, long time" and that the two of them are now "a team." Finally, Caesar implies that Susan should kill Mrs. Cudahy with poison darts. 

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In South Vietnam, medics are examining Pip Phillips, a wounded soldier. The medical officer says Pip's case is hopeless and it is only a matter of time before he will die. In the United States, Pip's father Max, a bookie, suckers a young man into placing $300 on a bad bet. The man comes to him for help, saying that he made the bet on loaned money and will go to jail if he doesn't get it back. Max returns the $300, but his boss notices the discrepancy in the books and summons both Max and the debtor to his office. As the young man is strong-armed into returning his bet, Max receives a telegram about Pip's condition. Max vocally rues the time he spent working as a bookie instead of being a father to his son, and returns the money to the debtor. He tells him to run and threatens his boss and his underling with a knife. The underling shoots Max but Max is still enraged by his son's fate and uses his knife to kill both men. Wounded, he stumbles outside towards a closed amusement park and is surprised to see Pip at age 10. The two have some fun and redress Max's near-constant absence from his son's life, with Max teaching Pip how to shoot at a shooting gallery. Pip runs off into the house of mirrors, and Max follows. When Max finds him, Pip explains that he is dying and vanishes. Max prays to God and offers to trade his own life in exchange for Pip's. He collapses and dies on the midway. Some months later, the adult Pip is seen at the park, now walking with the aid of a cane. Max's former landlady is also there with her granddaughter and recalls Max's love for his son. Pip visits the shooting gallery, remembering the wonderful times he had as a child with his father and his father's advice to work the gun and not the jaw. He proclaims that his father was "[his] best buddy" as he begins to play the shooting game. 

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An Inuk hunter kills a Christian missionary who rejects his traditional offer of food and his wife's company. Pursued by white policemen, the Inuk saves the life of one of them, resulting in a final confrontation in which the surviving cop must decide between his commitment to law enforcement and his gratitude to the Inuk. The film's themes include Inuit survival in the extreme arctic wilderness, as well as their raw existence and struggle to maintain their lifestyle against encroaching civilization. 

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US cover of Mariel of Redwall 

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Joe Moore (Gene Hackman) runs a ring of professional thieves, which includes Bobby Blane (Delroy Lindo), Don "Pinky" Pincus (Ricky Jay) and Joe's wife Fran (Rebecca Pidgeon). During a robbery of a New York City jewelry store, Joe's face is captured by a security camera after he takes off his mask in an attempt to distract the store's last remaining employee. As both the picture and a witness can identify him, Joe retires from crime and plans to disappear on his sail boat with his wife. This does not sit well with Joe's fence, Mickey Bergman (Danny DeVito), who runs a garment business as a front. After accruing a number of expenses in setting up another robbery, Bergman decides to withhold the payment due to Joe and his crew. He insists they go through with the other job — robbing an airplane carrying a large shipment of gold. Bergman further insists that his nephew, Jimmy Silk (Sam Rockwell), be a part of the crew. Joe accepts, but a series of shifting loyalties changes the complexity of their task, including Jimmy's interest in Joe's wife and Bergman and Jimmy's belief that Joe's skills are declining. They attempt to rob the plane twice. In their first attempt, while setting up explosive devices along the border of the airport, they are stopped by a passing officer. While Joe and Bobby talk the officer into leaving, an agitated Jimmy draws his gun but is stopped by Pinky. He forces his team out of finishing the job after he finds out that Pinky didn't destroy the getaway car, covered in the team's fingerprints. Bergman doesn't accept the team's departure and forces them to finish the job. The plane robbery is a series of misdirects. Pinky poses as a guard while Joe, Bobby, and Jimmy pose as airport security personnel. They stop the jet, pretending to be responding to an emergency. They fill a van with what they take from the plane, then move the van to a rented garage on the airport grounds, where they re-brand it and call for a tow truck to have it hauled away. Jimmy betrays the others to steal the gold and Fran. He knocks out Joe and tells Fran he knew Joe changed the plan, including Fran seducing him. He and Fran take the van, but Jimmy finds out that the hidden compartments are filled with metal washers. Joe avoids arrest and returns to the plane in disguise. He and Bobby remove a shipment of goods they had booked on board the same Swiss flight, which they insist now must be driven to its destination due to the plane's delay. Inside the shipment is the stolen gold, which Joe and Bobby melt into long rods. Bergman apprehends Pinky, who is walking his niece to the school bus. Pinky discloses the plan in order to save his niece, though he is killed after. Bergman and his crew arrive at Joe's sail boat along with Jimmy and Fran, where they hold Joe at gunpoint. They assume that the boat's golden railings are the gold. Fran leaves with Jimmy, pleading with Bergman to let Joe go. Just as Bergman discovers that the railings are not the gold, a hidden Bobby opens fire. Bergman's men are killed and Joe kills Bergman. Bobby gives Joe the address to send his share. Joe waits to meet Fran with a truck filled with black-painted rods. Fran has taken up with Jimmy for real and they take the truck from Joe at gunpoint. Joe gets into a second truck to leave. A black bar in the truck scrapes the garage door, revealing gold underneath. Joe lifts a tarp in the truck bed, revealing the gold rods. He covers the rods with the tarpaulin and drives away. 

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Sheriff J.P. Harrah rides into the town of El Dorado to talk to his old friend, gun-for-hire Cole Thornton, who has just arrived in response to a mysterious job offer from wealthy landowner Bart Jason. Harrah reveals to Thornton that Jason is actually trying to muscle the honest MacDonald Family off their land. Thornton agrees to turn down the job and rides out to Jason's ranch to tell him so. Kevin MacDonald and his family hear about Thornton's arrival, and fear the worst. The youngest son, Luke, is made sentry, but falls asleep behind a rock. As Thornton returns from his confrontation with Jason, Luke is startled awake and fires. Thornton reflexively fires back and wounds Luke in the stomach. Luke commits suicide before Thornton can stop him, believing his wound fatal. Feeling guilty, Thornton brings the body to the farmhouse and tells Kevin what happened. The only daughter of the MacDonald clan, Joey, rides off before she can hear the truth, and shoots Thornton on his way back to town. Thornton spares Joey's life, but the bullet has lodged against his spine. The local doctor doesn't have the skill to remove it, so Thornton heals and departs, despite the protests of local saloon owner Maudie, who has feelings for him. Doc Miller warns Thornton a skilled surgeon should remove the bullet soon. As time goes on, Thornton suffers bouts of temporary paralysis in his right side. Six months later, Thornton is in a saloon out of town, having avoided El Dorado out of guilt, when he witnesses a young man, "Mississippi" Traherne, confronting famed gunslinger Nelse McLeod, because McLeod's right hand man Charlie killed his foster father. Thornton has to step in to save the naive youngster, who has literally brought a knife to a gunfight. McLeod is impressed and offers Thornton a job, revealing that he's accepted Jason's job offer. He also says that Harrah is no longer a threat. Thornton refuses, and he and Mississippi return to El Dorado ahead of McLeod to find out the truth. In El Dorado, Maudie reveals that Harrah has become a helpless drunk 2 months prior after a girl ran out on him, and Harrah's deputy Bull confirms this. After a fist fight with the drunken Harrah, Thornton agrees to use one of Mississippi's sobering concoctions to bring Harrah round, with violently effective results. Harrah, ashamed of the laughingstock he's become, agrees to stay sober. After three men shoot one of the MacDonald's, Thornton, Bull, Mississippi and Harrah hunt the men into an old church and gun them down. One man escapes, leading them straight to Jason, whom Harrah arrests and holds for trial. Mississippi stops Joey from killing Jason on the walk back to the jail, and the two begin a relationship. Bull officially deputizes Mississippi and Thornton. They patrol the town to keep the peace, stopping an attempted attack by McLeod's gang on the jail in which Harrah is crippled by a bullet to the leg. Maudie brings them some supplies while they are holed up in the jail, and McLeod's men start harassing her and her patrons. Thornton and Mississippi go to rescue them, but Thornton suffers an attack of paralysis and is captured by McLeod. Harrah agrees to trade Jason for Thornton and leave town, despite Thornton's protests. Jason and McLeod's men kidnap Saul MacDonald and demand that Kevin turn over his water rights for the return of his son. Rightly suspecting Jason will kill both Saul and Kevin once he has the water rights, Thornton, unable to walk, rides a wagon up to the front door of Jason's Saloon while Harrah, Bull, and Mississippi sneak in the back. Bull distracts the men with a bugle call and Thornton opens fire, killing McLeod and several others while the rest ambush from behind and free Saul MacDonald. Joey takes out Jason personally, saving Thornton from being shot in the back, and telling him she felt she owed him after her previous mistake. Doc Miller's new assistant, Dr. Donovan, agrees to operate on Thornton if he stays in town, and Thornton implies he may give up wandering to stay with Maudie. 

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Late in 1969, a brilliant young United States Navy intelligence officer, Charles Rone, finds his commission revoked so that he can be recruited into an espionage mission. Rone is told that the mission is being undertaken independently of governmental intelligence agencies, as was commonplace prior to World War II, when espionage operations were handled by a small community of agents operating on a freelance basis. Rone is told that the primary operator in that community, a "brutal, sadistic, conscienceless assassin" named Robert Sturdevant, did not adapt to the post- war shift to government intelligence agencies, along with the disbanding of the independent network of spies, with Sturdevant disappearing and reportedly later committing suicide. Now, the government has suffered a significant failure in an important intelligence operation and has turned back to the independent agents for help. This time, "The Highwayman", another member of the old group of independent spies is the man leading the effort to reassemble the network to take on this mission. Another member of the group has recently died, and Rone has been tabbed as his replacement, due to Rone's exceptional analytical skills, eidetic memory and ability to speak eight languages with a native accent. Rone meets with The Highwayman and another group member, Ward, the latter of whom takes on the role of Rone's primary tutor. They first task Rone with rounding up three other members of the group: Janis, "The Whore", a drug dealer and panderer, "The Warlock", a culturally sophisticated homosexual, and "The Erector Set", a highly skilled thief and burglar. Janis begs off of the mission, saying that he won't work for The Highwayman, but only for Sturdevant, whom he believes would never have killed himself. Rone finally bribes him into agreeing to participate. The Warlock joins the operation without hesitation, but The Erector Set's hands have become too arthritic to be of use. Instead, he sends his beautiful daughter, B.A., in his place, as he has trained her to be as capable as is he. The group's mission is the retrieval of a letter, written without proper authorization, that promises United States aid to the Soviet Union in destroying Chinese atomic weapons plants. The letter had been solicited on behalf of an unknown high-level Soviet official by Dmitri Polyakov, who had previously been selling Soviet secrets to the United States that he had obtained from that same Soviet official. Upon finding out about the letter, which was a de facto "declaration of war against China", U.S. and British authorities had contacted Polyakov and arranged to buy it back from him. However, Polyakov then committed suicide after being apprehended by Soviet counter-intelligence, under the direction of Colonel Yakov Kosnov. The group blackmails Captain Potkin, the Soviet head of counter-intelligence in the U.S., threatening his family to force him to allow them the use of his usually-vacant apartment in Moscow. Once they arrive in the Soviet Union, the terminally ill Highwayman sacrifices his life, attempting to divert the attention of Soviet counter-intelligence away from the remainder of the team. Rone is assigned to remain at the apartment with Ward and accept reports verbally from other team members, Rone's memory allowing them to avoid the use of written records. Janis, The Warlock and B.A. then set out to establish themselves in various parts of Russian society as they try to ascertain the identity of Polyakov's contact. Janis enters a partnership with a local brothel operator, who points him to a Chinese man known as "The Kitai" as a possible source for names of officials and others to whom he can sell heroin, with which Janis already plans to keep the prostitutes addicted. Janis later discerns that the Kitai is also a spy and further happens to spot Kosnov leaving a local night club with a woman whom he discovers was Polyakov's devoted wife, Erika Beck. She is now married to Kosnov, so B.A. plants a listening device in their bedroom. After that, B.A. takes up with a local small-time thief and black market operator, though she finds herself terribly unhappy and wishes only to return home to her father. In the meantime, the Warlock integrates himself into the local community of intellectual homosexuals, starting an affair with a university professor. He then meets one of the professor's students who was Polyakov's former lover and who informs him that Polyakov had had a relationship with Vladimir Bresnavitch of the Soviet Central Committee. Bresnavitch turns out to have an adversarial relationship with Kosnov, whose activities Bresnavitch oversees on behalf of the Committee. According to Kosnov, the animosity between the two men went back many years to when Bresnavitch sought to oust Kosnov from his job, in favor of Sturdevant. Prior to that time, Kosnov and Sturdevant had been friendly, with each one trusting the other to allow his agents to operate in the other's territory. However, with the pressure from Bresnavitch, Kosnov decided he had to do "something spectacular" to keep his job, so he betrayed Sturdevant's trust and captured his agents, employing a great deal of brutality and earning the lasting enmity of Sturdevant himself. Upon deducing that Bresnavitch had used Polyakov to fence stolen art works in Paris, Ward decides to go there in search of any possible leads. On the day of his return, the group's mission is destroyed when Potkin returns to the Soviet Union and informs Bresnavitch about the operation. Janis, B.A. and Ward are apprehended, while The Warlock commits suicide just before capture and Rone narrowly escapes. Rone tries visiting the Kitai to arrange re-purchase of the letter, but the Kitai responds by trying to kill him and Rone determines that the Chinese have possession of the letter. Rone then turns to Erika, with whom he has been having an affair while posing as a Russian gigolo named Yorgi. He hopes to get her to inquire with her husband about the condition of those captured. She informs him that Kosnov participated in no such capture, and Rone realizes that Bresnavitch quietly orchestrated the raid without the knowledge of Soviet counter-intelligence, a clear indicator that he was Polyakov's traitorous high-level Soviet official contact. Rone's questions reveal to Erika his true identity and he promises to help her escape to the West. She tells him she will try to ascertain the fates of the captured agents and later reports back that B.A. has taken poison and is expected to die, while one of the men is dead and the other has survived and is being held captive. Rone threatens to expose Bresnavitch unless Ward, the surviving agent, is released. Bresnavitch agrees, and Rone and Ward then arrange to leave the next day. Disapproving of Rone's plans to aid Erika, Ward lures her into a trap and kills her. Kosnov believes that her lover Yorgi killed her and tracks down Rone, though unaware of Rone's true identity, in search of revenge. But Ward enters, leading Kosnov to observe that "I seem to know you." Ward says that the two men have "a lot of old corpses to dig up and talk about." He begins listing the names of the agents betrayed by Kosnov and says that the time has come for retribution, as he shoots Kosnov in the kneecap. Kosnov stares at Ward in disbelief, saying "No, it isn't. It can't be." Ward then closes on him off-camera and Kosnov begins screaming in torment. As they head for a plane to leave the country, Rone shares with Ward his conclusions that Ward is in fact Sturdevant and intends to stay, having made a deal with Bresnavitch to take over as the head of Soviet counter-intelligence. Ward denies it, but only coyly, and then reveals that B.A. is not dead. He says that she will be held to ensure that Rone does not reveal the truth about him. Rone, very much in love with B.A., vows that he'll get her back somehow. Ward offers to release B.A. if Rone does "one last little thing", handing Rone an envelope as Rone boards the plane. After seating himself, Rone opens the envelope to find a note which reads, "Kill Potkin's wife and daughters or I kill the girl." 

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Leonora, a prostitute, is despondent over the death of her daughter. Cenci, a lonely young woman, follows Leonora to the cemetery and strikes up a conversation with her, inviting her home. A resemblance to Cenci's late mother becomes obvious once Leonora notices a portrait. Cenci, who is 22 but looks and acts much younger, asks Leonora to stay. A lie is told to her aunts, Hilda and Hannah, that Leonora is actually Cenci's late mother's cousin. Cenci is found one day cowering under a table. Albert, her stepfather, has paid a visit. Cenci is terrified of him, claiming that Albert had raped her. Leonora is repelled by the man's presence until Albert tells her that Cenci is mentally unstable and had repeatedly tried to seduce him. On a beach one day, Cenci and Albert have sexual relations. A despondent Cenci commits suicide. At the funeral, Leonora now knows whom she chooses to believe. After standing beside Albert in silence during the burial, Leonora produces a knife and stabs him. The film ends with Leonora lying in a dingy apartment, listlessly hitting the cord of a ceiling lamp, reciting a poem about perseverance. 

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An unmarried mother (Edna Purviance) leaves a charity hospital with her newborn son; a short scene shows that the baby's apparent artist father (Carl Miller) has lost interest in her. With much anguish the mother abandons the child, placing him in an expensive automobile, with a handwritten note: "Please love and care for this orphan child". Two thieves steal the car and leave the baby in an alley, where he is found by The Tramp (Charlie Chaplin). After some slapstick attempts to hand the child off to various passersby, he finds the note and his heart melts. He takes the boy home, names him John and adjusts his household furniture for him. Meanwhile, the mother has a change of heart and returns for her baby but she learns that the car has been stolen and faints. Five years pass. The Kid (Jackie Coogan) and the Tramp live in the same tiny room; they have little money but much love. They support themselves in a minor scheme: the Kid throws stones to break windows so that the Tramp, working as a glazier, can earn money repairing them. Meanwhile, the mother has become a wealthy actress. She does charity by giving presents to poor children. By chance, the mother and the Kid cross paths, but of course do not know each other. The Kid later gets into a fight with another local boy as people in the area gather to watch the spectacle. The Kid wins, drawing the ire of the other boy's older brother, who attacks the Tramp as a result. The Mother breaks up the fight, though the Tramp still beats the "Big Brother" over the head with a brick repeatedly until he walks away. Shortly afterward, the Mother advises the Tramp to call a doctor after the Kid falls ill. The doctor discovers that the Tramp is not the Kid's father, and notifies authorities. Two men come to take the boy to an orphanage, but after a fight and a chase, the Tramp and the boy remain side by side. When the Mother comes back to see how the boy is doing she encounters the doctor, who shows her the note (which he had taken from the Tramp); she recognizes it as the one she left with her baby years ago. Now fugitives, the Tramp and the boy spend the night in a flophouse. Its proprietor learns of a $1000 reward offered by the authorities and takes the Kid to the police station, while the Tramp is asleep. As the tearful Mother is reunited with her long-lost child, the Tramp searches frantically for the missing boy. Unsuccessful, he returns to the doorway of their humble home, where he falls asleep. He enters "Dreamland," where his neighbors have turned into angels and devils. He is awakened by a policeman, who leads him away, taking him to a mansion. The door is opened by the Mother and the Kid, who jumps into the Tramp's arms. The policeman congratulates the Tramp and the Mother welcomes the Tramp into her home. 

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Russ Duritz works as a successful but abrasive image consultant in Los Angeles and has a strained relationship with his father. One of his clients is a stadium manager who is reneging on a previous promise to fund a baseball camp for disadvantaged children. When Russ makes a pie-throwing video to fabricate an explanation, his coworker Amy urges him to reconsider. When Russ returns home to find a toy plane on his porch, he assumes it is a gift from his father. However, inside he finds a strange boy, and chases him through the streets. After seeing the boy enter Skyway Diner, Russ runs in and finds no sign of him. Believing the experience to be a hallucination, Russ frantically sees a psychiatrist for medication the next day, but finds the same boy on his couch eating popcorn and watching Ed, Edd n Eddy when he returns home. The boy says his name is Rusty, that he was just searching for his toy plane, but came across the popcorn. Starting to see a resemblance, Russ begins comparing memories and birthmarks with Rusty, and figures out that the boy is actually himself as a kid. After a series of probing questions about Russ' life, Rusty tells him, "I grow up to be a loser." Rusty has always dreamt about owning a dog naming Chester and flying planes as a pilot, but Russ gave up on those dreams when he got older. Amy finds out about the boy the next day and starts to think that Russ and Rusty are father and son. After she accuses Russ of being a dead-beat dad, Rusty assures her he is not Russ’ son. Rusty implores Russ to tell Amy the truth about their identities, but Russ thinks she'd never believe them. Amy discovers the truth on her own while watching the two argue; Russ and Rusty are nearly identical in style, and intensity. When Amy finds out that Russ lied about airing the stadium manager's tape, she gets mad at him and leaves disappointed. Rusty has been asking about what happens next, how he became Russ. Russ tells him about his achievements that he had excellent grades and won a scholarship to UCLA, working to get a master's degree for six years and changed himself to who he is. Rusty understands about Russ's job as an image consultant, that he changes people and pretends to be somebody they are not. Russ cancels his appointments the following day, and spends the time walking with Rusty, and driving around the city trying to figure out why Rusty is there, and what from the past needs to be fixed to get Rusty back home. As they drive through a tunnel, Russ recalls a fight he lost with some neighborhood bullies who were abusing a three-legged dog named Tripod. They emerge from the tunnel to find themselves reliving Rusty's eighth birthday in 1968. Russ helps Rusty win the fight and save Tripod, but suddenly remembers that, because of the fight, his sick mother also came to school for him that day. When they get home, Rusty's father angrily shakes and scolds him for getting into trouble and causing his mother more stress. Rusty cries while attempting to tell his father that he found a screw he lost, but his father tells him to grow up while rubbing Rusty's tears away harshly, causing a lifelong facial tic and how Russ grew to be a total jerk. Russ tells Rusty that his mother will die before his next birthday, then comforts him. Tearfully, Russ tells Rusty that his father's outburst was because his dad was scared that he didn't know how to raise him alone, and also assures Rusty that he was not responsible for his mother's death. The two go to Skyway Diner, and celebrate their birthday. When a dog named Chester greets Rusty, they find out that his owner is an older version of Russ who owns planes, their dream dog Chester and has a family with a woman who is clearly an older version of Amy. Realizing that Rusty's appearance was meant to change his ways rather than the other way around, Russ returns to his time, arranges plans to see his father, buys his assistant tickets to Hawaii, and, with a puppy, returns to Amy, who invites him into her home. 

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In 1880, a gambler in the small town of Rincon, 100 miles from Denver, Colorado is caught cheating at a five-card stud poker game. The players, led by the volatile Nick Evers, take the cheating gambler to hang him. One of the players, Van Morgan, tries to prevent the others from administering frontier justice, but is unable to stop the man's lynching. Morgan leaves town, but later returns when he hears that a couple of the other players from that ill-fated game have become victims of grisly murders. The town has a new resident, a stern and somewhat edgy Colt .45-carrying Baptist preacher named Reverend Rudd. As more members of the lynch mob are killed off one by one, it becomes clear that someone is taking revenge, and it is up to Morgan to solve the mystery. Finally, only he is left. He discovers the identity of the killer just in time. 

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1939, Bodega Bay Inn, California: An old puppeteer named André Toulon is putting the finishing touches on his newest puppet, Jester, before he brings it to life. Two Nazi spies get out of a car and head for Toulon's room while Kahn, another living puppet, warns him. Toulon calmly places all the animate puppets in a chest and hides it in a wall panel compartment. As the Nazis break down the door, Toulon shoots himself in the mouth. 1989: four psychics miles apart are all "contacted" by Neil Gallagher, all five of them previous being acquaintances: Professor Alex Whitaker through a nightmare involving Neil and leeches, Dana Hadley via a premonition of her own death, and Frank Forrester & Carissa Stamford, two psychic researchers through unspecified means. Dana has also uncovered André Toulon's "hiding place" and tells the others, arranging a meeting at the Bodega Bay Inn, where Neil resides. Upon arrival, they are surprise to find that not only does Neil has a wife, Megan, but that he has also killed himself, leaving instructions for Megan on the others’ arrival. She leaves them with the body to pay respects and Dana stabs a long pin into Neil's corpse to verify that he is in fact dead. While getting settled into their rooms, the psychics experience different confusing visions of Neil. That night at dinner, Dana purposefully upsets Megan, causing her to leave the table and Pinhead, another animated doll, crawls out of Neil's casket. Alex follows Megan and tells her their history with her husband. Carissa, a psychometrist, can see any object's emotional history by touching it, Dana can tell fortunes and locate items and people, and Alex himself can foresee the future in his dreams. Neil was researching alchemy and with Frank's help discovered that Ancient Egyptians has created a method of reanimating to inanimate figurines, a power also discovered by André Toulon, the last true alchemist. But because Neil had not made contact with them in a while, Dana and the rest think he abandoned them and took whatever he was looking for himself, and they are there to take it and settle the score. That night, Theresa the housekeeper attends to the fire and is attacked by Pinhead with a poker fulfilling Dana's fortune for her. Gallagher's body has moved to a chair which Megan finds, causing her to faint; Alex attends to her while the others return the body to the casket. After Blade finds protective spells on Alex's and Dana's rooms he moves on to Carissa and Frank's, who are having very loud sex and disrupting Alex and Dana's sleep. Two more puppets, Tunneler and Leech Woman, enter. Tunneler kills Carissa by drilling into her face when she inspects a noise coming from under the bed and Leech Woman vomits leeches onto Frank, who's tied to the bed, draining his blood. Coming back from a walk, Dana finds Gallagher's body in her room and she is attacked by Pinhead, who breaks her leg. Pinhead chases her and repeatedly strangles and punches her until she manages to knock him away and crawl to the elevator, only to have her throat cut by Blade, fulfilling her fortune. Alex suffers more nightmares, eventually woken by Megan, who shows him André Toulon's diary and tells him that Neil found Toulon's secret to reanimation. Alex has a vision of Neil and they rush downstairs to escape but find the bodies of Dana, Frank, and Carissa sitting around the dining table accompanied by the newly resurrected Neil. He explains that did commit suicide, but he used Toulon's secrets to become reanimate himself in an effort to become immortal. He admits to killing Megan's parents and expresses disgust for the puppets, violently throwing Jester, but is satisfied that he now has human puppets to experiment with. The other puppets see this attack and descend on Neil; Tunneler takes out his legs and Blade pins him down while Leech Woman vomits a leech into his mouth and Pinhead finally breaks his neck. The next day, Megan sees Alex off and as she ascends the stairs, she brings Dana's stuffed dog to life. 

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Glamorous assassin Irma Eckman (Elke Sommer), disguised as an air stewardess, kills oil tycoon Henry Keller (Dervis Ward) with a booby-trapped cigar aboard his private jet, parachuting away before the plane explodes. She is picked up by a speedboat driven by her partner in crime, the equally beautiful Penelope (Sylva Koscina). The villainous pair then murder David Wyngarde (John Stone), making it look like a spear fishing accident. Sir John Bledlow (Laurence Naismith), one of the directors of Phoenecian Oil, suspects that both deaths were the result of foul play; he had received an urgent message from Wyngarde that he needed to get in touch with Keller regarding a "matter of life and death". He asks Wyngarde's friend, Hugh "Bulldog" Drummond (Richard Johnson), to investigate. A representative of an unknown party had approached Phoenecian and offered to overcome Keller's opposition to a merger with Phoenician within six months for one million pounds. Irma shows up at a board meeting to collect. However, the board is divided – with Henry Bridgenorth (Leonard Rossiter) being the most vocal in opposition – and the vote is five to four against paying. That night, Irma and Penelope visit Bridgenorth at his apartment, with fatal results. When the board reconvenes, the directors vote unanimously to pay. Carloggio (George Pastell), Wyngarde's servant, delivers a tiny bit of a taped message Wyngarde had recorded. Only part of one sentence remains (the assassins stole the rest). Irma and Penelope silence Carloggio, then Penelope delivers a box of deadly cigars to Drummond's flat while he is out. Brenda (Virginia North), a girl Drummond's nephew Robert (Steve Carlson) has brought back to the flat, narrowly escapes the same fate as Keller. Later that night, another attempt is made on Drummond's life. The next day, Irma makes Phoenecian another proposition: to get them the oil concession in the country of Akmata, despite the King's determination to develop the oil fields himself, for another million pounds. Drummond realises that the King's assassination is what the garbled tape was referring to. Meanwhile, Penelope abducts and tortures Robert, but he can tell her nothing. Drummond follows Irma back to their flat and is able to rescue Robert before he is blown up by a bomb left behind by the two women. He is then astonished to discover that Robert is an old college friend of the Akmatan King Fedra (Zia Mohyeddin). Irma does away with Weston (Nigel Green), another Phoenecian board member. Drummond travels to the Mediterranean coast. After meeting and warning King Fedra, he is invited to a castle owned by the wealthy Carl Petersen, the genius behind the assassinations. It turns out that Petersen is none other than Weston. Drummond is not allowed to leave the castle. Grace (Suzanna Leigh), one of Petersen's women, confides her desire to leave to Drummond, but Petersen is watching and listening electronically. Irma attempts to seduce Drummond to distract him, but to her fury, he rejects her advances. Penelope is more successful and spends the night in Drummond's bed. Petersen gives Grace a "second chance"; she uses the opportunity to board the King's yacht as soon as she has the chance, just as Petersen had planned. While playing chess against Petersen with giant motorized pieces, Drummond learns that Grace is unwittingly carrying the bomb intended for the King. He kills Petersen's bodyguard Chang (Milton Reid) and drops Petersen into the hole through which a chess piece is removed from play. Drummond and Robert race to the King's yacht, capturing Irma and Penelope along the way, and bringing them along. When Irma and Penelope refuse to tell him where the bomb is hidden, Drummond searches Grace for the explosive, finally stripping her naked and throwing her overboard. When the guard holding Irma and Penelope at gunpoint is distracted by this, the pair escape. As they race away in a speedboat, Irma reveals that the bomb is in Grace's hairclip. Penelope is aghast; having envied Grace's chignon, she stole it and is wearing it. The two assassins are killed when it explodes. Meanwhile, Drummond and Robert dive into the sea to rescue Grace. 

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A series of inexplicable accidents befall the development of the world's first supersonic airliner, the SST1 – a man falls victim to a homicidal air stewardess (an uncredited Maria Aitken) and two women (Yutte Stensgaard and an uncredited Joanna Lumley) perform separate acts of sabotage during tests. The Air Ministry calls on Hugh "Bulldog" Drummond (Richard Johnson) to investigate. Aided by ditzy American blonde Flicky (Sydne Rome), Drummond uncovers a plot by criminal mastermind Carl Petersen (James Villiers), who stands to gain eight million pounds if the aircraft is not ready by a certain date. Petersen, assisted by beautiful but deadly assassins Helga (Daliah Lavi) and Pandora (Beba Lončar), has developed a number of robots: beautiful girls with electronic brains to help him sabotage the SST1 project by means of infrasound (sound waves with too low frequency to be detected by the human ear) which can be directed at people or objects with devastating results. After the initial sabotage attacks by Peterson's robots, Helga and Pandora begin systematically murdering various people associated with the SSTI, such as engineer Dudley Mortimer (Maurice Denham) and Miss Mary (Robert Morley), a spy who runs a cooking class as a front for his activities. Helga makes contact with Drummond at a shooting party, and attempts to kill him by planting a bomb in his telephone after sleeping with him. Then Helga and Pandora try to kill Drummond again by sabotaging a glider fight, having cut the ripcord from his parachute. Drummond manages to manually open his parachute and escape death. The trail leads Drummond to North Africa, following up on a lead on an infrasound- powered powerboat, where he is assisted by Peregrine Carruthers (Ronnie Stevens) from the British Embassy. Pandora kills the boat owner with a miniature infrasound device, but is thwarted in her attempt to steal the boat. Drummond and Peregrine decide to drive the powerboat in a scheduled race: Helga and Pandora also participate in the race and successfully capture the men and the boat, delivering them all to Petersen at his island headquarters, staffed by an army of his female robots, including the defective but endearing No. 7 (Vanessa Howard). Drummond and Peregrine are also reunited with Flicky, who has successfully infiltrated Petersen's organisation. Over dinner, Petersen reveals the full details of his plan to use infrasound technology to sabotage the SST1's maiden flight. That night, Drummond sleeps with Helga once more, while Pandora contents herself with seducing Peregrine. In the morning, Drummond attempts to retrieve the infrasound powerboat and is met by Flicky, who tells him she is actually a CIA agent assigned to help him. They are caught by Helga – Drummond escapes but Helga holds Flicky at gunpoint. Petersen sends his robots to search the island for the runaway agent – Drummond is cornered by No. 7, but to his surprise, she deliberately chooses not to reveal his location. Peregrine and Flicky are held hostage in Petersen's control room and are forced to witness the SST1's destruction as he puts his plan into action. Drummond scales the wall of Petersen's hideout, and saves the SST1 from destruction by using Petersen's infrasound waves against him, destroying his control room. Petersen, Pandora and Helga are all apparently killed in the explosion. Drummond, Flicky, Peregrine and No. 7 escape the subsequent mayhem, having retrieved the infrasound device. Flicky reveals herself to be a double agent working for the Russians and escapes on the powerboat with the device. Peregrine, wanting to improve his Russian relations, decides to go with her. As the base finally explodes, Drummond finds comfort in the arms of the beautiful No. 7, who turns out not to be a robot after all. 

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Inventor Frederick Smith's wife dies during the birth of their fourth baby, Ronnie, leaving the family in the care of their faithful housekeeper Emma. Twenty years later, after Smith's inventions have made the family rich, the affable Ronnie, who is Emma's favorite, arrives home from college, announcing that he wants to quit school and become a pilot. The other Smith children, Bill, Gypsy and Isabelle, have all grown into spoiled adults, but Emma lovingly indulges them all, making excuses for their bad behavior to their father and everyone else. As Emma leaves for her first vacation in 32 years with the family, the absent-minded Frederick sadly takes her to the station. She gets cold feet and decides to stay home, but Frederick won't let her and decides to go along with her to Niagara Falls. Waiting for their train, Frederick proposes and Emma accepts, even though she is afraid that people will talk. When the children learn about the marriage, Ronnie is happy for them, but the other children are embarrassed by the blot on their social record. On their honeymoon, as the happy Frederick and Emma row on the lake, they are teased by some young vacationers, prompting Frederick to take the oars from Emma. The exertion causes a mild heart attack and they return home. As the contented Frederick listens to Emma sing to him, he dies, and a short time later, the family learns that he has left his entire estate to Emma. Though Emma wants to give the money back to the children, all of them except Ronnie turn on her and threaten to prove that their father was crazy when he wrote the will. Emma throws them out and awaits the lawsuit they threaten while the loyal Ronnie goes to Canada for a flying assignment. Because the will cannot be broken, the children go to the district attorney to have him bring murder charges against Emma, using distorted testimony by Mathilda, the maid. When Ronnie hears about the trial, he desperately flies East to help Emma but is killed while flying through a dangerous storm. Even though her life is in peril, she won't allow her kind attorney Haskins to defame the character or motives of the children. Her emotional plea for them in court results in her acquittal, but Emma's relief is ruined when she learns of Ronnie's death. A short time later, Emma gives all of the money to the children, telling Haskins that she hopes that now they will think better of her. After she sadly views Ronnie's body, Isabell, Bill and Gypsy beg her forgiveness and want her to stay with them, but she refuses, saying that her work with them is finished, but no matter what happens or where they all are, they will still belong to each other. At a new position, Emma happily attends a doctor's large family and is pleased when the wife agrees to name her new baby Ronnie at Emma's request. 

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Unlike the play Joan of Lorraine, which is a drama that shows how the story of Joan affects a group of actors who are performing it, the film is a straightforward recounting of the life of the French heroine. It begins with an obviously painted shot of the inside of a basilica with a shaft of light, possibly descending from heaven, shining down from the ceiling, and a solemn off-screen voice pronouncing the canonization of the Maid of Orleans. Then, the opening page of what appears to be a church manuscript recounting Joan's life in Latin is shown on the screen, while some uncredited voiceover narration by actor Shepperd Strudwick sets up the tale. The actual story of Joan then begins, from the time she becomes convinced that she has been divinely called to save France to her being burnt at the stake at the hands of the English and the Burgundians. 

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In the final phase of the Pacific War, the Imperial Japanese Army were developing a gigantic robot "Tetsujin 28-go" as the secret weapon to fight against the Allies. However, Japan surrendered before they could complete its construction. After the war, Dr. Kaneda (the developer of Tetsujin 28-go) passed his robot to his son Shotaro Kaneda. 

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Sport Sharewood (Mary Badham) and her younger brother Jeb (Jeffrey Byron) live in a large, expensive house, but their parents are cold, ill- tempered, self-centered, and constantly bickering with each other. While Sport and Jeb are sitting beside their swimming pool, Whitt (Kim Hector), a young boy in a straw hat, pops up from the deep end of the pool and invites them to follow him. The children dive underwater only to come back up in a swimming hole bordering a rustic, simple homestead. An assortment of children are playing in the yard. In contrast to their lavish home of neglect and insults, they are welcomed and loved from the moment they arrive at this humble children's paradise. There is only one adult there, "Aunt T." (Georgia Simmons), a kind and patient elderly woman who loves children. She explains that she has many children there who came from parents who did not deserve them. Sport and Jeb go home, for fear that their parents will be worried. "Aunt T." advises them that they likely will not be able return as few children can find their way back. But Jeb later returns to Aunt T's, and Sport is sent by her mother to go and find him because she has something to tell them about some decisions that are made that will make all their lives better. Sport finds Jeb at Aunt T's but he refuses to go back. Sport convinces him by telling him that their mother has promised everything will be better; he reluctantly agrees to return with her. Back home their parents inform them they are planning to divorce and they must decide which parent they will live with. The children refuse and dive back into the pool, and are able to escape. When they do not reemerge, their father jumps in to rescue them, but discovers they have disappeared. Sport and Jeb are now happily living with Aunt T. Sport hears the distant and remorseful voice of her mother, but ignores it and focuses on her new life. 

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Astronaut Colonel Adam Cook (Richard Basehart) crash lands on a strange planet with gravity and atmospheric conditions similar to those of his home world. Most of his equipment is destroyed in the crash and cannot be repaired due to a broken right arm and lack of resources. He contacts his home base, but they have little encouragement for him; there is no replacement spacecraft to rescue him, and his home planet may be at war in a matter of hours. They promise to send instructions on how to repair his ship. From base, General Larrabee (Harold Gould) reports that the enemy attacked and destroyed their entire coast in 12 minutes, after which they retaliated. Those at base will have to move soon, meaning Cook will not have anyone to contact. Cook leaves his ship at night and finds drawn patterns in the dirt. While looking for the source, he is hit by a rock from an unseen source, and knocked unconscious. During this time, General Larrabee sends his last transmission to Cook reporting that the radiation from the attacks will kill any remaining survivors, so Cook can expect no rescue. Upon regaining consciousness, Cook returns to his ship and is startled by a noise coming from a closet. Cook leaves the ship as a gesture showing that he means the alien no harm. A human-like female (Antoinette Bower) emerges from his ship. Not knowing each other's languages, they communicate through sketches in the sand and pantomime. He learns that she is also stranded; her planet left its orbit and she is its sole survivor. Her name is Norda. As they ready to look for food, Cook picks up a stick, which Norda interprets as a threat. She scratches his face and runs. Soon after, Norda returns and expresses remorse for her actions, which Cook happily forgives. They find a more fertile area, which Cook likens to a "garden." He fully introduces himself as "Adam Cook" and Norda gives her full name as "Eve Norda". Adam and Eve begin a new life on this planet she calls "Earth." At this point she offers him a "seppla" (an anagram of the word "apples", which are artistically depicted as the biblical forbidden fruit). As they venture further, Rod Serling narrates that he presumes the place they are heading to is Eden. 

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When the Environmental Protection Agency fines Mr. Burns $3 million for dumping nuclear waste in a Springfield park, a town meeting is held on how to spend the money. Following a few suggestions—including a proposal from a poorly-disguised Burns to invest the money back into his power plant—Marge nearly succeeds in advocating for the repair of the town's rundown roads, but a fast-talking salesman named Lyle Lanley leads a song-and-dance routine that convinces the townspeople to instead build a monorail. After running a questionable training program, Lanley randomly selects Homer to be the monorail's conductor. Doubtful about Lanley, Marge visits his office and discovers his intention to run off with money skimmed from the project while the townspeople fall victim to a faulty train. Marge drives to the town of North Haverbrook, a previous purchaser of one of Lanley's monorails. She discovers the town to be in ruins, and, despite the advertisements for it everywhere stating otherwise, the townsfolk fearfully deny their monorail's existence. She meets Sebastian Cobb, the engineer who designed Lanley's North Haverbrook monorail, who explains Lanley had embezzled construction funds through shoddy workmanship and materials, confirming that his monorail projects, including the Springfield one, are all scams. Cobb offers to help Marge prevent Springfield from suffering the same fate. At the Springfield monorail's inaugural run, Lanley arranges for a well- attended opening ceremony as a diversion while he escapes on a plane heading to Tahiti. When the flight makes an unexpected stopover in North Haverbrook, the townsfolk storm the aircraft to attack Lanley for ruining the town. Back in Springfield, the monorail leaves the station just before Marge and Cobb arrive and the controls malfunction from Lanley's sabotage, causing the solar- powered train to over-speed around the track, endangering Homer, Bart, and the passengers, including Leonard Nimoy. As Chief Wiggum and Mayor Quimby argue over who takes charge, Marge and Cobb contact Homer by radio and Cobb tells him he will need to find an anchor to stop the train. Improvising quickly, Homer pries loose the metal "M" from the engine's side logo, ties a rope to it, and throws it from the train. After damaging a large portion of the town—especially the already-derelict roads—the "M" catches on the giant doughnut of the Lard Lad Donut store's sign and the rope holds, stopping the monorail. As the passengers are rescued, Marge narrates that the town never again embarked on such a foolish project, then follows with a list that contradicts her statement consisting of a skyscraper made from Popsicle sticks, a 50 foot-tall magnifying glass, and an up-escalator that leads to nowhere. 

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The novel opens with a framing device wherein we are shown what is happening in the London home of the dying novelist at the beginning of World War I. One of the servant staff in James' house has taken a crude but sincere interest in discovering what her employer's books are all about and takes to reading one of his more famous stories, "The Beast in the Jungle". This story, whose hero is obsessed by a paranoid belief that his life will be marked by an unknown catastrophe, provides the opening for the novel proper to begin. Now we proceed back in time to the middle years of James' life and are introduced to a large and interesting group of James' literary acquaintances from his period of expatriation in England. Among those we meet are George du Maurier, George Bernard Shaw, H.G. Wells and Robert Louis Stevenson. The long and productive friendship between James and du Maurier is described in great detail, including the story of du Maurier's deteriorating eyesight which threatens his livelihood as a cartoonist for the magazine Punch. He is finally driven to write fiction himself and he astonishes James and the entire literary world by producing the bestselling novel Trilby. Much of Lodge's book is built upon James' own obsession with attracting a larger readership than his opaque books have yet garnered and the success of Trilby both baffles and annoys him. Meanwhile, James is writing prolifically himself with little comparable financial or critical success. We are given a long and funny account of James' humiliating quest to write a popular play for the London stage. There is an ironic and entertaining distance set up here between James' feelings of failure and inadequacy and what we now know about his final reputation. While du Maurier and Trilby have all but faded from the public view, James' body of work has continued to attract readers worldwide and his position as one of the most important figures in literature is now secure. In this sense, the novel can be seen as both an homage and as an artistic attempt to rescue the historical James from his own feeling of obscurity. The book also includes a portrait of the friendship that James formed during this time with the American author Constance Fenimore Woolson. Lodge suggests that their relationship had a romantic (but unconsummated) dimension. As in real life, Woolson commits suicide while traveling in Italy and this leads James to wonder what connection, if any, there might have been between her death and her feelings for him. Lodge's depiction of their relationship allows him subtly to explore James' alleged lifelong virginity and to conjecture somewhat about his notorious prudishness. 

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The US east coast is suddenly struck by a type of a massive destructive force of nature usually only happening after a major earthquake in the Pacific and Indian Ocean rims: tidal waves of the destructive tsunami type. Scientist and fiction author John McAdams is forced to attend a type of Department of Homeland Security conference which concludes the phenomenon must be man-made, quite possibly abusing the findings of John's secret former Sea Lion project, but leaves questions of who wants to and has the means unanswered. Indeed, John and his colleague Sophie, a Québécois, soon find John set up for a murder of a potential whistleblower and are pursued by The FBI, Maine State Police and a pair of foreign ruthless assassins. Major destruction means major contracts for construction and coastal defenses, so building tycoons like Victor Bannister certainly have a considerable interest. The movie is two part mini-series originally aired in The UK. 

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Chow Sing-Sing (Stephen Chow) is about to be disqualified from the Royal Hong Kong Police's elite Special Duties Unit (SDU) because of his complete disregard for his teammates during a drill. However, a senior officer, who has taken to Sing's youthful demeanor, instead deploys him as an undercover student into Edinburgh College to recover a stolen revolver. Sing, who turned to the Police Academy because of his dislike for schooling, struggles to fit in academically. The undercover operation is made complicated when Star is partnered with Tat—an aging, incompetent police detective (Ng Man-Tat). However, Star still manages to fall in love with Ms Ho (Cheung Man), the school's guidance counselor, as well as disrupting a gang involved in arms-dealing. 

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Several rabbits are eating carrots and ruining crops. Another rabbit warns them to evacuate by saying "Jiggers, fellers!". Soon, Porky and his dog meet this rabbit and try to outwit him in the forest. Porky and the rabbit get in a long, long fight and soon the hare thinks he has won the battle. However Porky finds the rabbit and he doesn't have any brainstorms to protect him. The rabbit shows Porky a photo of himself and of how many children he has with his wife. However, when Porky's about to shoot him, the gun fails. After Porky attempts to shoot down and procure the rabbit, he asks Porky: "Do you have a hunting license?" As Porky reaches for his pocket to obtain the document, the hyper-hare suddenly snatches it out of Porky's grasp, rips it in two, remarks, "Well you haven't got one now!" and makes a getaway by twisting his ears as though they were a helicopter propeller, flying away. But Porky suddenly throws a rock at the hovering hare which sends him crashing into a haystack. He emerges from the stack, appearing injured, but fakes it and then goes marching like one of the spirits of '76. Ultimately the rabbit wins when Porky throws dynamite into the cave in which the rabbit is hiding and he throws the dynamite back at him. Later, Porky is in the hospital and the rabbit comes to him with some flowers. Porky tells the rabbit that he'll be out in a few days. "That's what YOU think!", the rabbit declares, then pulls on the anvil in Porky's bed, adding to his injuries and runs off into the forest laughing. 

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A young girl, Jarmila, has been seduced by a man who is killed by his own son, Vilém; the latter is a robber known as the "terrible forest lord". On the evening of 1 May, sitting on a hill by a lake, she awaits his coming, but is instead told by one of Vilém's associates that her lover sits across the lake in a castle, to be executed for the murder. While he waits, he ponders on the beauty of nature and his young life. The next day, he is led to a hill where he is decapitated; his mangled limbs are displayed in a wheel fastened to a pillar, and his head is placed on top of the pillar. Seven years later, on 31 December, a traveler named Hynek comes across Vilém's pallid skull and the next day is told the story by an innkeeper. Years later, on the evening of 1 May, he returns and compares his own life to the month of May. Example Byl pozdní večer – první máj – Večerní máj – byl lásky čas. Hrdliččin zval ku lásce hlas, Kde borový zaváněl háj. O lásce šeptal tichý mech; Květoucí strom lhal lásky žel, Svou lásku slavík růži pěl, Růžinu jevil vonný vzdech. Jezero hladké v křovích stinných Zvučelo temně tajný bol, Břeh je objímal kol a kol; A slunce jasná světů jiných Bloudila blankytnými pásky, Planoucí tam co slzy lásky. Translation (artistic) Late evening, on the first of May— The twilit May—the time of love. Meltingly called the turtle-dove, Where rich and sweet pinewoods lay. Whispered of love the mosses frail, The flowering tree as sweetly lied, The rose's fragrant sigh replied To love-songs of the nightingale. In shadowy woods the burnished lake Darkly complained a secret pain, By circling shores embraced again; And heaven's clear sun leaned down to take A road astray in azure deeps, Like burning tears the lover weeps. 

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Jeremy Collier is a returning Vietnam War hero whose experiences leave him unable to adjust to the quiet realities of small town life. Bob Collier, Jeremy's father, expects his son to go back to his life as it was, without understanding the problems of PTSD. Jeremy's mother, Maurine, treats him "like he's a 10-year-old," and seems to think he should forget about his war experiences. His sister Karen is more understanding of his readjustment problems, but their father doesn't want her to help her brother. When the family's Thanksgiving celebration occurs Jeremy refuses to put on his "nice" clothes and instead decides to wear his combat uniform and medal. At the conclusion of the Thanksgiving celebration, Jeremy pulls his handgun on his father and his family, explaining the hate he feels for his father because he wouldn't lend Jeremy money to leave the country to escape the draft. 

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On the outskirts of a wind-swept Arizona cattle town, an aggressive and strong-willed saloonkeeper named Vienna (Joan Crawford) maintains a volatile relationship with the local cattlemen and townsfolk. Not only does she support the railroad being laid nearby (the cattlemen oppose it), but she permits "The Dancin' Kid" (Scott Brady) (her former amour) and his confederates to frequent her saloon. The locals, led by John McIvers (Ward Bond) and egged on by Emma Small (Mercedes McCambridge), a onetime rival of Vienna, are determined to force Vienna out of town, and the hold-up of the stage (they suspect, erroneously, by "The Dancin' Kid") offers a perfect pretext. Vienna faces them down, helped by the mysterious and just arrived Johnny Guitar (Sterling Hayden). McIvers gives Vienna, Johnny Guitar, and "The Dancin Kid" and his sidekicks 24 hours to leave. Johnny turns out to be Vienna's ex-lover and a reformed gunslinger whose real name is Johnny Logan. A smouldering love/hate relationship develops. The Dancin' Kid and his gang rob the town bank to fund their escape to California, but the pass is blocked by a railroad crew dynamiting a way in, and they flee back to their secret hideout behind a waterfall. Emma Small convinces the townsfolk that Vienna is as guilty as the rest, and the posse rides to her saloon. Vienna appears to be getting the best of another verbal confrontation when one of the wounded bank robbers, Turkey (Ben Cooper), is discovered under a table. Emma persuades the men to hang Vienna and Turkey, and burns the saloon down. At the last second Vienna is saved by Johnny Guitar. Vienna and Johnny escape the posse and find refuge in The Dancin' Kid's secret hideaway. The posse tracks them down, and the last two of Kid's men are killed by infighting. A halt is called to the bloodbath by the posse's leader, McIvers. Emma challenges Vienna to a showdown and shoots Vienna in the shoulder; The Dancin' Kid calls to Emma but is killed by a bullet to the head by an angered Emma. Vienna then shoots Emma in the head. The posse allows Johnny and Vienna to leave the hideout in peace, watching them go. 

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During a visit to Europe, Simon Templar (alias "The Saint") befriends a rich American whose son was recently murdered in New York City; the culprit went free due to police and courtroom corruption. Templar is given an offer he can't refuse: $1 million if he goes to New York and deals out his unique brand of justice to evildoers in that city. The book begins with the New York Police Department receiving a letter of warning from Scotland Yard Chief Inspector Claud Eustace Teal, indicating that Templar, after being inactive for six months (presumably since the events of The Saint Goes On), has relocated to the United States. The letter is accompanied by a dossier on Templar's career thus far (Charteris proceeds to give new readers a brief summary of past adventures dating back to the first Saint novel, 1928's Meet - The Tiger!). When an accused cop-killer is found shot to death, the NYPD knows the Saint has arrived in New York. After Templar rescues a child who has been kidnapped by a mob boss (assassinating the gangster in the process), the whole city learns that the Saint is on the job. Templar's ultimate goal is to discover the identity of the city's main kingpin who is known only as "The Big Fellow". Templar is abducted by one of the remaining crime lords and two corrupt, high-ranking New York City officials offer him $200,000 to reveal who is backing him. Templar claims to be working on his own, and the crime lord orders Templar to be taken for the proverbial "ride". Templar is taken to a remote location in New Jersey but manages to escape his fate thanks to the intervention of Fay Edwards, a beautiful young woman who happens to be a cold-blooded killer, and who claims to be working for The Big Fellow. Simon Templar and Fay Edwards fall in love with each other, in a completely Platonic way (they exchange only two kisses and exchange only a few words) which seems nevertheless very deep and poignantly emotional. (On his return to London, in the last page of the book, Templar would refuse to tell Patricia Holm about his American experiences.) The Saint eventually learns that he is being manipulated into killing off certain crime bosses in order that The Big Fellow will not have to split a $17 million cache of blood money that was going to be shared among the gangsters. In effect, rather than being a daring and idealistic vigilante, as he thought of himself, Templar finds that he had been made into a gangland hit man – and very much dislikes to see himself in such a role. And when the Big Fellow's identity is finally revealed, he ends up being the last person Templar would suspect. 

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While dancing at a New Year's party, the Saint spots an agent of Valerie Travers preparing to shoot someone, so Templar guns him down first at the stroke of midnight. Templar is placed by witnesses at the scene, so the San Francisco police request the assistance of Inspector Henry Fernack (Jonathan Hale) of the NYPD. Before Fernack can leave, the Saint arrives in New York and accompanies him to the West Coast. Travers' father had been a police inspector whose efficiency caused trouble for a mysterious criminal mastermind named Waldeman. When a large sum of money was found in his safe deposit box, however, he was fired on suspicion of working for Waldeman and committed suicide. Travers is determined to clear his name by any means necessary. The Saint takes up her cause, despite her hostility for his interference in her plans and her suspicions about his motives. Templar gets the cooperation of the police commissioner, over the objections of Chief Inspector Webster and criminologist Cullis, who wonder if the Saint is Waldeman himself. Templar and Travers cross paths again when the trail leads to Martin Eastman, a noted philanthropist and seemingly-irreproachable citizen, whom they both suspect is linked to Waldeman in some way. Templar forces Travers and her gang to drive away, all except her burglar, Zipper Dyson. Templar gets Dyson to open Eastman's safe and takes the money inside. The serial numbers confirm that it was stolen in a robbery perpetrated by Waldeman. When Eastman contacts Cullis instead of reporting the theft, Templar knows that Cullis is also working for Waldeman. With that information, not only does the Saint exonerate Travers' father, he also identifies Waldeman. 

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The film is set "deep in the heart of Transylvania" and the story appears to take place sometime during the mid-19th century. Professor Abronsius, formerly of the University of Königsberg, and his apprentice Alfred are on the hunt for vampires. Abronsius is old and withering and barely able to survive the cold ride through the wintry forests, while Alfred is bumbling and introverted. The two hunters come to a small village seemingly at the end of a long search for signs of vampires. The two stay at a local inn full of angst-ridden townspeople who perform strange rituals to fend off an unseen evil. While staying at the inn, Alfred develops a fondness for Sarah, the overprotected daughter of the tavern keeper Yoine Shagal. Alfred witnesses Sarah being kidnapped by the local vampire lord Count von Krolock. Crazed with grief and armed only with a bunch of garlic, Shagal attempts to rescue her but does not get very far before he is captured, drained of his blood and vampirised. After Shagal rises and attacks Magda, the tavern's beautiful maidservant and the object of his lust when he was still human, Abronsius and Alfred follow his trail in the snow, which leads them to Krolock's ominous castle in the snow- blanketed hills nearby. They break into the castle but are trapped by the Count's hunchbacked servant, Koukol. They are taken to see the Count, who affects an air of aristocratic dignity while questioning Abronsius about why he has come to the castle. They also encounter the Count's son, the foppish (and homosexual) Herbert. Meanwhile, Shagal, no longer caring about his daughter's fate, sets up his plan to turn Magda into his vampire bride. Despite misgivings, Abronsius and Alfred accept the Count's invitation to stay in his ramshackle Gothic castle, where Alfred spends the night fitfully. The next morning, Abronsius plans to find the castle crypt and destroy the Count by staking him in the heart, seemingly forgetting about the fate of Sarah. The crypt is guarded by the hunchback, so after some wandering they attempt to climb in through a roof window. However, Abronsius gets stuck in the aperture, and it falls to Alfred to complete the task of killing the Count in his slumber. At the last moment his nerve fails him and he cannot accomplish the deed. Alfred then has to go back outside to free Abronsius, but on the way he comes upon Sarah having a bath in her room. She seems oblivious to her danger when he pleads for her to come away with him, and informs him that a ball is to take place this very night. After briefly taking his eyes off her, Alfred turns to find Sarah has vanished into thin air. After freeing Abronsius, who is half-frozen, they re-enter the castle. Alfred again seeks Sarah but meets Herbert instead, who first attempts to seduce him, and then, after Alfred realizes that Herbert's reflection does not show up in the mirror, reveals his vampire nature and attempts to bite him. Abronsius and Alfred flee from Herbert through a dark stairway to safety, only to be trapped behind a locked door in a turret. As night is falling, they become horrified witnesses as the graves below open up to reveal a huge number of vampires of various past centuries at the castle, who hibernate and meet once a year only to feast upon any captives the Count has provided for them. The Count appears, mocking them and tells them their fate is sealed. He leaves them to attend the ball, where Sarah will be presented as the next vampire victim. The hunters escape by firing a cannon at the door—substituting steam pressure for gunpowder—and come to the ball in disguise, where, although exposed by their reflections in a huge mirror, they are able to grab Sarah and escape. Fleeing in a horse-drawn sleigh, Abronsius and Alfred are unaware that it is too late for Sarah, who has already been transformed into a vampire. She awakens in mid-flight as a vampire and bites Alfred, thus allowing vampires to be released into the world. 

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In a noisy print shop, a disgraced police detective named Hofmeister (Karl Meixner) escapes from pursuing criminals' attacks. Hofmeister telephones his former superior Inspector Karl Lohmann (Otto Wernicke) and explains frantically that he has discovered a huge criminal conspiracy. Before he can disclose the identity of the responsible criminal, the lights go out, shots are fired, and Hofmeister becomes mad. Hofmeister vanishes only to be found later singing every time he feels watched, and he is institutionalized at the asylum run by Professor Baum (Oscar Beregi Sr.). Professor Baum introduces the case of Dr. Mabuse (Rudolf Klein-Rogge), the criminal mastermind and hypnotist who ten years earlier went mad. Mabuse spends his days frantically writing detailed plans for crimes while a criminal gang is committing them according to "the plans of the Doctor", with whom they confer only from behind a curtain. When Baum's colleague Dr. Kramm (Theodor Loos) by chance discovers that recent crimes implement Mabuse's writings, Kramm is shot by the gang's execution squad, Hardy (Rudolf Schündler) and Bredow (Oskar Höcker). A clue scratched in a glass window pane at Hofmeister's crime scene causes Lohmann to suspect Mabuse. On arrival at the asylum, Baum reveals that Mabuse has died. When Lohmann disparagingly talks about "Mabuse the criminal", Baum emphatically speaks about "Mabuse the genius", whose brilliance would have destroyed a corrupt world. Baum continues to study Mabuse's writings and communes with the ghost of Dr. Mabuse. The spirit of Mabuse speaks about an "unlimited reign of crime" and merges with the Professor's silhouette. During the same night, a hidden figure confers with sections of his organisation, preparing various crimes such as an attack on a chemical plant, robbing a bank, counterfeiting, poisoning water and destroying harvests. One of the gang members, Thomas Kent (Gustav Diesel), is conflicted between his criminal work, which he needs to do for money, and his affection for a young woman named Lilli (Wera Liessem). Lilli, devoted to Kent, begs him to confide in her. Kent finally confesses his past and his current situation to her. The two decide to inform the police but are abducted and locked in the strange meeting room with the curtain. The hidden figure announces their death when they discover that the curtained alcove contains only a loudspeaker and that there is a time bomb. After several escape attempts have failed, they flood the place to lessen the impact of the explosion and break free when the time bomb goes off. Meanwhile, the police are besieging a flat where several gangsters, including Hardy and Bredow, are staying. After a shootout, Hardy commits suicide while the other gangsters surrender. As Bredow testifies that they assassinated Dr. Kramm in the vicinity of the asylum, Lohmann arranges a confrontation between the gangsters and the Professor, which proves inconclusive. On Kent and Lilli's arrival, Baum's shocked reaction to Kent makes Lohmann suspicious. Lohmann and Kent visit the asylum, where they discover that Baum is the mastermind and has planned an attack on a chemical plant that night. Lohmann and Kent go to the exploding plant, where they discover Baum watching from afar. Baum flees to the asylum with Lohmann and Kent pursuing. Mabuse's spirit leads Baum to Hofmeister in his cell where he introduces himself as Dr. Mabuse, ending Hofmeister's shock. Baum tries to kill Hofmeister but is stopped by guards, just as Lohmann and Kent arrive. The final scene shows the insane Baum in the cell, tearing Mabuse's writings to shreds. 

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Danny Ciello is a narcotics detective who works in the Special Investigations Unit of the New York City Police Department. He and his partners are called "Princes of the City" because they are largely unsupervised and are given wide latitude to make cases against defendants. They are involved in numerous illegal practices, such as skimming money from criminals and supplying informants with drugs. Danny himself has a drug addict for a brother and a cousin in organized crime. After an incident in which Danny beats up a junkie to supply another junkie with heroin, his conscience begins to bother him. He is approached by internal affairs and federal prosecutors to participate in an investigation of police corruption. In exchange for potentially avoiding prosecution as well as federal protection for himself, his wife, and his children, Ciello wears a wire and works undercover to expose the inner workings of illegal police activity and corruption. He agrees to cooperate as long as he does not have to turn in his partners, but his past misdeeds and criminal associates come back to haunt him. One of his partners commits suicide during interrogation, and his cousin in the Mafia, who saves his life on one occasion and warns him of a contract on his life at another point, winds up dead. While confessing three crimes he committed in the 11 years he worked for the SIU, Danny perjures himself by denying the many other offenses he and his partners have committed. Despite repeated professions of loyalty, he finally gives up all of his partners, one of whom shoots himself as a result of this betrayal. Most of the others turn against him. In the end, the chief government prosecutor decides not to prosecute Ciello and he returns to work as an instructor at the police academy. 

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In 63 BC, Pompey conquered Jerusalem and the city was sacked. He entered the Temple to seize the treasure of Solomon and massacred the priests there. He discovered that the treasure is only a collection of scrolls of the Torah. These Pompey held over a fire until an old priest reached for them imploringly. Pompey relented and handed them to the old man and left to carry out massacres of enemy villages and towns. Many years later, a series of rebellions break out against the authority of Rome, so the Romans crucify many of the leaders and place Herod the Great on Judea's throne. A carpenter named Joseph and his wife Mary, who is about to give birth, arrive in Bethlehem for the census. Not having found accommodation for the night, they take refuge in a stable, where the child, Jesus, is born. The shepherds, who have followed the Magi from the East, gather to worship him. However, Herod, informed of the birth of a child- king, orders the centurion Lucius to take his men to Bethlehem and kill all the newborn male children. Mary and Joseph flee to Egypt with the child. The Massacre of the Innocents occurs, Herod dies, killed in his death throes by his son Herod Antipas, who then takes power. In Nazareth, Jesus, who is now twelve years old, is working with Joseph when soldiers arrive under the command of Lucius, who realizes that Jesus escaped the massacre of the infants. But Lucius does nothing and only asks that Mary and Joseph register their son's birth before the year's end. Years pass and Jewish rebels led by Barabbas and Judas Iscariot prepare to attack a caravan carrying the next governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate and his wife Claudia. The ambush fails, partly due to the diligence of Lucius, and Barabbas and Judas flee for their lives. Pilate and Herod Antipas meet on the banks of the River Jordan, where John the Baptist preaches to the crowds. Jesus arrives here, now 30 years of age. He is baptized by John, who recognizes that he is the Messiah. Jesus goes into the desert, where he is tempted by Satan. After forty days, Jesus travels to Galilee, where he recruits his Apostles. In Jerusalem, Herod Antipas arrests John the Baptist, who is visited by Jesus in prison. Judas leaves the rebel Barabbas and joins the Apostles. Jesus begins to preach and gather crowds, among which are Claudia, Pilate's wife, and Lucius. Herod reluctantly beheads John on a whim of his stepdaughter, Salome, who despises him. Herod, Pilate and the High Priest Caiaphas are terrorized by the works and miracles of Jesus. Barabbas plots a revolt in Jerusalem during Passover, during which time Jesus enters the holy city in triumph and goes to the Temple to preach. The rebels storm the Antonia Fortress, but the legions of Pilate, having learned of the plot, ambush and crush the revolt, massacring the rebels. Barabbas ends up arrested. Jesus meets the disciples on the evening of Thursday, having supper one last time with them and afterwards goes to pray at Gethsemane. In the meantime, Judas wants Jesus to free Judea from the Romans, and, to force his hand, Judas delivers him to the Jewish authorities. Jesus is brought before Caiaphas and then brought before Pilate. Pilate starts the trial, but sensing that the issue is one of Jewish sensibilities, sends him to Herod Antipas, who, in turn, sends him back. Pilate is infuriated by Antipas' returning of Jesus and commands his soldiers to scourge Jesus. The people demand the release of Barabbas, and Pilate bows to their pressure and sentences Jesus to be crucified. Jesus, wearing a crown of thorns on his head, carries his cross to Golgotha where he is crucified with two thieves, one of them being the penitent thief Dismas. Desperate because he has betrayed Jesus to his death, Judas hangs himself and his body is found by Barabbas. Jesus dies in front of his mother, the apostle John, a few soldiers, Claudia (Pilate's wife), and Lucius (who utters the fateful words: "He is truly the Christ"). His body is taken down from the cross and is carried to a rock tomb. Two days later, Mary Magdalene finds the tomb empty, and encounters the Risen Jesus. The film ends on the shores of Lake Tiberias when Jesus appears to the Apostles for "a final time" according to the narration, and tells them to bring his message to the ends of the world. Only his shadow is visible, forming the shape of a cross where it falls on the stretched-out fishing nets. The apostles then leave, and, as the shadow of Jesus falls across the screen, it could be assumed that he is ascending to Heaven. 

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In the future, mankind has made great advances in interstellar travel and subsequently colonised the Solar System. The extrasolar settlements, research outposts, mines, commercial colonies, and spacecraft and space stations throughout the Solar System are protected over by a mighty, interstellar military conglomerate named the Planet Defense Corps. When Europa-1, the flagship of the Planet Defense Corps, is attacked by an unknown yet lethal aggressor of apparently extraterrestrial nature, the Planet Defense Corps call in Zero Tolerance, an elite strike squad of five speciality-trained commandos. A recording of the last transmission from Europa-1 reveals extensive fire damage to the warship, almost total casualties and otherworldly creatures hunting the few remaining survivors of the attack. Also, the nuclear cooling system of Europa-1 has been damaged by small arms fire, and core breach caused by overheating will destroy the starship in a matter of hours. As a member of the Zero Tolerance squad, the player character is ordered during the crisis briefing to infiltrate Europa-1 before it explodes. Their mission is to completely eliminate the mysterious alien aggressor from within, and also the transformed humans of Europa-1 they have "infected", in the next few hours to erase all evidence of the attack and the alien intruders. 

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Gregory Underwood (John Gordon Sinclair) is an awkward teenager who plays in his school football team. They are not doing very well, so the coach (Jake D'Arcy) holds a trial to find new players. Dorothy (Dee Hepburn) shows up and, despite the coach's sexist misgivings, proves to be a very good player. She subsequently takes Gregory's place as centre forward, and Gregory in turn replaces his friend Andy (Robert Buchanan) as goalkeeper. Gregory is all for her making the team, as he finds her very attractive. However, he has to compete for her attention with all the other boys who share the same opinion. Gregory initially confides in his best friend Steve (William Greenlees), the most mature of Gregory's circle of friends, and asks him for help in attracting Dorothy. Steve, however, is unable to assist him. Acting on the advice of his precocious 10-year-old sister Madeleine (Allison Forster), he awkwardly asks Dorothy out on a date. She accepts, but Dorothy's friend, Carol (Caroline Guthrie), shows up at the rendezvous instead and informs Gregory that something had come up; Dorothy will not be able to make it. He is disappointed, but Carol talks him into taking her to the chip shop. When they arrive, she hands him off to another friend, Margo (Carol Macartney), and leaves. By then, Gregory is rather confused, but goes for a walk with the new girl. On their stroll, they encounter a waiting Susan (Clare Grogan), another of Dorothy's friends, and Margo leaves. Susan confesses that it was all arranged by her friends, including Dorothy. She explains, "It's just the way girls work. They help each other." They go to the park and talk. At the date's end, Gregory is more than pleased with Susan, and the two kiss numerous times on his doorstep before calling it a night and arranging a second date. Madeleine, who had been watching from the window, quizzes him on his date and calls him a liar when he claims he did not kiss Susan. Gregory's friends, Andy and Charlie (Graham Thompson), are even more inept with girls but see Gregory at various times with three apparent dates, and are envious of his new success. They try to hitchhike to Caracas, where Andy has heard the women greatly outnumber the men, but fail at that as well. 

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The film begins in a bowling alley, where a group of friends is awaiting the arrival of Salim. Meanwhile, Deepak arrives with his fiancée Sheetal. When a conversation about love arises, Deepak and the rest find it necessary to make Sheetal aware that true love does exist. They tell her the story of Raj (Shah Rukh Khan) and Priya (Rani Mukerji), two of their closest friends.As with other Indian films, this gambit-stroke-structure is one writer/director/producer Aziz Mirza shamelessly lifted from writer/director/producer Billy Crystal's Forget Paris (1995). Widely discussed among Indians, e.g. https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/topic/3577607 Raj Mathur, a graduate of engineering, is the owner of Raj Transport, a small trucking company he founded himself. Raj is a carefree man who is unorganised, messy, lazy and never on time. Although he isn't the richest, he's always happy. On the other hand, Priya Chopra is a successful fashion designer from a wealthy family. Originally from Greece, she lives with her aunt Anna, who wants to give her the best in life. Priya has her life all planned out – the complete opposite of Raj. These two completely different people meet in a car accident when Priya crashes her car into Raj's truck. Though the two get off to a rocky start, they meet again at the wedding of Salim and Farah, eventually becoming friends. The two slowly fall in love. Raj learns that Priya's engaged. Desperate, he follows Priya to Greece, where he continues to woo her. When it's time to part company, Priya realises that she is in love with Raj. They get married after persuading Priya's parents, and arrive in Mumbai, where Raj welcomes Priya into their home. Back to the bowling alley in the present: Salim arrives along with Farah and announces that today was Raj and Priya's first wedding anniversary, so they were planning a surprise party. Excited, Sheetal can't wait to meet the famous Raj and Priya, but when they do arrive, they're nothing like what they seemed. The two can't stop arguing. Raj feels the pressure to meet the expectations of Priya's family and is struggling financially. Priya cannot stand to see her husband in this state and secretly asks her former fiancé for money. When Raj learns the truth, he becomes destructive, and Priya runs away to her parents. Raj, realizing his error, goes after Priya, only to be insulted by her family. Priya decides to leave for Greece because she can't stay with Raj but can't stay without him. When Raj is informed of this, he races to the airport to stop Priya, just as he did the year before. He says he will change and that he has a dream of the two of them starting a family together. Although Priya expresses that she has the same dream, she feels it is impossible for them to be together, so she boards the plane. Giving up, Raj remembers his oath and sends his talisman to Priya. When Priya receives the talisman, she too recalls Raj's confession. Raj returns home to find Priya waiting for him. She says that the only way to make their dream come true is to be together. In a playful manner, the two get into another argument but they say that this is how they express their love. They continue to argue as the credits roll. 

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After a successful Sydney bank robbery, with the robbers wearing pig masks and wielding shotguns, the man in charge, The Boss (Bryan Marshall), plans a further and larger payroll robbery for two days later worth at least $1.5 million, hoping that he can trust his less-than-competent gang headed by Whitey (David Argue) and Moustache (John Ley) to do the job properly, with anyone who doesn't answering to him. Two young BMX experts, P.J. (Angelo D'Angelo) and Goose (James Lugton), meet Judy (Nicole Kidman), who is working as a trolley collector at the Warringah Mall during the school holidays in order to be able to buy her own BMX bike, and accidentally get Judy fired from her job when they crash into trolleys pushed away by the local "Creep" (Brian Sloman). The three go out in Goose's dad's runabout on the harbour searching for cockles to sell in order to fix their own crashed bikes, as well as getting Judy her own, and stumble onto and steal a box of police- band walkie talkies that the bank robbers were hoping to use to monitor on police traffic. After stealing the box, the kids pass Whitey and Moustache who are on their way in their high-powered motorboat to pick it up. Judy, P.J. and Goose sell the walkie-talkies to other kids in the area. The Bayside Police are able to hear the kids using the walkie talkies. Judy, P.J. and Goose are also unaware that the robbers know who stole the box. After they are spotted and chased late at night through a cemetery by Whitey and Moustache wearing monster masks (going formal, according to Whitey), they manage to escape. The next day, P.J. and Goose pick up their newly repaired bikes whilst Judy buys her bike. Judy is caught the next day by Whitey and Moustache while getting a second walkie talkie for The Creep, but escapes with the help of P.J. and Goose. The goons chase the Bandits in a cartoonish chase across opportunistic sites around Sydney, including a memorable escape down the Manly Waterworks water slides, complete with BMX bikes. The trio are finally arrested but escape police custody and, with the help of the local kids, launch their own plan to foil the planned payroll robbery. Using the walkie-talkies, the Bandits pinpoint the meeting place for the robbers, then proceed to ambush and apprehend the robbers. The Boss, Whitey and Moustache escape in a removal truck with Judy as a hostage, with P.J. and Goose taking chase. They cause the truck to crash, with police soon arriving to arrest The Boss, Whitey and Moustache. The police build a BMX track as thanks for the capture. In its opening meeting, the BMX Bandits sweep the main awards. 

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The novel, written by Dai Sijie, is about two teenage boys during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, Luo, described as having "a genius for storytelling",Sijie, p. 19 and the unnamed narrator, "a fine musician".Sijie, p. 5 They are assigned to re-education through labor and are sent to a mountain called "Phoenix of the Sky" near Tibet to work in the coal mines and with the rice crop, because their doctor parents have been declared enemies of the state by the government. The two boys fall in love with the Little Seamstress, the daughter of the local tailor and "the region's reigning beauty". Residents of the small farming village are delighted by the stories the two teenagers retell from classic literature and movies that they have seen. They are even excused from work for a few days to see films at a nearby town and later retell the story to the townspeople, through a process known as "oral cinema". Luo and the narrator meet Four-Eyes, the son of a poet, who is also being re-educated. Although he is succeeding in re-education, he is also hiding a secret set of foreign novels that are forbidden by Chinese law. The boys convince Four-Eyes to let them borrow the book Ursule Mirouët by Honoré de Balzac. After staying up all night reading the book, Luo gives the book to the narrator and leaves the village in order to tell the story to the Little Seamstress. Luo returns carrying leaves from a tree near where he and the Little Seamstress had sexual intercourse. The village headman, who has just had an unsuccessful dental surgery, threatens to arrest Luo and the narrator for harboring forbidden ideas from The Count of Monte Cristo if they don't agree to find a solution to the headman's dental problems. The pair find a solution and turn the drill "slowly... to punish him".Sijie, p.134 Later, the headman allows Luo to go home to look after his sick mother. While Luo is gone, the Little Seamstress finds out that she is pregnant, which she confides to the narrator. However, since the revolutionary society does not permit having children out of wedlock, and she and Luo are too young, the narrator must set up a secret abortion for her. Luo comes back to the village three months after this unexpected event. The Little Seamstress learns about the outside world by reading the foreign books with Luo's help. She eventually leaves the mountain and everything that she has known without saying goodbye, to start a new life in the city. Luo becomes inebriated and incinerates all of the foreign books "in [a] frenzy",Sijie, p. 178 ending the novel. 

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In 1962, aboard the ocean liner SS Antonia Graza, passengers dance to the song "Senza Fine" sung by Francesca, a lounge singer. A young girl, Katie, sits alone until the ship's captain offers to dance with her. A hand presses a lever that unravels a thin wire cord from a spool. The spool snaps and the wire whips across the dance floor, bisecting the passengers and crew. Katie is spared due to her height. Forty years later, a salvage crew — Captain Sean Murphy, Maureen Epps, Greer, Dodge, Munder, and Santos — celebrate their recent success. Jack Ferriman, a weather service pilot, approaches them saying he spotted a vessel adrift in the Bering Sea. Because the ship is in international waters, it can be claimed by whoever brings it to port. The crew sets out on the Arctic Warrior, an ocean salvage tugboat. The ship is the Antonia Graza, which went missing decades ago. After boarding the abandoned liner, the salvagers discover nine wooden boxes, each containing twenty-eight 100-oz gold bars. After a series of supernatural events, the group decides to abandon the salvage effort and retreat with the gold, but an invisible force sabotages the Arctic Warrior. The tugboat explodes, killing Santos. With no other option, the group begins repairing the Graza. Greer encounters Francesca, who seduces him into betraying his fiancée, then leads him to fall down an elevator shaft, killing him. Murphy enters the captain's cabin and finds his ghost. The captain explains that they recovered the gold from a sinking cruise ship, the Lorelei, along with a sole survivor. Murphy is shown a picture of the survivor, whom he recognizes. He rushes to tell the others, but hallucinates and sees everyone as the ghost of the burned Santos, who provokes him into a murderous rage. The others think Murphy has gone mad and lock him in the drained fish tank; Epps later finds him drowned. Epps meets Katie's ghost, who reveals what happened on the Graza. The sole survivor of the Lorelei convinced many of the Graza's crew to murder the passengers, as well as the remaining crew, for the gold. After murdering the passengers through mass poisoning, shooting, and other methods, the crew turned on each other. Francesca killed the officer who survived. The mastermind behind the massacre telekinetically killed Francesca and branded her palm with a hook- shaped symbol using only his hands. The man is revealed as Jack Ferriman, who is the demonic spirit of a deceased sinner tasked with provoking people to sin, then killing them and bringing their souls to Hell. Epps deduces that Ferriman lured the salvage team to the Graza to repair it, and decides to sink it to thwart his plan. Munder is crushed to death under the ship's gears while scuba diving in the flooded engine room. Epps tells Dodge to keep Jack on the ship's bridge while she sets explosives. Ferriman taunts Dodge, mocking him as a coward for never acting on his feelings for Epps, then charges him. Dodge shoots Ferriman with a shotgun and believes Ferriman to be dead. Epps is setting explosives when she is confronted by Dodge. He tells her he killed Ferriman and that they can salvage the gold to start a life together, but Epps asks why Dodge has not asked her where Munder is. Realizing his ruse failed, "Dodge" morphs into Ferriman, who killed Dodge. Ferriman plans to use the Graza as a trap to continue collecting souls. As long as the Graza is kept afloat, the souls of everyone who died aboard the ship will be dragged down when Ferriman fills his quota and returns to Hell. He offers to spare Epps's life in exchange for her not interfering, but she detonates the explosives. Ferriman is blown to pieces in the explosion and Katie helps Epps escape the sinking ship. Katie and the other souls trapped on the ship are freed. Epps is found by a cruise ship and returned to land. As she is loaded into an ambulance, she sees the crates of gold being loaded onto the cruise ship by members of the crew, overseen by a resurrected Ferriman, who glares at her and carries on; she screams as the ambulance doors close. 

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Retired police detective Jerry Black (Jack Nicholson) is seen mumbling to himself, apparently drunk, sitting on a bench outside a disused gas station. The scene then shifts to events in the recent past. The Department has thrown him a retirement party, and the police captain gives Jerry a fishing trip in Mexico as a gift. The party is interrupted by the discovery of a murdered child, Ginny Larsen. Jerry decides to go with another detective, Stan Krolak (Aaron Eckhart), to the scene of the crime. Jerry delivers the bad news to the child's parents, and the mother Margaret Larsen (Patricia Clarkson) makes Jerry swear on a cross that he will find the killer. A suspect is found the next day. Stan goes in to interview the suspect, Toby Jay Wadenah (Benicio del Toro), a Native American man with mental retardation. During the interview, the man eventually confesses but steals a gun from one of the deputies and commits suicide. To the other detectives, the case is over, but Jerry does not think that Wadenah was the killer. Jerry is adamant about his pledge to find the killer, and does not go on the fishing trip. Instead, he visits the victim's grandmother, who tells him of the many stories that Ginny told. A later visit to one of her friends reveals that Ginny had a friend she called "The Giant". Jerry sees a picture Ginny drew of "The Giant", but it does not resemble Wadenah, and includes a black station wagon and not a red truck drove by Wadenah. He takes the drawing with him. Jerry goes to Stan and asks him to reopen the case. Stan refuses but gets Jerry more information about similar cases in the area. Jerry's investigations reveal three unsolved and similar cases that Wadenah could not have committed. Jerry presents his research and Ginny's drawing to Captain Pollack (Sam Shepard) and Stan, who are doubtful. While fishing, Jerry notices a gas station that is located near the center of the similar cases. After buying the gas station, Jerry moves into the house behind it and meets local waitress/bartender Lori (Wright Penn), and her daughter, Chrissy. He becomes a regular and they become friends. One night, Lori shows up at Jerry's house, bruised and battered, and explains her ex (who has a restraining order) attacked her. Jerry suggests for her and her daughter's safety that they move in with him temporarily and she agrees. Jerry slowly becomes a father figure to her daughter and on one night as he is reading bedtime stories to Chrissy, Lori overhears them and goes to her room to cry, presumably realizing how badly she and her daughter needed a good man like this in their life. Jerry later overhears the crying, enters her bedroom to comfort her, and they end up spending the night together, beginning a romance. Soon, Chrissy becomes friends with a local pastor, Gary Jackson (Tom Noonan). Jerry is uncomfortable about this and begins to think Jackson is the killer. Chrissy is shown meeting a man driving a black car with a toy porcupine hanging on the rear mirror, porcupines being another aspect of Ginny's drawing that Jerry believes to be a clue. Chrissy explains to Jerry that she met a 'wizard' who gave her porcupine candies and told her not to tell her parents they had met. She figured it was OK to tell Jerry, since he is not her father. Jerry realizes this is likely to be the killer and, using Chrissy as bait, stages an operation with Stan's help to catch him. The viewers are shown that the car with the toy porcupine hanging from the rear- view mirror has been destroyed in a fiery collision with a freight truck. After hours of waiting, Stan and the other police leave. They tell Lori what happened, and she confronts Jerry angrily about putting her daughter in danger. Some time later, reprising the first images shown at the beginning, Jerry sits alone on a bench in front of the ruined gas station. Despondent, destitute and drunk, Jerry ends up all alone, mumbling to himself that the killer is still out there. 

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The novel is set in Dublin during the week leading up to the Easter Rising of 1916. All the characters are members of a complexly interrelated Anglo-Irish family. As the story begins Andrew Chase- White is a young Second lieutenant in King Edward's Horse, spending a leave with his family in Ireland before accompanying his regiment to France. Andrew Chase-White grew up in England, the only child of Protestant Anglo-Irish parents. His recently widowed mother Hilda has decided to move to Ireland. Andrew's paternal grandfather was his grandmother's second husband. With her first husband she had two children, Brian and Millicent Dumay. Millicent married Sir Arthur Kinnard and inherited his property when he died young. Brian, who converted to Catholicism as a young man, married Arthur Kinnard's sister Kathleen, who also converted. They had two sons, Pat (Andrew's contemporary) and his younger brother Cathal Dumay, both ardent supporters of independence for Ireland. After Brian's death Kathleen married Andrew's Roman Catholic uncle Barnabas Drumm, Hilda's brother. A third Kinnard sibling, Heather, married Christopher Bellman and died young. Christopher's only child is Frances, whom Andrew has known all his life and plans to marry. When Andrew and Frances visit Kathleen, Pat and Cathal in their house in Dublin, Andrew is goaded into taunting Pat with his failure to enlist in the British Army. The following day Andrew, Hilda, and Christopher call on Millicent in her Dublin house. Unknown to his family, Christopher is in love with Millie, whom he has been helping financially for several years, and has been trying to convince her to marry him. This is complicated by the fact that Frances dislikes Millie, but he is encouraged by the expectation that Andrew and Frances will soon marry. Millie promises to come to Christopher's house later in the week to give him her answer. Pat's stepfather Barnabas Drumm is another of Millie's admirers. Years before, his passion for Millie had led to his leaving the seminary where he was training for the priesthood. His marriage to Kathleen proving unhappy, he reconnected with Millie and became a frequent visitor at her house, where he has the status of a tolerated relation. When Millie goes to Christopher's house to tell him she will accept his marriage proposal, their conversation is overheard by Barnabas. Millie has allowed her cellar to be used as an arms depository by the Irish Volunteers. Pat Dumay, an officer in the organization, has been informed that an armed insurrection is planned for Easter Sunday, and comes to inspect the weapons. He encounters Millie, who informs him that she is in love with him and invites him to Rathblane, her country house in the Wicklow Mountains. Shocked, he runs away. Andrew asks Frances to marry him, and is surprised and devastated when she refuses. Later he goes to Rathblane and confides in Millie that he is not engaged to Frances and that he is a virgin. Millie kisses him and offers to initiate him sexually, but he refuses her offer and leaves. Pat and Cathal are bitterly disappointed on Saturday, when the insurrection in cancelled. In despair, Pat goes to Rathblane on Saturday night, and finds that Millie is already in bed with Andrew. He rushes out of the house, just as Christopher is arriving unexpectedly. Millie tells Christopher that she will not marry him after all, and that she has seduced Andrew and is in love with Pat. On Monday morning Andrew goes to Pat's house, unaware of the rising rescheduled for that day. Pat takes him prisoner and leaves him handcuffed to Cathal in order to keep Cathal out of the fighting. They are freed just as the insurrection is starting and the novel ends with Andrew and Cathal observing the beginning of the rising in front of the General Post Office. An epilogue set in 1938 briefly describes the later lives and deaths of several of the protagonists. 

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In New York City, a middle-aged black insurance salesman named Doyle Gipson is a recovering alcoholic who is attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings to stay sober. On the same morning that Gipson drives to a hearing to try to regain custody of his children, a successful, white, young Wall Street attorney, Gavin Banek, is distracted while driving and collides his new Mercedes CLK320 with Gipson's 1988 Toyota Corolla. Banek was in a rush to get to court to file a power of appointment document, which will prove a dead man signed his foundation over to Banek's law firm. Gipson was also in a rush to get to a hearing to argue for joint custody of his sons with his estranged wife. Banek tries to brush Gipson off with a blank check, rather than exchanging insurance information, thereby disobeying the law. Gipson refuses to accept the check and voices his desire to "do this right", but Banek, whose car is still drivable, insists upon leaving immediately. He leaves Gipson stranded, telling him, "better luck next time". After arriving to the court late, Gipson learns that the judge ruled against him in his absence, giving sole custody of the boys to Gipson's wife and allowing her to proceed with a plan to move to Oregon, never knowing that Gipson was about to buy a house locally and give it to his wife and children as part of his effort to make joint custody workable for everyone. When Banek gets to court, he realizes that he dropped the crucial power of appointment file at the scene of the accident, and the judge gives him until the end of the day to retrieve it. Gipson, who scooped up the file, is torn, and initially refuses to return the file. Banek, who is desperate to get his papers back, goes to a "fixer", a shady computer hacker, and gets him to switch off Gipson's credit, destroying Gipson's chance for a home loan to keep his family together. Gipson is distraught when he finds out his credit has been ruined and he comes close to drinking again. Determined to get back at Banek, Gipson removes several lug nuts from one of Banek's wheels, and Banek suffers some minor injuries after his car crashes on the highway. An infuriated Banek goes to the elementary school of Gipson's children and tells school officials that Gipson plans to kidnap the boys, so Gipson is arrested and jailed. His enraged wife declares her intention to move forward with taking their sons to Oregon and says that Gipson will never see them again. Both men, shaken by the consequences of their actions, start to reconsider their desire for vengeance and try to find a way out. Although it appears unlikely that either man will achieve what he had hoped, both resolve to let go and do what is right, and the two men apologize to each other. Gipson returns the file containing the power of appointment, which Banek has since learned was obtained illegally, and he uses it to blackmail his boss to conduct business honestly and get approval to represent Gipson pro bono to resolve his legal troubles. Banek also visits Gipson's wife, asking her to "give me five minutes." The next day, Gipson is walking and notices his wife and sons standing across the street, smiling at him. 

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The story is set in an alternate Earth dominated by a powerful church called the Magisterium that strictly controls the populace's beliefs and teachings. In this world, every person's inner spirit partially exists outside their body, manifesting itself as an animal companion called a dæmon. The dæmon communicates with the person and must remain in close physical proximity. Witches, however, have bird-shape dæmons that are able to travel long distances from their bodies. Lyra Belacqua, whose dæmon is named Pantalaimon or "Pan", is an orphan being raised at Jordan College in Oxford. Her uncle, Lord Asriel, a noted explorer and scholar, has been absent seeking the elusive Dust, a cosmic particle that the Magisterium forbids to be mentioned. When Asriel returns to Oxford, Lyra saves his life after seeing a visiting Magisterium agent spike his wine with an unidentified poison. Asriel later gives a presentation to other scholars regarding his discovery that Dust existing in the North Pole links infinite worlds. Asriel receives a grant for another expedition. If his theory is proven, it could severely undermine the Magisterium's hold on the world. Lyra meets Mrs. Coulter, a wealthy, powerful woman presented as "a friend of the college." Mrs. Coulter takes an interest in Lyra and invites her to stay in her home. Before they leave for a retrofuturistic London, the Master of the college entrusts Lyra with her uncle's alethiometer, a compass-like artifact that reveals the truth. Few individuals can decipher its symbols. The Magisterium has seized or destroyed all other alethiometers, and Lyra is warned to keep hers a secret, especially from Mrs. Coulter. Lyra notices the alethiometer continuously points to a symbol of a lady, a lightning bolt, and an infant, though she is unable to comprehend its meaning. Soon, Mrs Coulter's congenial manner changes and shows she is aligned to the Magisterium and its mandate. When Lyra casually mentions Dust, Mrs. Coulter sternly warns her never to bring it up again. Kidnappers called Gobblers have been snatching poor, orphaned, and Gyptian children, including Lyra's friends Roger, an Oxford servant boy, and Billy Costa, a young Gyptian. Lyra later discovers that Mrs Coulter is head of the General Oblation Board and realizes they are the "Gobblers." When Mrs Coulter's dæmon attempts to steal the alethiometer, Lyra and Pan escape with it into the streets. Gobblers pursue her, but she is saved by Ma Costa, Billy's mother. Lyra is taken to the Gyptian king, John Faa, whose ship is heading north to rescue the captured children. Lyra shows the alethiometer to a wise Gyptian elder named Farder Coram and discovers she is able to decipher the device. After consulting with Magisterium agent Fra Pavel, Mrs Coulter sends two mechanical spy-flies after Lyra. One is batted away but the other is caught and sealed in a can by Farder Coram, who says the spy-fly has a stinger filled with a sleeping poison. Meanwhile, Lord Asriel has reached Svalbard, the kingdom of the Ice Bears, but he is captured by Samoyed tribesmen hired by Mrs Coulter. The witch queen, Serafina Pekkala, visits Lyra and tells her the missing children are in an experimental station called Bolvangar. At a northern port, Lyra is befriended by a Texan aeronaut named Lee Scoresby. He advises her to hire him and his friend Iorek Byrnison, an armoured bear that Lee has come to rescue. Once a prince of the armoured bears, Iorek is now exiled in shame, the local townspeople having tricked him out of his armour. Lyra uses the alethiometer to locate Iorek's armour. After recovering it, Iorek joins the Gyptian trek northward, along with Scoresby. Lyra, astride Iorek, goes to an abandoned building the alethiometer pointed her toward. There, Lyra finds Billy Costa, who has been surgically separated from his dæmon. The Gobblers are experimenting on the kidnapped children using a procedure called "intercision." Lyra reunites Billy with Ma Costa, but the group is attacked by Samoyeds, who capture Lyra. Iorek and Lee follow her in Lee's airship. Lyra is taken to the bear king Ragnar Sturlusson. Knowing Iorek will be outnumbered, Lyra tricks Ragnar into fighting Iorek one-on-one. Ragnar, who usurped Iorek's throne, initially appears to be winning; Iorek feigns weakness and kills Ragnar, avenging his father and regaining his kingdom. Iorek carries Lyra to Bolvangar, but only Lyra crosses a narrow ice bridge before it collapses. Upon reaching the station, Lyra is welcomed in and reunited with Roger. While snooping around, Lyra overhears Mrs Coulter telling the station scientists that Asriel escaped capture and has set up a laboratory but that Magisterium soldiers are going there to arrest and execute him for heresy. Lyra also overhears the scientists discussing experiments to sever a child from their dæmon. Caught spying, Lyra and Pan are thrown into the intercision chamber but Mrs Coulter rescues her. When Lyra awakens, Mrs Coulter explains that she and the Magisterium believe intercision protects children from Dust's corrupting influence. She reveals she is Lyra's mother but was forced to give her up; Lyra realises that Asriel is her father. When Mrs. Coulter wants the alethiometer, Lyra instead gives her the can containing the spy-fly. The fly stings Mrs Coulter, rendering her unconscious. Lyra destroys the machine, setting off a series of explosions. Outside, the fleeing children are attacked by Tartar mercenaries and their wolf dæmons. Iorek, Scoresby, the Gyptians, and flying witches led by Serafina join the battle. The Tartars are defeated and the children rescued. Lyra, Roger, Iorek, Lee, and Serafina fly further north to search for Asriel. Confirming Serafina's prophecy of an upcoming war with Lyra at the centre, Lyra is determined to fight the Magisterium, who plot to control all the other worlds in the universe. 

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The cartoon follows a male and female bug/insect who check into a hotel which catches on fire. 

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X-Men Legends is not set in any particular Marvel Comics universe. It is played from the perspective of a teenage girl named Alison Crestmere, a mutant with the ability to control volcanic activity. At the start of the game, Alison is abducted by the Genetic Research and Security Organization (GRSO). Alison: Somebody help me! I'm not a mutant! I swear I'm not! As GRSO soldiers take her away, Mystique arrives with Blob and takes Alison from the soldiers. Mystique: Blob, grab the girl and get out of here! She is in turn rescued from Mystique and Blob by the X-Men Wolverine and Cyclops, who take her to the Xavier Institute to explore her powers. Jean Grey: Good work, guys. Now get Alison to the X-Jet. I'll meet you there. As Alison trains, the X-Men investigate an Alaskan research facility being attacked by the Brotherhood of Mutants, then rescue Gambit from the Morlocks. Player Character: We'll have you out of there in a second, Gambit Gambit: No worries. Ol' Gambit done already picked the lock. They then try to stop the Brotherhood from rescuing Magneto from captivity aboard the U.S.S. Arbiter. Mystique is able to penetrate the defenses and free Magneto, and the ensuing damage caused by the Brotherhood leaves the X-Men to rescue several Arbiter crew members. Player Character: We have to save the Arbiter crew! Jean, can you use your telekinetic powers to hold the ship together? With Alison's training complete, she takes the codename Magma Alison: Do I get a cool code name? Wolverine: How about Pebbles? ... Alison: Mmm, those are good suggestions but I had a name in mind already. How about Magma? and the X-Men travel to Russia to help Colossus prevent the Brotherhood from obtaining weapons-grade plutonium. Colossus: Because of Magneto's attack the reactor is close to critical mass. If I drop this regulator there will be a nuclear explosion. After accomplishing this mission, they discover that Colossus's sister, Illyana, is in a coma from a psychic hold placed on her by the Shadow King. Professor Xavier, Emma Frost, and Jean Grey enter the astral plane to save her. They succeed, but in the process Xavier is captured by the Shadow King. Professor Xavier: What do you intend to do now? Shadow King: I should have thought it obvious, Xavier. I will have my revenge. After Xavier's capture, the X-Men learn that General William Kincaid, a leader in the anti- mutant movement, is building mutant-hunting Sentinels. Magneto travels to his base on Asteroid M, where he reveals his plan to cover the Earth in darkness. Meanwhile, the X-Men free Xavier, who defeats the Shadow King in a psychic battle. Shadow King: What!? You've escaped? No matter. Now you will die, Xavier. The X-Men travel to Asteroid M, where they discover that the asteroid is on a collision course with Earth. After defeating Magneto, they search for the Gravitron, a device used to pilot the asteroid. They encounter General Kincaid, who pilots Master Mold, a larger and more powerful prototype Sentinel. After defeating General Kincaid, the X-Men locate the Gravitron, and Magma uses her powers to steer the asteroid back into space. Wolverine: Kid, the Gravitron was built for Magneto. It could kill ya. Magma: That's a chance I'll have to take. The X-Men's victory on Asteroid M is watched by Apocalypse, who makes his upcoming plot from his base. Apocalypse : Enjoy your small victory, Xavier. For the Age of Apocalypse is nigh! In the game's epilogue, a television news anchor reports that Magneto is still at large and General Kincaid has been arrested for crimes against humanity. The game ends with the President of the United States thanking the X-Men for their service. 

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Tyler's 15th novel, like most of her work, is set in Baltimore, Maryland. It opens with the sentence, "Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person." The woman in question is Rebecca Davitch, a 53-year-old widow, mother, grandmother, and proprietor of a party and catering business run from her home called Open Arms. Up until age 20 Rebecca's life had been following a fairly predictable straight-line path towards both marriage to her high school sweetheart and a Ph.D. in history. Then Joe Davitch came along and she was “swept off my feet by a fully grown man, someone who...was already living his life.” Joe was a 33-year-old divorcee with 3 children whom Rebecca met at a friend’s party that happened to be at the Open Arms. One month later, Rebecca had quit college, had married Joe, and—as she quickly discovered—had married the Davitch family, with Joe’s 3 daughters, his mother, his brother Zeb, his huge old Baltimore house (Open Arms) and its business as a venue for celebrations of all sorts—weddings, graduations, christenings, anniversaries, etc. Before too long she also discovers that she has become the de facto manager of the Open Arms and the mother of Joe’s 3 girls and their own new baby daughter. When Joe himself dies after only 6 years of marriage and Joe’s uncle Poppy moves in, she finds herself with even more responsibility. Having cheerfully and exhaustingly raised four daughters, run the “celebrations business,” and helped her daughters through 6 marriages (+ 2 divorces) and 7 grandchildren, Rebecca is now taking a breath to ask, “What happened to the 20-year young woman who was a serious scholar, politically-involved idealist, engaged to be engaged….?” At an engagement party for one of her stepdaughters, Rebecca finds herself questioning everything about her life, and decides to take steps to resurrect her former self. Her self-improvement project includes a visit to her hometown in Virginia, picking up old hobbies, reading books that she had read in college, and renewing her intellectual interests, without abandoning her many matriarchal and professional duties. She also eventually gets reacquainted with her old college/high school sweetheart. Will Allenby is a somewhat stodgy and constricted person (much as he was in college, way "back when they were grownups") and is now a divorced physics professor working at the same nearby college that they had both attended. While Rebecca is touched by certain remembrances and traits of Will, her fantasy of re-kindling their old affections is spoiled by his sad, staid and inflexible demeanor. Rebecca eventually realizes that the path that she chose (or chose her) decades ago may have resulted in her "right person" after all. 

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Johnny Walker (Mickey Rourke) is a down-and-out boxer with brain damage who has recently moved into a sea-side resort. He falls in love with Ruby, a carnival owner who has a lot in common with Johnny. He also befriends Wesley Pendergrass (Christopher Walken), a corrupt promoter. Wesley and Johnny form a strong friendship, and it's clear that Johnny comes to idolize Wesley who wants to use Johnny as muscle in a robbery and asks for his help. Johnny has to choose between the love of Ruby (Debra Feuer) or the friendship of Wesley. 

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Hepburn and Holden Sabrina Fairchild is the young daughter of the Larrabee family's chauffeur, Thomas, and has been in love with David Larrabee all her life. David is a three-times-married playboy who has never paid attention to Sabrina because to him she was still a child. Eavesdropping on a party at the Larrabee mansion, as she has often done before, Sabrina notices David enticing yet another woman. Distraught, she leaves her father a suicide note and starts every car in the garage so as to kill herself. Instead she is interrupted by David's older brother Linus, who escorts her back to her quarters above the garage. Sabrina had been on the point of sailing for France, where she is to attend Le Cordon Bleu, the leading culinary school in Paris. After two years there, she returns home as an attractive and sophisticated woman. When her father is delayed from picking her up at the station, David offers her a lift instead without even knowing it is Sabrina. Once David realizes who she is, he is quickly drawn to Sabrina and invites her to join him at a party at the mansion. When Linus sees this, he fears that David's imminent marriage to Elizabeth Tyson may be endangered. If the engagement is broken, it would ruin a profitable opportunity for a great corporate merger between Larrabee Industries and Elizabeth's very wealthy father's business. Instead of confronting David about his irresponsibility, Linus pretends to sympathise with him and in a moment of inattention David sits down on champagne glasses he has placed in his pockets, so that he is incapacitated for a few days. Linus now takes David’s place with Sabrina on the pretext that “it’s all in the family” until both fall in love, although neither will admit it. In fact Linus’ plan is to pretend to be accompanying Sabrina back to Paris but not to join her on the liner. However, when he reveals his intention to Sabrina instead, she agrees to leave the next day and never come back. The following morning, Linus has second thoughts and decides to send David to Paris with Sabrina. This means calling off David's wedding with Elizabeth and the big Tyson deal, and he schedules a meeting of the Larrabee board to announce this. However, David enters the room at the last minute and declares that he has decided to marry Elizabeth after all. David helps Linus recognize his own feelings for Sabrina and assists him in rushing off to join Sabrina's ship before it leaves the harbor. Linus and Sabrina meet on board and sail away together. 

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Sabrina Fairchild is the young daughter of the Larrabee family's chauffeur, Thomas, and has been in love with David Larrabee all her life. David is a playboy, constantly falling in love, yet he has never noticed Sabrina, much to her dismay. Sabrina travels to Paris for a fashion internship at Vogue and returns as an attractive, sophisticated woman. David, after initially not recognizing her, is quickly drawn to her despite being newly engaged to Elizabeth Tyson, a doctor and billionaire. David's workaholic older brother Linus fears that David's imminent wedding to the very suitable Elizabeth might be endangered. If the wedding were to be canceled, so would a lucrative merger with the bride's family business, Tyson Electronics, run by her father Patrick. This could cost the Larrabee Corporation, run by Linus and his mother Maude, in the neighborhood of a billion dollars. Linus tries to redirect Sabrina's affections to himself and it works. Sabrina falls in love with him, even though she quotes others as calling Linus "the world's only living heart donor" and someone who "thinks that morals are paintings on walls and scruples are money in Russia." In the process, Linus also falls in love with her. Unwilling to admit his feelings, Linus confesses his scheme to Sabrina at the last minute and sends her back to Paris. Before she gets on the plane to Paris, her father informs her that over the years of chauffeuring the father of David and Linus, he listened. When Mr. Larrabee sold, he sold and when Mr. Larrabee bought, he bought. Sabrina jokingly says "So you are telling me that you have a million dollars?" Her father says no, he has a little over two million and that her mother would want her to have it. Meanwhile, Linus realizes his true feelings for Sabrina, and is induced to follow her to Paris by chiding from his mother and an unexpectedly adult and responsible David, who steps into his shoes at the Larrabee Corporation with detailed plans for the merger with Tyson. Linus arrives in Paris and reunites with Sabrina, revealing his love to her and kissing her. 

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Jeanne de Saint-Rémy de Valois, orphaned at an early age, is determined to reclaim her noble title and the home taken from her family when she was a child. When she is rebuffed by Marie Antoinette and fails to achieve her goal through legal channels, she joins forces with the arrogant, well- connected gigolo Rétaux de Villette and her own wayward, womanizing husband Nicholas. They concoct a plan to earn her enough money to purchase the property. In 1772, King Louis XV had commissioned Parisian jewellers Boehmer & Bassenge to create an opulent , 647-diamond necklace to present to his mistress Madame du Barry, but the king died before it was completed. Hoping to recover the high cost of the necklace, its creators try to persuade Queen Marie Antoinette to purchase it. Knowing its history, she declines. Jeanne approaches debauched libertine Cardinal Louis de Rohan and introduces herself as a confidante of the Queen. For years the Cardinal has yearned to regain the Queen's favor and acquire the position of Prime Minister of France, and when he is reassured by occultist Count Cagliostro that Jeanne is legitimate, he allows himself to be seduced by her promise to intervene on his behalf. He begins to correspond with the Queen and is unaware that his letters to her are intercepted and the Queen's responses are forgeries intended to manipulate him. The tone of the letters become very intimate. The cardinal becomes more and more convinced that Marie Antoinette is in love with him, and he becomes ardently enamored of her. Jeanne allegedly arranges a meeting between the two in the gardens of the Palace of Versailles. Portraying the Queen is Nicole Leguay d'Oliva, a prostitute bearing some resemblance to her. Heavily cloaked, with her face in the shadows, she agrees to forget their past disagreements. The Cardinal believes his indiscretions have been forgiven and he once again is in the Queen's good favor. Jeanne advises the Cardinal the Queen has decided to purchase the necklace but, not wanting to offend the populace by openly buying such an expensive trinket, she wishes him to do so on her behalf, with a promise to reimburse him for the cost by the Feast of the Assumption. The Cardinal gladly agrees and presents the necklace to Rétaux de Villette, believing him to be an emissary from the Queen. Nicholas de Lamotte sells some of the diamonds, and Jeanne uses the profits to buy her family home. The Cardinal begins to panic when Jeanne disappears and his correspondence with the Queen comes to an abrupt end. Nicholas is almost arrested for selling without proper certification, but he escapes. Jeanne advises him to not sell anymore diamonds in Paris. She sends correspondence to the jewelers, saying that Antoinette is no longer interested in the necklace and they must ask the Cardinal for reimbursement. However, Minister Breteuil comes upon an anxious Boehmer on his way to the Cardinal's estate. The Cardinal is invited to visit the palace on the Feast of the Assumption, at which time he assumes he will be repaid in full and named Prime Minister. Instead, King Louis XVI, who has been made aware of his machinations by Minister Breteuil, has him imprisoned in the Bastille. Soon to follow are everyone else involved in the plot. A trial finds the Cardinal, Count Cagliostro, and Nicole Leguay d'Oliva innocent of all charges. Rétaux de Villette is found guilty and banished from France. Jeanne is found guilty and whipped and branded before being imprisoned; she later escapes to London where she publishes her memoirs and regales the locals with her tales. Eventually, Marie Antoinette, assumed to be a key player in the affair by an increasingly angry and restless populace, meets her fate on the guillotine. Via an epilogue, it is shown that Jeanne died after falling from her hotel room window and was rumored to have been killed by Royalists. 

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Kevin Franklin (Sinbad) is an inner city Pittsburgh native; raised in an orphanage, he has delusions of grandeur, and talks about getting rich and driving a Porsche one day. Twenty-five years later, he drives a rusted MG Midget and all his ambitions revolve around a series of ill fated get-rich-quick schemes. A handshake loan of $5,000 from the mob grows to $50,000 through interest and penalties, resulting in him trying to skip town at Pittsburgh International Airport. He overhears a conversation between lawyer Gary Young (Phil Hartman) and his children, who are waiting to pick up his childhood friend, Derek Bond, who is now a successful, strait-laced and vegetarian dentist. Upon hearing him say that he has not seen Bond in twenty five years and does not know what he looks like, Franklin gives his baseball cap to the real Bond to throw off the two dimwitted mobsters (Tony Longo and Paul Ben-Victor) chasing him and poses as Bond to the Youngs, who take him to their posh home in Sewickley. Although he knows nothing about dentistry, Franklin still manages to convince those around him that he is in fact Derek Bond, and his affable personality makes him popular with Young's otherwise stuffy and rich associates. Young has little time for his children and his wife (Kim Greist) who runs a chain of successful new frozen yogurt businesses, which gradually builds a gap between them, largely due to the demands of his bigoted, arrogant boss (Mason Adams) at the law firm where he works; this leads to Franklin developing a bond with Young's Goth daughter, helping her stand up to her cheating boyfriend, and his young son, who has aspirations of playing pro basketball. Young eventually stands up to his boss with Franklin's support and quits the firm to be with his family. Meanwhile, the mob thugs threaten Franklin's best friend, Larry (Stan Shaw), into revealing his whereabouts, and Franklin asks him to pick him up. After he does so reluctantly, he sparks an argument with him over his lack of appreciation of friendship, causing him to realize that Young has been his friend all along. He returns to the Youngs' house only to find that the mobsters have taken them hostage, and his true identity is revealed when the real Derek Bond finally shows up. After the mobsters take Franklin away, he manages to escape, losing them in a charity marathon, where he meets up with Young, who graciously decides to help him despite his charade, in return for helping bring his family closer together. Franklin reveals that he has an instant lottery ticket he purchased the previous day for a chance at a $1,000,000 cash prize spin on a Saturday night television show, which he reluctantly gives up to the mobsters in exchange for the forgiveness of his debt. The film fast forwards to wintertime, Franklin parallel parks a shiny new red Porsche with Larry in tow, in front of the Youngs' house, appearing for a promotional party for his new best-seller book, Handbook for Houseguests, based on his experiences with them. The partygoers gather in front of the television to watch the mobsters spin the wheel for the jackpot. It initially lands on the million dollar jackpot, but then falls and lands on $5,000, much to the mafia don's dismay and Franklin's delight. During the closing credits, Young and Franklin sing a medley of food based parodies of Christmas songs, as they cook a barbecue in Youngs' backyard outside of a Christmas party. 

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After losing their jobs as security guards, best friends Ivan (John Cusack) and Josh (Tim Robbins) start a music video production company called "Video Aces". When they meet their childhood heroes, 1970s soul duo Swanky Modes (Sam Moore and Junior Walker), Ivan and Josh concoct a scheme to give them a new audience by hijacking a Menudo concert, getting them to perform in Menudo's place, and broadcasting it live across the country on a television satellite hook-up. The movie also features a fake ad spot for a real Los Angeles restaurant, Roscoe's House of Chicken 'n Waffles. Notable appearances in the film include: Mary Crosby, of the soap opera Dallas; character actors Clu Gulager and Doug McClure; footballer Lyle Alzado; 1960s actress Connie Stevens; Soul Train host Don Cornelius; singer Courtney Love; Navasota singer King Cotton; original "Human Beat-Box" Doug E. Fresh; ska-punk band Fishbone (who also perform the incidental score) as "Ranchbone"; The Dead Boys and The Lords of the New Church singer Stiv Bators; Ted Nugent; "Weird Al" Yankovic; and Dead Kennedys singer Jello Biafra, in a cameo as an FBI agent. 

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Jason "Igby" Slocumb, Jr. (Kieran Culkin) is a misanthropic 17-year-old boy, rebelling against the oppressive world of his strict East Coast "old money" family. His schizophrenic father, Jason (Bill Pullman), has been committed to an institution. Igby fears that he will eventually suffer a mental breakdown like his father. His mother, Mimi (Susan Sarandon), is self-absorbed and distant and has a tendency to drink heavily. Igby mockingly describes his ambitious older brother Ollie (Ryan Phillippe) as a fascist or, alternatively, a Young Republican, and that he studies "neo- fascism" (economics) at Columbia University. Igby figures that there must be a better life out there, and he sets out to find it, rebelling against his family at every opportunity. After happily flunking out of several prep schools, he ends up in a brutal military academy where he gets beaten by his classmates. After escaping and spending time in a Chicago hotel courtesy of his mother's credit card, Igby is sent to New York for the summer to his godfather, successful real estate magnate D.H. Banes (Jeff Goldblum). While working construction for D.H., Igby first encounters Rachel (Amanda Peet), his godfather's heroin-addicted trophy mistress. Rather than return to school, he escapes into the bohemian underworld of Manhattan, hiding out with Rachel and her performance artist friend Russel (Jared Harris). Eventually, he and Rachel have sex. After being suspected and beaten up by D.H., he then hooks up with terminally bored, part-time lover, Sookie (Claire Danes), only for her to later leave him for Ollie. Despite seeming cold and distant, Mimi is not unaffected by her rebellious son. She describes Igby's conception as an act of animosity and therefore believes that it shouldn't be a surprise that his life follows the same course. His name is explained as a family in-joke. As a child, he would blame his toy bear, Digby, for things he had done, mispronouncing it as "Igby". In order to get him to take responsibility for his actions, his family would call him Igby whenever he lied. Igby is informed by D.H. that his mother Mimi is dying from breast cancer and so he returns to see her. She has arranged to commit suicide with help from Ollie, who feeds her poisoned strawberry yogurt before ultimately placing a plastic bag over her head. Before she dies, Mimi makes a final revelation, casually inquiring of Igby, "I take it you know that D.H. is your father?" Igby visits his father in the hospital before leaving for Los Angeles to finally make a clean break by getting 3,000 miles away from his family. 

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Aubrey, a young Englishman, meets Lord Ruthven, a man of mysterious origins who has entered London society. Aubrey accompanies Ruthven to Rome, but leaves him after Ruthven seduces the daughter of a mutual acquaintance. Aubrey travels to Greece, where he becomes attracted to Ianthe, an innkeeper's daughter. Ianthe tells Aubrey about the legends of the vampire. Ruthven arrives at the scene and shortly thereafter Ianthe is killed by a vampire. Aubrey does not connect Ruthven with the murder and rejoins him in his travels. The pair are attacked by bandits and Ruthven is mortally wounded. Before he dies, Ruthven makes Aubrey swear an oath that he will not mention his death or anything else he knows about Ruthven for a year and a day. Looking back, Aubrey realizes that everyone whom Ruthven met ended up suffering. Aubrey returns to London and is amazed when Ruthven appears shortly thereafter, alive and well. Ruthven reminds Aubrey of his oath to keep his death a secret. Ruthven then begins to seduce Aubrey's sister while Aubrey, helpless to protect his sister, has a nervous breakdown. Ruthven and Aubrey's sister are engaged to marry on the day the oath ends. Just before he dies, Aubrey writes a letter to his sister revealing Ruthven's history, but it does not arrive in time. Ruthven marries Aubrey's sister. On the wedding night, she is discovered dead, drained of her blood—and Ruthven has vanished. 

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In 1959, Michael Courtland (Robertson), a New Orleans real estate developer, has his life shattered when his wife Elizabeth (Bujold) and young daughter Amy are kidnapped. The police recommend that he provide the kidnappers with a briefcase of shredded blank paper instead of the demanded ransom, as the kidnappers will then be more likely to surrender when cornered, rather than attempt to escape with cash in hand. Courtland agrees to this plan. This leads to a bungled car chase in which both kidnappers and victims are killed in a spectacular explosion. Courtland blames himself for the deaths of his wife and daughter. Skipping forward sixteen years later in 1975, Courtland is morbidly obsessed with his dead wife, and regularly visits a monument he has had built in her memory. The monument is a replica of the church (Basilica di San Miniato al Monte) where he and Elizabeth had met many years before in Florence, Italy. His real estate partner Robert LaSalle (Lithgow) convinces Courtland to tag along on a business trip back to Florence. While there, Courtland revisits the church, and suddenly comes face to face with a young woman named Sandra (Bujold in a dual role) who looks exactly like his late wife. The already slightly unhinged Courtland begins to court the young woman, and subtly attempts to transform her into a perfect mirror image of his dead wife. Facade of the basilica San Miniato al Monte in Florence, one of the important settings of the film. Courtland returns to New Orleans with Sandra so they can marry. On their wedding night, Sandra is kidnapped and a ransom note is left behind by her abductors. It is an exact replica of the kidnappers' message from sixteen years before. This time, Courtland decides to deliver the demanded cash. He withdraws massive quantities of money from his accounts and business holdings, financially ruining him and forcing him to sign over his interest in the real estate business to LaSalle. In the process, he discovers that his entire ordeal, including the original kidnapping, had been engineered by LaSalle as a way to gain sole control of Courtland's company share holdings. The now nearly insane Courtland stabs LaSalle to death. Knowing that Sandra must have been a willing accomplice in the plot against him, he goes to the airport to kill the escaping woman. On the plane, Sandra has a flashback to her part in the scheme; she is in fact Courtland's daughter: following the original kidnapping LaSalle concealed her survival and sent her to live in secret with an Italian caretaker who raised Amy as her own child and gave her the name of Sandra. Over the years, LaSalle has told her lies about Courtland, convincing her that her father had not paid the ransom because he did not love her. Sandra, who has come to love Courtland, attempts suicide on the plane and is taken off the flight in a wheelchair. Courtland sees her and runs toward her, gun drawn. A security guard attempts to stop him but Courtland smashes the briefcase full of money against the guard's head, knocking him unconscious. The briefcase breaks open and all of the money flies out. Sandra, seeing the fluttering bills, stands up and shouts: "Daddy! You brought the money!" Courtland now realizes for the first time who Sandra really is, and father and daughter fall into a deep embrace. 

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The story follows the life of Ryunosuke Tsukue (Tatsuya Nakadai), an amoral samurai and a master swordsman with an unorthodox style. Ryunosuke is first seen when he kills an elderly Buddhist pilgrim who he finds praying for death. He appears to have no feeling. Later, he kills an opponent in self-defense in a fencing competition that was intended to be non-lethal, but became a duel after he coerced his opponent's wife to have sex with him in exchange for throwing the match and allowing her husband to win. His opponent finds out about the affair prior to the match, and is shown giving his wife a notice of divorce. His rage at Ryunosuke during the match causes him to take an illegal lunging attack after the judge proclaims a draw, and Ryunosuke, the better swordsman, parries and kills him with one stroke of his bokken. Ryunosuke flees town after killing the man, and cuts down many of the dead opponent's clansmen who attack him as he is leaving. His opponent's ex-wife asks to go along with him. Two years pass, and in order to make a living, Ryunosuke joins the Shinsengumi, a sort of semi-official police force made up of rōnin that supports the Tokugawa shogunate through murder and assassinations. Through all his interactions, whether killing a man or at home with his mistress and their baby son, Ryunosuke rarely shows any emotion. His expression is fixed in a glassy stare that suggests a quiet insanity. Eventually Ryunosuke learns that the younger brother of the man he killed in the fencing match is looking for him, intent on revenge. He plans to meet this young man and kill him, but before the duel can take place, two events occur that shake his confidence. In a botched assassination attempt, he sees another master swordsman, Shimada Toranosuke (Toshiro Mifune), in action, and for the first time he doubts that his own skill is truly unbeatable. That same night, Ryunosuke's mistress, horrified by his unremitting evil, tries to kill him in his sleep. He kills her in the gardens, to the ominous cries of their sleeping child inside the house, and flees without keeping his appointment to duel with his pursuer. Later he rejoins the gang of assassins at an oiran house (courtesan brothel) in the Shimabara district of Kyoto. There, in a quiet (and he is told, haunted) room, he starts seeing the ghosts of all the people he has killed. Further, he is haunted by the words of Shimada: "The sword is the soul. Study the soul to know the sword. Evil mind, evil sword." The final blow comes when he realizes that the apprentice oiran sent to entertain him is the granddaughter of the pilgrim he murdered at the film's beginning. With this realization, Ryunosuke appears to descend into complete insanity. He starts slashing at the shadows of the ghosts that surround him, and then begins attacking his fellow assassins, who seem to number in the hundreds. Ryunosuke kills dozens of gang members in the burning courtesan house as they gradually wear him down with what few wounds they can inflict. Finally. it appears that Ryunosuke will surely be killed. Bleeding, his face contorted in rage, he lurches forward, raises his sword one last time, and the film ends; a freeze- frame catching Ryunosuke in mid sword-slash. 

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Car delivery driver Kowalski (Barry Newman) arrives in Denver, Colorado, on a late Friday night with a black Imperial. The delivery service clerk Sandy (Karl Swenson) urges him to get some rest, but Kowalski insists on getting started with his next assignment to deliver a white 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T 440 Magnum (supposedly supercharged) to San Francisco by Monday. Before leaving Denver, Kowalski pulls into a biker bar parking lot around midnight to buy Benzedrine pills to stay awake for the long drive ahead. He bets his dealer Jake (Lee Weaver) that he will get to San Francisco by 3:00 pm Sunday, even though the delivery is not due until Monday. Through flashbacks and the police reading of his record, we learn that Kowalski is a Medal of Honor Vietnam War veteran, former racecar driver, and motorcycle racer. He is also a former police officer. Driving west across Colorado, Kowalski is pursued by two motorcycle police officers who try to stop him for speeding. He forces one officer off the road and eludes the other officer by jumping across a dry creek bed. Later, the driver of a Jaguar E-Type roadster pulls up alongside Kowalski and challenges him to a race. After the Jaguar driver nearly runs him off the road, Kowalski overtakes him and beats the Jaguar to a one-lane bridge, causing the Jaguar to crash into the river. Kowalski checks to see if the driver is okay, then takes off, with police cars in pursuit. Kowalski drives across Utah and into Nevada, with the police unable to catch him. During the pursuit, Kowalski listens to radio station KOW, (as 2011 is KGFN 89.1) which is broadcasting from Goldfield, Nevada. A blind black disc jockey at KOW, who goes by the name of Super Soul (Cleavon Little), listens to the police radio frequency and encourages Kowalski to evade the police. Super Soul seems to understand Kowalski and seems to see and hear Kowalski's reactions. With the help of Super Soul, who calls Kowalski "the last American hero", Kowalski gains the interest of the news media, and people begin to gather at the KOW radio station to offer their support. During the police chase across Nevada, Kowalski finds himself surrounded and heads into the desert. After he blows a left front tire and becomes lost, Kowalski is helped by an old prospector (Dean Jagger) who catches rattlesnakes for a Pentecostal Christian commune. After Kowalski is given fuel, the old man directs him back to the highway. There, he picks up two homosexual hitchhikers stranded en route to San Francisco with a "Just Married" sign in their rear window. When they attempt to hold him up at gunpoint, Kowalski throws them out of the car and continues on his journey. Saturday afternoon, a vengeful off-duty highway patrolman and a group of thugs break into the KOW studio and assault Super Soul and his engineer. Near the California state line, Kowalski is helped by hippie biker Angel (Timothy Scott), who gives him pills to help him stay awake. Angel's girlfriend (Gilda Texter), who rides a motorcycle nude, recognizes Kowalski and shows him a collage she made of newspaper articles about his police career. Kowalski suspects that Super Soul's broadcast is now being directed by the police to entrap him. Confirming that the police are indeed waiting at the border, Angel helps Kowalski get through the roadblock with the help of an old air raid siren and a small motorbike with a red headlight strapped to the top of the Challenger, simulating a police car. Kowalski finally reaches California by Saturday at 7:12 pm. He calls Jake from a payphone to reassure him that he still intends to deliver the car on Monday, while acknowledging he won't win their bet, and offering to double it for the next time. On Sunday morning, California police, who have been tracking Kowalski's movements on an electronic wall-map, set up a roadblock with two bulldozers in the small town of Cisco, where Kowalski will be passing. A small crowd gathers at the roadblock, and as Kowalski approaches at high speed, he smiles as he crashes into the bulldozers in a fiery explosion. As firemen work to put out the flames, the crowd slowly disperses. 

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