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The novel, a direct sequel to its predecessor, The Last Hero sees Templar and his organization taking revenge on an arms dealer named Rayt Marius, following the death of one of Templar's friends. The book starts approximately three months after the events of The Last Hero. Simon Templar and his associate, Roger Conway, have been spending much of that time chasing Marius and his superior, Prince Rudolf (Crown Prince of an unidentified country) across Europe. Templar suspects that Marius and Rudolf are planning to follow through with their scheme to spark a new World War (continuing from The Last Hero), and in any event, Templar has sworn to kill whichever of the two men murdered his friend Norman Kent at the close of the previous adventure. Although Templar had been forced to flee England at the end of the previous novel, he has since found himself back in Britain and again on the trail of Marius. While executing a scheme to root Marius out from hiding by infiltrating a bogus nursing home, Templar and Conway rescue who they initially think is an elderly man held prisoner by one of Marius's compatriots; Templar soon discovers that they've actually rescued the beautiful daughter of a millionaire upon whose safety relies world peace. The woman, Sonia Delmar, subsequently joins Templar's fight against Marius (who Templar learns is the man who killed Norman) and Prince Rudolf, even going so far as to allowing herself to be kidnapped by the villains. Templar is said to be 29 years old in this tale. In this book, Sonia Delmar becomes the romantic female lead, replacing Templar's girlfriend of the previous books, Patricia Holm, who is referenced only briefly in the story as being on a cruise in the Mediterranean (this same excuse was used by Charteris to remove the character from much of the action in Enter the Saint as well). This was the first book to indicate the " open" nature of Templar and Holm's relationship, although in this case Templar makes clear that his heart remains with Holm. The final chapter of the book contains a somewhat metafictional reference in that Templar indicates his intent to give his notes regarding the Marius affair to "a writer friend" with the idea of his turning them into a novel—a reference to Leslie Charteris himself. (This same literary device has also been employed by the likes of Arthur Conan Doyle in his Sherlock Holmes books and Ian Fleming in his James Bond novel You Only Live Twice.) And finally, perhaps in a nod to the developing continuity of the "series", Charteris brings Detective-Inspector Carn (MEET THE TIGER) back for a brief reunion with Templar at the climax. A later Saint novel, Getaway, completed the trilogy begun by The Last Hero and Knight Templar. The ultimate fate of Rayt Marius would be revealed in the novella "The Simon Templar Foundation" in The Misfortunes of Mr. Teal. 

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Randolph Carter dreams of a majestic city but can not approach it. When he prays to the gods of dream to reveal the city's whereabouts, his dreams of the city stop altogether. Undaunted, Carter resolves to beseech the gods in person at Kadath. However, no one knows where that is. In dream, Carter consults priests in a temple that borders the Dreamlands. They warn Carter of great danger and suggest that the gods purposefully stopped his visions. Carter's knowledge of Dreamlands customs and languages makes his quest comparatively less risky than if done by an amateur, but he must consult entities with a dangerous reputation. The Zoogs, a race of predatory rodents, direct him to Ulthar to find the priest Atal. In the cat-laden city of Ulthar, Atal mentions a huge mountainside carving of the gods' features. Carter realizes the gods' mortal descendants will share those features and presumably be near Kadath. While seeking passage there, Carter is kidnapped by turbaned slavers, who take him to the moon and deliver him to horrible moon-beasts, the servants of malevolent god Nyarlathotep. The cats of Ulthar, Carter's allies, rescue him and return him to a port city. After a long journey, Carter finds the carving, recognizing the visage of the gods in traders who dock at Celephaïs. Before he can act on his knowledge, faceless, winged creatures called nightgaunts capture him and leave him to die in the underworld. Friendly ghouls, including Carter's friend Richard Pickman, assist him in returning to the surface by sneaking through the terrible city of the man- eating Gugs. After assisting the cats in repelling a Zoog sneak attack, Carter buys passage to Celephaïs and learns from the sailors that the traders come from Inganok,Some versions of the text use "Inquanok", which came from August Derleth's misreading of Lovecraft's manuscript when he originally published the story. (Harms, "Inganok", The Encyclopedia Cthulhiana, p. 149). a cold and dark land devoid of cats. Carter meets Celephaïs' king, his friend Kuranes, who became a permanent resident of the Dreamlands upon his death in the waking world. Longing for home, he has dreamed parts of his kingdom to resemble his native Cornwall. Kuranes knows the pitfalls of the Dreamlands well but fails to dissuade Carter from his quest. Under the pretense of wishing to work in its quarries, Carter boards a ship bound for Inganok. As they draw near, Carter spots a nameless island from which he hears strange howls. At a breathtaking summit near a quarry, Carter is captured by a merchant he had previously encountered. Monstrous birds fly them over the Plateau of Leng, a vast tableland populated by Pan-like beings. Carter is brought to a monastery inhabited by the dreaded High Priest Not to Be Described. There, Carter learns that the Men of Leng conceal their horns under turbans and are the slavers who captured him. He also learns that the nightgaunts do not serve Nyarlathotep, as is commonly supposed but Nodens, and that even Earth's gods fear them. Carter recoils in horror as he realizes the masked high-priest's true identity. Carter flees through maze-like corridors, wandering through the monastery in pitch-black darkness until he chances on the exit. After rescuing several ghouls from Men of Leng, Carter and ghoul reinforcements attack a moon-beast outpost on the nameless rock. In a nearby city, Carter obtains the services of a flock of nightgaunts to transport himself and the ghouls to the gods' castle on Kadath. After a long flight, Carter arrives at Kadath but finds it empty. A great procession led by a pharaoh-like man arrives. The pharaoh reveals himself as Nyarlathotep and tells Carter that the city of his dreams is the childhood memories of his home city of Boston. The gods of earth have seen the city of Carter's dreams and made it their home, abandoning Kadath and their responsibilities. Impressed with Carter's resolve, Nyarlathotep grants Carter passage to the city to recall the gods of earth, but Carter realizes too late that the mocking Nyarlathotep has tricked him, and he is being taken to the court of Azathoth at the center of the universe. At first believing he is doomed, Carter suddenly remembers that he is in a dream and wakes himself. Nyarlathotep broods over his defeat within the halls of Kadath, mocking in anger the "mild gods of earth" whom he has snatched back from the sunset city. 

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The story begins in the year 1913, when a young man who is the narrator was travelling alone on a hiking trip through Provence, France, and into the Alps, enjoying the relatively unspoiled wilderness. He runs out of water in a treeless, desolate valley where only wild lavender grows and there is no trace of civilization except old, empty crumbling buildings. He finds only a dried-up well, but is saved by a middle- aged shepherd who takes him to a spring he knows of. Curious about this man and why he has chosen such a lonely life, the narrator stays with him for a time. The shepherd, Elzéard Bouffier, after being widowed, decided to restore the ruined landscape of the isolated and largely abandoned valley by single- handedly cultivating a forest, by planting acorns. He makes holes in the ground with his straight iron staff and drops into them acorns that collected from miles away. He is also growing beech and birch saplings for planting. The narrator leaves the shepherd, returns home, and later fights in the First World War. In 1920, shell-shocked and depressed after the war, the man returns. He is surprised to see young saplings of all forms taking root in the valley, and new streams running through it, where the shepherd has made dams higher up in the mountains. The narrator makes a full recovery in the peace and beauty of the regrowing valley, and continues to visit the region and M. Bouffier every year. He finds on one visit that Bouffier is no longer a shepherd, because of the sheep eating his young trees, and has become a bee keeper instead. The valley receives official protection after the First World War, with the French authorities mistakenly believing that the rapid growth of the new forest is a bizarre natural phenomenon, as they are unaware of Bouffier's selfless deeds. Over four decades, Bouffier continues to plant trees, and the valley is turned into a kind of Garden of Eden. By the end of the story, the valley is vibrant with life and is peacefully settled, with more than 10,000 people living there, not knowing they owe their happiness to Bouffier. The narrator tells one of his friends, a government forester, the truth about the new forest, and the friend also helps to protect it. In 1945, the narrator visits the now very old Bouffier one last time. In 1947, in a hospice in Banon, the man who planted trees peacefully passes away. 

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The story introduces three male goats, sometimes identified as a youngster, father and grandfather, but more often described as brothers. In other adaptations, there is a baby or child goat, mama goat and papa goat. "Gruff" was used as their family name in the earliest English translation, by Dasent; the original Norwegian version used the name "Bruse". In the story, there is almost no grass left for them to eat near where they live, so they must cross a river to get to "sæter" (a meadow) or hillside on the other side of a stream in order to eat and fatten themselves up. To do so, however, they must first cross a bridge, under which lives a fearsome and hideous troll, who is so territorial that he eats anyone who tries to cross the bridge. The smallest billy goat is the first to cross and is stopped abruptly by the troll who threatens to "gobble him up!" However, the little goat convinces the troll to wait for his big brother to come across, because he is larger and would make for a more gratifying feast. The greedy troll agrees and lets the smallest goat cross. The medium-sized goat passes next. He is more cautious than his brother but is also stopped by the troll and given the same threat. The second billy goat is allowed to cross as well after he tells the troll to wait for the biggest billy goat because he is the largest of the three. The third billy goat gets on the bridge, but is also stopped by the hungry troll who threatens to devour him. However, the third billy goat challenges the troll and knocks him off the bridge with his horns. The troll falls into the stream and is carried away by the current. From then on the bridge is safe, and all three goats are able to go to the rich fields around the summer farm in the hills, and they all live happily ever after. 

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Miles Raymond is an unsuccessful writer, a wine aficionado, and a divorced, depressed, alcoholic middle-aged English teacher living in San Diego. He takes Jack Cole, his soon- to-be-married actor friend and former college roommate, on a road trip through the Santa Ynez Valley wine country. At the beginning of this trip, he stops to see his mother before the day of her birthday. While there he steals a thousand dollars from her secret stash. Though Jack is still recognized on occasion, his acting career appears to have peaked years earlier, when he had a role in a popular TV soap. He now does commercial voice-overs and plans to enter his future father-in-law's successful real estate business. Miles wants to spend the week relaxing, playing golf and enjoying good food and wine. However, much to Miles' consternation, Jack is on the prowl and wants one last sexual fling before settling into domestic life. In the wine country, the pair visit Miles' favorite restaurant, The Hitching Post II, and encounter Maya, a waitress with whom Miles is casually acquainted. Jack senses that Maya is interested in Miles, who believes she is married. Jack lies to Maya that Miles' manuscript has been accepted for publication, even though it is only being considered. As they are walking back to the motel, Jack tells Miles that Maya did not have a wedding ring on at the bar, implying that she is single as he suspected. At a tasting in a local winery, Jack and Miles meet a wine pourer named Stephanie, who is also acquainted with Maya. Jack is immediately attracted to Stephanie and arranges a double date. During the date, Miles gets drunk and telephones Victoria, his ex-wife, after learning from Jack that she has remarried. The two couples go to Stephanie's home, where she and Jack adjourn to her bedroom for sex. Miles and Maya connect through their mutual interest in wine. While in Stephanie's kitchen, Miles awkwardly attempts to kiss her. As they are leaving separately, Miles gives her a copy of his manuscript, which Maya had earlier expressed interest in reading. Jack's affair with Stephanie continues, to the point where he believes he's falling in love; he bonds with her daughter and suggests to a disgusted Miles that they move there for him to be closer to Stephanie. After spending time with Jack and Stephanie at wineries and a picnic, Miles and Maya return to her apartment and have sex. The next day, after spending time with her in town, Miles lets it slip that Jack is to be married. Disgusted with the men's dishonesty, Maya dumps Miles. Jack and Miles go to a winery that Miles immediately calls mediocre. After receiving word from his literary agent that his manuscript has been rejected, an upset Miles tries to get the server to give him a "full pour" of wine. When the server refuses, Miles ends up drinking from the spit bucket in the tasting room, creating a scene. Jack intervenes and drives Miles back to the motel. Upon arrival, they meet Stephanie, who hits Jack in the face with her motorcycle helmet, screaming about his impending wedding and his supposed love for her. Miles takes Jack to the ER and leaves Maya an apologetic voice message, admitting that his book is not going to be published. That night, Jack hooks up with a waitress named Cammi, much to Miles' disgust. Hours later, Jack shows up at the motel – naked and confessing that Cammi's husband came home while she and Jack were having sex. Jack was forced to flee without his clothes and wallet (which contains a pair of irreplaceable wedding rings). He convinces Miles to sneak into the house, where he discovers Cammi and her husband having sex. Miles grabs the wallet and runs, barely escaping the irate husband, who pursues him in the nude. To explain his broken nose to his fiancée, Jack intentionally damages Miles' Saab 900 convertible, giving the appearance they had been in an accident. The pair return to the fiancée's home, where Jack is welcomed with open arms. Miles drives away in his battered car. Following the wedding ceremony, Miles runs into his ex-wife Victoria and meets her new husband. Victoria tells Miles that she is pregnant. Alone, Miles drinks his prized wine, a 1961 Château Cheval Blanc, from a disposable styrofoam soda cup at a fast-food restaurant. Time passes as Miles returns to the routine of teaching school. One day he receives a voicemail from Maya, who says she enjoyed his manuscript and invites him to visit. Miles drives back to wine country and knocks on Maya's door. 

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After having left their own world due to a loss of natural resources, the winged humanoid Nohrin settle on Jhamora with the permission of the ground-dwelling Lokni. Would-be conqueror Sedessa leads those Nohrin that believe in its own racial superiority and try to take land away from the Lokni. The parents of Delgo, a Lokni, are killed in the resulting conflict. Nohrin King Zahn is horrified by the war and admonishes Sedessa, who then poisons the Queen and almost kills Zahn (who catches her) as well. She is subsequently banished, and her wings are clipped off. Delgo, meanwhile, is raised by Elder Marley, who tries to teach him how to use the power of magical stones. Delgo grows up and he gives in to his desire for revenge against all Nohrin. He meets Nohrin Princess Kyla and develops a tentative friendship with her. When she is kidnapped by Nohrin General Raius, who is actually working for Sedessa, Delgo and his friend Filo are blamed and arrested. In the Nohrin prison, Delgo meets Nohrin General Bogardus, who was forced to illegally gamble with his weapons by Raius, because Bogardus opposed an all out war with the Lokni. Delgo, Filo, and Bogardus escape into some caverns and eventually reach Sedessa's stronghold and rescue Kyla. They return too late to avert a war taking place. Bogardus fights and defeats Raius, but he is mortally injured. Just as Bogardus dies from heavy wounds, Delgo realizes that he was the Nohrin soldier who spared his life many years ago during the first war between the Nohrin and the Lokni. Meanwhile, Sedessa's army of monsters join in the battle. Kyla convinces the Nohrin generals to direct their troops to stop fighting the Lokni and instead pick them up and fly them away from the battlefield. Filo then directs an entire stampede of large animals onto the battlefield, sending Sedessa's minions fleeing for their lives. Delgo goes off to face Sedessa and find King Zahn, whom she has taken prisoner. He finally manages to master the stone magic, and defeats Sedessa. He also puts the past behind him by saving her rather than letting her fall to her death. However, Sedessa then attacks Kyla, who has come to Delgo's aid. The two struggle and Sedessa finally falls, injuring herself by the fall and her artificial wings being of no use. Later, during the celebrations, it turns out Raius was not dead, and he makes one last attempt to kill Delgo. He is subdued by a Nohrin, but not before he throws his spear at Delgo. Then, out of nowhere, the spear breaks in mid-air. Everyone turns to look at Filo, who has finally mastered his slingshot. Later, Delgo and Kyla's friendship blossoms into romance when they finally kiss. 

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A series of murders has begun to plague the town of French Landing, Wisconsin. The murderer is dubbed "The Fisherman", due to a conscious effort by the killer to emulate the methods of serial killer Albert Fish. Like Fish, French Landing's killer targets children and indulges in cannibalism of the bodies. Two victims have already been discovered as the story opens, with a third awaiting discovery. The nature of the crimes, and the local police's inability to capture the killer, have led people all over the region to become more anxious with each passing day, and certain elements of the local media exacerbate the situation with inflammatory and provocative coverage. After the events of The Talisman, Jack Sawyer has repressed the memories of his adventures in The Territories and his hunt for the Talisman as a twelve-year- old boy, though the residue of these events has served to subtly affect his life even after he has forgotten them. Jack grew up to become a lieutenant in the Los Angeles Police Department, where his professionalism and uncanny talent have helped him establish a nearly legendary reputation. When a series of murders in Los Angeles are traced to a farm insurance salesman from French Landing, Wisconsin, Jack cooperates with the French Landing police to capture the killer. While in Wisconsin, Jack is irresistibly enraptured by the natural beauty of the Coulee Country, echoing his reaction to The Territories as a child. When he later intrudes upon a homicide investigation in Santa Monica, certain aspects of the crime scene threaten to revive his repressed memories. He subsequently resigns from the LAPD, and he moves to French Landing to enjoy his early retirement. When the Fisherman begins to terrorize French Landing, the police all but beg "Hollywood" Jack Sawyer for his assistance and are surprised when he flatly refuses. Memories of the Santa Monica event threaten to overwhelm Jack, and he fears that involving himself in the investigation may break his sanity. When a fourth child is taken by the Fisherman, events no longer allow Jack to remain aloof. It quickly becomes apparent to him that the Fisherman is much more than a serial killer. In fact, he is an agent of the Crimson King, and his task is to find children with the potential to serve as Breakers. The fourth victim, Tyler Marshall, is one of the most powerful Breakers there has ever been, and he may be all the Crimson King needs to break the remaining beams of the Dark Tower and bring an end to all worlds. As the Fisherman also proves capable of "flipping" into The Territories, Jack Sawyer is the only hope of not just French Landing, but all existence. 

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* Act 1, scene 1: Yerma has been married two years. She wants to strengthen her husband, Juan, so he can give her children. Telling Yerma to stay at home, Juan goes back to his work in the olive groves, and Yerma talks and sings to the child she wishes she were carrying. María, married five months and already pregnant, asks Yerma to sew for the baby. Yerma fears that if she, too, doesn't conceive soon, her blood will turn to poison. The couple's friend, Víctor, sees Yerma sewing and assumes she is pregnant. His advice when he learns the truth: Try harder. *Act 1, scene 2: Yerma has just taken Juan his dinner in the fields. On the road home, she encounters an old woman who insists that passion is the key to conception. Yerma admits a secret longing for Víctor but none for Juan. She then meets two girls whose attitudes astonish her. One has left her baby untended. The other is childless and glad of it, although her mother, Dolores, is giving her herbs for pregnancy. Next Víctor comes along, and the conversation between Víctor and Yerma becomes tense with unspoken thoughts and desires. Juan enters, worrying about what people will say if Yerma stays out chatting. He tells her he intends to work all night. Yerma will sleep alone. *Act 2, scene 1: It is three years later. Five laundresses gossip about a woman who still has no children, who has been looking at another man, and whose husband has brought in his sisters to keep an eye on her. We know they mean Yerma. The laundresses sing about husbands, lovemaking, and babies. *Act 2, scene 2: Juan's two sisters watch over Yerma. She refuses to stay at home, and people are talking. Without children in it, her house seems like a prison to her. Her marriage has turned bitter. María visits, but reluctantly since the sight of her baby always makes Yerma weep. The childless girl says her mother, Dolores, is expecting Yerma. Víctor comes in to say goodbye. Yerma is surprised and a little saddened by Víctor's announcement to go. When she asks him why he must go he answers along the lines of “things change.” Juan enters and it is later found out that Juan has bought Víctor's sheep. It would seem that Juan is one of the reasons why Víctor is leaving. Yerma is angered, and when Juan goes out with Víctor, Yerma makes her escape to see Dolores. Lorca, Pura Maórtua and Valle-Inclán, Madrid, 1934. *Act 3, scene 1: Yerma is found at Dolores's house. Dolores and the old woman have been praying over Yerma all night in the cemetery. Juan accuses Yerma of deceit, and she curses her blood, her body, and her father "who left me the blood of the father of a hundred sons." *Act 3, scene 2: The scene begins near a hermitage high in the mountains, a place to which many barren women, including Yerma, have made a pilgrimage. Young men are there, hoping to father a child or to win a woman away from her husband. The old woman tells Yerma to leave Juan and take up with her son, who is "made of blood," but Yerma holds to her sense of honor and dismisses that thought. Juan overhears and tells Yerma to give up wanting a child, to be content with what she has. Realizing that Juan never did and never will want a child, Yerma strangles him, thus killing her only hope of ever bearing a child. The play ends with Yerma saying, "Don't come near me because I've killed my son. I myself have killed my son!" 

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In the winter of 1943–44, U.S. Army Brigadier General George Carnaby (Robert Beatty), a chief planner for the Western Front, is captured by the Germans. He is taken for interrogation to Schloß Adler (Hohenwerfen Castle), a mountaintop fortress accessible only by cable car. A team of seven Allied commandos, led by British Major John Smith of the Grenadier Guards (Richard Burton) and U.S. Army Ranger Lieutenant Morris Schaffer (Clint Eastwood), is briefed by Colonel Turner (Patrick Wymark) and Vice Admiral Rolland (Michael Hordern) of MI6. Disguised as German troops, they are to parachute in, enter the castle, and rescue General Carnaby before the Germans can interrogate him. After their Ju 52 transport plane drops them into Germany, Smith secretly meets Mary Ellison (Mary Ure) with whom it's implied he is in a relationship and Heidi Schmidt (Ingrid Pitt), their presence known only to him; Heidi arranges for Mary to be a secretary at the castle. Although two of the team are mysteriously killed, Smith continues the operation, keeping Schaffer as a close ally and secretly updating Rolland and Turner by radio. The Germans eventually surround the commandos in a tavern, and they are forced to surrender; Smith and Schaffer (being officers) are separated from the other three operatives, Thomas (William Squire), Berkeley (Peter Barkworth), and Christiansen (Donald Houston). Smith and Schaffer kill their captors, blow up a supply depot, and prepare an escape route for later use. They reach the castle by riding on the roof of a cable car, and climb inside when Mary lowers a rope. German General Rosemeyer (Ferdy Mayne) and Standartenführer Kramer (Anton Diffring) are interrogating Carnaby when the three operative/prisoners arrive. They are revealed to be agents working for the Germans. Shortly thereafter, Smith and Schaffer intrude, weapons drawn, but Smith then forces Schaffer to disarm. He identifies himself as Sturmbannführer Johann Schmidt of the SD of the SS intelligence branch, and a spy too. As proof, he discreetly shows the name of Germany's top agent in Britain to Kramer, who silently affirms it. To test them, Schmidt proposes that they write down the names of their fellow agents in Britain, to be compared to his own list in his pocket. After the three finish their lists, Smith reveals that he was bluffing and that the lists were the mission's true objective. Meanwhile, Mary is visited by Sturmbannführer (Major) von Hapen (Derren Nesbitt), a Gestapo officer who is attracted to her, but he becomes suspicious of flaws in her cover story. Leaving her, he happens upon the scene of Carnaby's interrogation just as Smith finishes his explanation. Hapen puts everyone under arrest but is distracted when Mary arrives. Schaffer seizes the opportunity to kill Hapen and the other German officers with his silenced pistol. The group then makes its escape, taking the American General (who is actually a corporal named Jones, an actor trained to impersonate Carnaby) and three British Captains to the escape route. Schaffer sets explosives to create diversions around the castle, while Smith leads the group to the radio room, where he informs Rolland of their success. The group reunites with Heidi on the ground, boarding a bus they had obtained earlier as an escape vehicle. They battle their way on to an airfield and escape in their Ju 52 transport, where Turner has been waiting. As Turner debriefs Smith about the mission, Smith reveals that the name Kramer confirmed as Germany's top agent in Britain was Turner's. Rolland had lured Turner and the others into participating, so that MI6 could expose them; Smith's trusted partner Mary and the American Schaffer (who had no connection to MI6) had been assigned to the mission to ensure its success. Turner aims a gun at Smith, who reveals that Rolland has had the gun's firing pin removed. Smith permits Turner to jump out of the aeroplane to his death, rather than be tried for treason and hanged. 

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Charlie Baileygates (Jim Carrey) is a veteran Rhode Island state trooper who has been taken advantage of by those around him, including his wife Layla (Traylor Howard). Almost immediately after their wedding, Layla begins to cheat on Charlie with their wedding limo chauffeur, a dwarf black man named Shonté. Despite his friends warning him of Layla's infidelity, Charlie refuses to accept it, even after she gave birth to biracial triplets. A few years later, Layla leaves with Shonté, abandoning her children. Charlie raises the triplets: Jamal, Lee Harvey, and Shonté Jr. (Anthony Anderson, Jerod Mixon, Mongo Brownlee). While Charlie is loved and respected by the boys, he is continually abused by the rest of the town. As a result of years of such treatment, Charlie develops a split personality named Hank to deal with the confrontations Charlie avoids. Emerging whenever Charlie is under extreme stress, Hank is an over-the-top, rude, and violent persona reminiscent of characters played by Clint Eastwood. A psychiatrist prescribes medication to keep Hank at bay. Believing that Charlie needs a vacation, his commanding officer (Robert Forster) orders him to escort Irene Waters (Renée Zellweger) from Rhode Island to Massena, New York, because she reportedly committed a hit-and-run. Irene insists the accusation is a lie told by Dickie (Daniel Greene), her mob-connected ex-boyfriend, to keep her from revealing his illegal activities to the authorities. In Massena, Charlie turns over Irene to two EPA agents. A hitman with a contract on Irene's life kills one of the agents. Irene and Charlie flee, leaving his medication behind in their haste and allowing Hank to emerge frequently. Charlie is unjustly blamed for the murder. FBI agents begin pursuing him and Irene, as do two crooked police officers in Dickie's payroll, Boshane (Richard Jenkins) and Gerke (Chris Cooper). The chase becomes a media spectacle, alerting Charlie's sons to his predicament. Charlie and Irene return to Rhode Island, developing a bond along the way. Though Irene is taken by Charlie's personality, Hank worries her, as his aggressive personality and overestimation of his own toughness often gets them into trouble. Along the way they pick up "Whitey" (Michael Bowman), an albino waiter who claims to have killed his entire family. While stopping at a motel, Hank convinces Irene to have sex with him by impersonating Charlie. When Charlie realizes what happened the next morning, he is incensed and begins fighting with Hank. They are almost ambushed by Boshane and Gerke, but Charlie's sons, having found them, steal a police helicopter and call in a false report, stating Charlie and Irene have been spotted in the woods nearby. Charlie and Irene leave Whitey at the motel and board a train back to Rhode Island. Dickie boards the same train, having been ordered by his superiors to "get his hands dirty". He kidnaps Irene, and Charlie gives chase, working together with Hank to save her. Hank balks when Dickie heads onto a bridge, but Charlie finally stands up for himself against his fears, thus permanently nullifying Hank. As Charlie tries to disarm Dickie, Dickie shoots off his thumb. Dickie is then hit from behind by a lawn dart thrown by Whitey, killing him. Charlie and Irene fall from the bridge into a river below. Charlie's sons arrive to rescue them. Regrouping with Whitey, Charlie apologizes for making him kill again, but Whitey reveals he made up his backstory for fear of Hank. The police arrive, but quickly learn of Irene's plight. Gerke and Boshane are arrested, Charlie is congratulated for bringing them to justice, and Irene is cleared of the charges against her. Irene prepares to leave Rhode Island when she is pulled over by the police, but this proves only to be a diversion to allow Charlie to propose marriage to her, which she happily accepts. In a post-credits scene, everyone looks for Charlie's thumb in the river. Whitey finds it, but a fish eats it. 

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Mick Winger has an unusual gift and with it has accidentally killed several people. When Mick gets angry at people, his power manifests itself by launching an attack upon them by giving them cancer, leukemia or related terminal illnesses. If made angry enough, his anger can outright kill the victim. Mick was raised in an orphanage and along his journey to manhood unintentionally killed several people who mistreated him, as well as nearly everyone he loved, though nearly every occurrence was accidental. The only intentional murder he describes while growing up is being nearly molested in a Denny's bathroom. This is when he discovers the intensity of the attacks are greatly heightened when he's touching a target. When fifteen, he fled child custody and set out on his own. When Mick becomes angry, he gets, as he describes it, "sparky." He can see sparks surrounding and enveloping him and then those sparks lashing out on the object of his anger. Unavoidably, those attacked by his "sparks" end up with terminal illnesses and soon die. The effect of his attack is much more pronounced if he is touching the victim. Until he was a young man, Mick had no idea he was different from other children. He discovered he was different when describing "sparkiness" with other children, who had no idea what he was talking about. Soon after setting out on his own, he encounters a young woman who not only knows about his gift, but who even seems to possess the same gift, although to a lesser extent. She however possesses the ability to "call," to influence Mick so that he unintentionally heads straight for her, as well as intense sexual attraction, which she describes as simple pheromones that all people have, except that people like Mick, due to a different biochemical makeup (though Mick doesn't understand this when it is first explained to him), is far more susceptible to these pheromones than a normal human being. Eventually he is led back to his birth parents, who are members of a mysterious, secluded colony. Talking to his parents, who also possess his ability, he learns he is far more powerful than they or probably anyone else at the colony. Mick learns that what he sees as "sparks" his family only sees as dust; he even begins to realize that he can see when people are lying. After being brought to the villages Patriarch, Papa Lem, Mick learns the intent of the colony and how they operate. Mick then refuses to "spread his seed" with the daughter of Papa Lem and returns to his parents' house for the night. During the night, Mick is attacked by an agent of Papa Lem and others from the village. Mick ends up killing his father and setting fire to the village while at the same time learning new extents to his abilities. After fleeing the village on foot, Mick runs into the girl he met when he first set out on his own. The assailants from the village quickly catch up with the duo and start firing at them. The woman, unbeknown to Mick, is shot in the back of the head just as they reach their allies. Mick pulls the girl from her wrecked car and puts all his "sparkiness" into her just before passing out. Mick awakes in the lair of his new allies. Upon questioning, Mick learns that the girl is alive and that he had somehow healed her from the bullet wound. Mick is on his way to officially meet the young lady when the story abruptly ends. 

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An amateur entomologist and schoolteacher, Niki Junpei (Eiji Okada), leaves Tokyo and goes on an expedition to study an unclassified species of beetle that are found in a vast sand dune. After a long day of searching under the scorching sun and losing track of time, Junpei misses the last bus ride home to civilization. Fortunately, a village elder (Kōji Mitsui) and some of his fellow local villagers suggest that he stay the night at their village, offering Junpei a place to stay. After some persuasion by the villager, Junpei agrees and is then guided down a rope ladder to a hut at the bottom of a sand dune to stay with a young widow (Kyōko Kishida). Junpei settles into the hut where he will spend the night with this mysterious young widow, who feeds him a nutritious traditional Japanese dinner consisting of broiled fish, rice, and soup. After some short conversation and small talk, Junpei discovers that the woman, a meek and simple lady, lost her husband and daughter in a sandstorm and now lives alone. The child and father's dead body is said to be buried under the sand somewhere near the hut. She is employed by the villagers to dig sand for sale to be used in concrete and to save the house from burial in the advancing sand. After dinner, the woman goes outside to shovel the sand into a bucket, where the villagers reel it in from the top of the dune. Junpei offers to help but she quickly denies, telling him that he is a guest and there is no need for him to help on the first day. Junpei wakes up with a start the next morning and gets ready to go back to his home in Tokyo. When Junpei tries to leave, he finds that the ladder is gone, quickly realizing that the ladder was a rope ladder which is anchored from the top of the pit. The realizations rush into Junpei's head and it becomes clear to him that he is stuck in this sand pit with this woman and there is no way to escape as the sand that surrounds the hut does not have enough grip to climb up. The villagers expect him to become the woman's husband and to assist her in digging sand. Junpei also realizes that this is the woman's life, where she digs in order to live, since if she doesn't, the rations from the villagers would not be provided and also the sand will eventually swallow her alive. Junpei has been put into a never ending life sentence trap where he will constantly need to dig in order to live. Junpei becomes the widow's lover, but he still holds on tight to the motivation to one day escape from the dune. One morning, using an improvised grappling hook, he escapes from the sand dune and runs away, with the villagers soon giving chase. Junpei is unfamiliar with the geography of the area and becomes trapped in quicksand. The villagers free him from the quicksand and return him to the hut in the sand dune. Eventually, Junpei resigns himself to his situation. He requests time to watch the nearby sea, and the villagers offer to grant it if he has sex with the woman while they watch, but she denies and fends him off. Through his persistent effort to trap a crow as a messenger, he discovers a way to draw water from the damp sand at night and becomes absorbed in the task of perfecting the technique, to the point of unhealthy obsession. When it is discovered that the woman is ill from an ectopic pregnancy, the villagers take her to a doctor, leaving the rope ladder when they go. Given the one chance to escape that Junpei has been insisting for a long time, Junpei instead chooses to stay, presumably having found purpose in his water extraction experiments and his life with the woman and baby. The film's final shot is of a police report that shows that Junpei has been missing for seven years. 

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Father Quixote, a parish priest in the little town of El Toboso in Spain's La Mancha region, regards himself as a descendant of Cervantes' character of the same name, even if people point out to him that Don Quixote was a fictitious character. One day, he helps and gives food to a mysterious Italian bishop whose car has broken down. Shortly afterwards, he is given the title of monsignor by the Pope, much to the surprise of his bishop who looks upon Father Quixote's activities rather with suspicion. He urges the priest to take a holiday, and so Quixote embarks upon a voyage through Spain with his old Seat 600 called "Rocinante" and in the company of the Communist ex-mayor of El Toboso (who, of course, is nicknamed "Sancho"). In the subsequent course of events, Quixote and his companion have all sorts of funny and moving adventures along the lines of his ancestor's on their way through post-Franco Spain. They encounter the contemporary equivalents of the windmills, are confronted with holy and not-so-holy places and with sinners of all sorts. In their dialogues about Catholicism and Communism, the two men are brought closer, start to appreciate each other better but also to question their own beliefs. Quixote is briefly taken back to El Toboso, confronted by the bishop about his doings and suspended from service as a priest, but he escapes and sets out again with Sancho. In his last adventure, Father Quixote is struck down and wounded while attempting to save a statue of the Virgin Mary from hypocrites who are desecrating her by offering her up for money. This is the scene from the original Cervantes' novel refurbished with reversed accents: Quixote does know Who the Lady is, while the people in the procession actually don't. Quixote and Sancho are brought to a Trappist monastery where, sleepwalking and in delirium, Father Quixote rises from his bed at night, goes to the church, celebrates the old Tridentine Mass--all the time imagining he holds bread and wine in his hands--and then, in a last effort, administers communion to the Communist ex-mayor before sinking dead into his friend's arms. 

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Nana, an attractive young "non-talker" in her mid-twenties--"tall, thin, pale, blonde, breasty"--who is working on her M.A. thesis, lives with her "Papa", the "benevolent angel" of the story, in Edgware, a suburb of London. She gets to know Moshe, a young Jewish actor from Finsbury, and they start a relationship. As time goes by, Anjali, a friend of Moshe's, joins them more and more in their sparetime activities until Nana, for whom sex is not necessarily a top priority, suggests a "threesome" because she wants Moshe to be happy. Accordingly, due to Nana's altruism, for some months Nana and Moshe are joined in their lovemaking by Anjali, who is bisexual. The narrator, who defines a threesome as "the socialist utopia of sex", describes not only the sociology, psychology and ethics of their ménage à trois (for example by comparing it to the love triangle depicted in the film Cabaret) but also, in some detail, the technicalities and what he calls "sexual etiquette". However, he also frequently ponders philosophical questions and occasionally redefines old concepts such as that of infidelity ("the selfish desire to be helpful to more than one person"). In the summer Nana goes on holiday with her Papa, leaving behind two thirds of the ménage à trois. In Venice, Italy, Papa complains of a splitting headache, and shortly after their return to England he suffers a stroke--a good excuse for Nana to break up with both Moshe and Anjali, although her father is saddened by the thought of his daughter giving up her boyfriend on his account. 

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One year has passed since the events of Rival Schools: United By Fate and that things have gone back to normal in Aoharu City. Batsu Ichimonji, Hinata Wakaba, Kyosuke Kagami, and the rest of the fighters had resumed their normal school lives and that all of them had enjoyed the calm peace that came after their last adventure, but the peace itself doesn't last for long and that the fighters would soon find themselves getting involved in a new struggle. Kurow Kirishima: a cold-hearted and ruthless ninja assassin from a mysterious group known only as the "Reverse Society" has his sight set on the Imawano family and plans to eliminate them and their allies so that he can prepare for the advancement of his own ambition to rule Japan. To this end, he attacks Raizo Imawano: the principal of Justice High and father to Batsu, so that he can easily put him out of commission and not have any interference come from him. Secondly, he sends both his older sister Yurika Kirishima and his loyal subordinate Momo Karuizawa into the ranks of the fighters so that the two of them can cause tension and distrust to occur between the friends. His third plot involves brainwashing Gedo gang leader Daigo Kazama so that he can order him into forcing his gang to attack various schools in order to cause even more tension to occur. Lastly, Kurow himself plans to destroy Batsu's reputation by disguising himself as Batsu's doppelganger (named Vatsu) so that he can attack the fighters and make them believe that Batsu is behind it. Batsu and his friends must fight back against the evil plot of Kurow and attempt to not let their friendship get destroyed by the conspiracy of a deadly ninja assassin. 

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Calamity Jane (Doris Day) rides into Deadwood, Dakota Territory as shotgun messenger on the stagecoach. When boasting how hazardous the journey was through Indian Territory, the men laugh at her exaggerated account. Survivors of an Indian attack report that the man Calamity has set her sights on, US Cavalry Lt. Danny Gilmartin (Philip Carey), was killed. When Calamity presses the survivors on how Gilmartin was killed, they admit they do not really know if he is dead. Calamity enters a Sioux war party camp with her six shooters blazing and rescues Lt. Gilmartin. Meanwhile, the local saloon, the Golden Garter, sends for beautiful women entertainers to appear on stage in a predominately male town. The saloon owner is surprised when a woman entertainer he hired turns out to be a man named Francis Fryer (Dick Wesson). Fearing a riot, the owner persuades the reluctant Fryer to perform in drag. Initially convincing, his wig falls off, revealing him is a man. The angry audience begin storming out. Calamity calms the situation by vowing to bring the one woman all the men are fawning over: singer Adelaid Adams (Gale Robbins), who is in Chicago. Francis Fryer tells Calamity that Adams would never agree to come to Deadwood but Calamity is determined. Wild Bill Hickok (Howard Keel) scoffs at Calamity's idea. Calamity travels to Chicago where Adams is giving her farewell performance before launching a European tour. Adelaid gives her old costumes to her maid, Katie Brown (Allyn McLerie), who dreams of becoming a singer. When Calamity walks in, she mistakes Katie for Adelaid. Katie, posing as Adelaid Adams, agrees to go with Calamity, seeing it as a chance to perform on stage. During Katie's first performance at the Golden Garter, Calamity realizes she sounds different. Katie bursts into tears and admits that she is not Adelaid Adams, stunning the crowd who are then on verge of rioting. Calamity fires a shot into the air and defends Katie. The audience allows Katie to carry on, and her performance wins them over. Calamity and Katie become friends; Katie moves into Calamity's ramshackle cabin which they fix up together. To attract Lt. Gilmartin, Calamity, with Katie's help, dresses and acts more ladylike. Lt. Gilmartin and Wild Bill Hickok, who are both in love with Katie, pay a visit to Calamity's cabin. While alone with Lt. Gilmartin, Katie knows he prefers her, but tells him that Calamity loves him and she will not betray her friend. Lt. Gilmartin tells Katie that he is not interested in Calamity. Katie tells both men that Calamity has changed, which they will see when she returns to the cabin. While waiting, the two men draw straws to see who will take Katie to the upcoming ball. Lt. Gilmartin wins, and Wild Bill agrees to take Calamity, though she believes Lt. Gilmartin prefers her. Before the men can see Calamity's transformation, she arrives back at the cabin covered in mud, having slipped while crossing the creek. At the ball, everyone is amazed by Calamity's transformation. She becomes increasingly jealous watching Katie and Danny dancing together. Outside in the garden, Katie can no longer resist Lt. Gilmartin, and they kiss. Calamity, seeing them, reacts angrily and confronts Katie, shooting a punch glass from her hand. Back at her cabin, Calamity throws out Katie's belongings, vowing to shoot her if she ever sees her again, then breaks down in tears. Calamity later confronts Katie during her performance, and warns her to leave town. Katie is not frightened and borrows a gun, telling Calamity to hold up a shot glass. Taunting her, Calamity boldly holds it up. A gunshot rings out, and the glass falls from Calamity's hand. It was actually Wild Bill who secretly took the shot, but he lets everyone think it was Katie. Humiliated, Calamity storms out, but Wild Bill grabs her, throws her into his wagon and drives off. Calamity Jane (Doris Day) and Wild Bill Hickok (Howard Keel) at the Golden Garter Wild Bill tries calming Calamity, and reveals that he shot the glass from her hand to teach her a lesson. He says that scaring Katie to leave town would not stop Lt. Gilmartin from loving her. Calamity is heartbroken, and reveals she was crazy about Gilmartin, while Wild Bill admits that he loved Katie. Calamity says there will never be another man for her, but she and Wild Bill passionately embrace and kiss. Calamity realizes she loved Wild Bill all along. The sun rises on a new day as a much happier Calamity rides into town, but the townsfolk rebuff her. Katie has decided to return to Chicago, feeling guilty over betraying her best friend. Lt. Gilmartin is furious with Calamity for driving Katie away and gives her Katie's note. Calamity chases after the stagecoach, eventually catching up. She tells Katie she loves Wild Bill, and the two women are friends again. A double wedding follows and the two happy couples leave town on the stagecoach.For music, lyrics and libretto of subsequent stage play and musical adapted after the Warner Bros Film, also see: Vocal score- "Calamity Jane (Operetta in Two Acts)" Amateur Operatic Version Warner Chappell Music Ltd copyright 2006 by Faber Music Ltd (). Libretto- "Calamity Jane A Musical Western" adapted by Ronald Hanmer & Phil Park from the stage play by Charles K. Freeman after the Warner Bros Film written by James O'Hanlon. Licensed to Josef Weinberger Ltd, London by arrangement with Tams-Witmark Music Library NYC. (Copyright 1962 by Tams-Witmark Music Library, New York. ISMN979-0-57005-498-5) 

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An advertisement for the game prior to release showing The Bard following the path "Coin & Cleavage" as opposed to "Save the World" Although touted in early promotional materials as a remake of the classic Bard's Tale series, InXile Entertainment never had any rights to the series' trademarks of the original Bard's Tale — those rights are still owned by Electronic Arts. This meant that InXile was not legally allowed to use any of the plot, characters or locations featured in the original trilogy. However, allusions to the original Bard's Tale do exist in the game. The city in which Fionnaoch's tower stands, Dounby, is only a few kilometers away from the ruins of real-world Skara Brae, where the original trilogy takes place. The PC, Android, and iOS ports of The Bard's Tale comes packaged with the original Bard's Tale trilogy. The plot involves "a sardonic and opportunistic musician and adventurer, driven by carnal rather than noble pursuits. The Bard, who is never identified by a specific name nor addressed by anything other than 'The Bard,' is not interested in saving the world; his humble motivations are strictly 'coin and cleavage.'" His quest is narrated by a mocking, biased man (played by Tony Jay) who cannot stand him. Many of the names and characters are influenced by Celtic mythology and the stories of the Orkney Islands. (Most of the names for places are actual locations in the Orkney Islands, including Kirkwall, Dounby, Finstown, Houton, and Stromness. Some optional areas are places in Ireland, including Dún Ailinne, Ardagh, Carrowmore, Emain Macha, and Tara.) The Bard (voiced by Cary Elwes) ends up being recruited by a cult to help free a princess named Caleigh. As a result of this, the Bard finds himself being attacked by an assortment of fanatics from a Druid-like cult, sent to dispatch him by a being called Fionnaoch. On the way to complete his quest, the not so valiant anti-hero will have to overcome the truly terrifying challenges of three monstrous guardians, break-dancing corpses, spontaneously melodious goblins, a giant, and a fire-breathing rat. Eventually, it is revealed that the Bard is just another in a long line of "Chosen Ones," many of whom he finds dead along his path. Caleigh is revealed to actually be a demon tempting people to come free her for years on the assumption that eventually someone would succeed. If the Bard frees Caleigh, she gives him all his heart's desires while destroying the world. If he slays Caleigh, The Bard returns to the road in search of the next bar maid. Alternatively, he can refuse to fight either the Druid Leader or Caleigh, allowing the undead to overrun the world, a situation he is content with as they make good bar buddies. 

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The game takes place in the fictional land of Yuria, a Conan the Barbarian- style high fantasy medieval world. An evil entity known as Death Adder has captured the King and his daughter, and holds them captive in their castle. He also finds the Golden Axe, the magical emblem of Yuria, and threatens to destroy both the axe and the royal family unless the people of Yuria accept him as their ruler. Three warriors set out on a quest to rescue Yuria and avenge their losses at the hands of Death Adder. The first is a battle axe- wielding dwarf, Gilius Thunderhead, from the mines of Wolud, whose twin brother was killed by the soldiers of Death Adder. Another is a male barbarian, Ax Battler, wielding a two-handed broadsword, looking for revenge for the murder of his mother. The last is a longsword-wielding amazon, Tyris Flare, whose parents were both killed by Death Adder. The warriors rescue the inhabitants of the ransacked Turtle Village, which turns out to be situated on the shell of a giant turtle. The turtle takes the characters across the sea, and they then fly to the castle itself on the back of a giant eagle. Once at the castle they defeat Death Adder, who is wielding the Golden Axe, and save the land. In the Genesis and PC versions, and also in other ports, the characters also battle Death Adder's mentor, Death Bringer, as the true final boss. After the final battle, the warriors receive a magical golden axe that imbues the player with immortality. The arcade release of the game concludes with a fourth wall breaking end sequence with some children playing Golden Axe at an arcade. The arcade game breaks, and the characters from within the game flood into the "real world". 

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Europe, 1945. Ilsa (Dyanne Thorne) is Kommandant of a Nazi prison camp, who conducts sadistic scientific experiments designed to demonstrate that women are more capable of enduring pain than men are, and therefore should be allowed to fight in the ever-depleting German armed forces. A sadistic authoritarian, Ilsa has a voracious sexual appetite for men, choosing a new male prisoner each night to copulate with. However, owing to her hypersexuality, she is disappointed when her victims inevitably ejaculate, and promptly has them castrated and put to death. After dispatching her latest conquest, Ilsa oversees the arrival of a new batch of both male and female prisoners. Though largely dismissive and dehumanizing of the majority of her wards, she becomes enamoured by the presence of Wolfe (Gregory Knoph); a blond-haired and blue-eyed prisoner who, unlike his compatriots, resembles the Nazi Aryan ideal. Wolfe, a German-American student who had been studying in Berlin before the war broke out, tells his cellmate Mario (Tony Mumolo), one of Ilsa's former victims, that he has the ability to ejaculate at will, allowing him to have sex with incredible endurance and skill. Wolfe demonstrates this when, called to Ilsa's bedroom at night, he manages to bring her to orgasm, becoming her first repeat partner whom she willingly spares. Having entered into Ilsa's confidence, Wolfe begins plotting revolt with Mario and a group of female prisoners who have borne the brunt of Ilsa's tortures. Meanwhile, Ilsa becomes gradually more and more anxious by news of Allied forces breaking through German defenses and ever-encroaching. Believing that the enlistment of women into the German military will help stem the tide, Ilsa attempts to convince a visiting General of her theories of female supremacy by showing him the various inhumane experiments she has subjected her female prisoners to. The General is roundly impressed and awards Ilsa the Iron Cross for her efforts, while forcing her to fulfill his nascent urolagnia by giving him a golden shower. With the Germans in retreat, the prisoners finally revolt, managing to kill most of the guards and rounding up the surviving staff. Ilsa is tied to her bed with her stockings by Wolfe during a sex game, before he steals her gun and helps his comrades. Wolfe pleads with the other prisoners to leave the Nazis to be captured and tried by the Allies, but they insist that they'll escape punishment, and summarily execute them. With retreating Nazi forces fast approaching, Wolfe and a lone female prisoner escape into the nearby hills as the remaining prisoners, including Mario, resolve to fight to the death. They're quickly outgunned by a Waffen-SS tank troupe, who promptly wipes out the small resistance. The Commander disembarks and begins investigating the camp. Upon finding Ilsa tied up helplessly, he coldly shoots her in the head and kills her, before ordering the razing of the camp to destroy any evidence of their atrocities. As he brags that the Allies will never know what happened, Wolfe and his fellow escapee watch from atop a nearby hill, the sole survivors of Ilsa's death camp. 

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The novel takes the form of a long review by a somewhat cantankerous unnamed Editor for the English Publication Fraser's Magazine (in which the novel was first serialized without any distinction of the content as fictional) who is, upon request, reviewing the fictional German book Clothes, Their Origin and Influence by the fictional philosopher Diogenes Teufelsdröckh (Professor of "Things in General" at Weissnichtwo "Know not where" University). The Editor is clearly flummoxed by the book, first struggling to explain the book in the context of contemporary social issues in England, some of which he knows Germany to be sharing as well, then conceding that he knows Teufelsdröckh personally, but that even this relationship does not explain the curiosities of the book's philosophy. The Editor remarks that he has sent requests back to Teufelsdröckh's office in Germany for more biographical information hoping for further explanation, and the remainder of Book One contains summaries of Teufelsdröckh's book, including translated quotations, accompanied by the Editor's many objections, many of them buttressed by quotations from Goethe and Shakespeare. The review becomes longer and longer due to the Editor's frustration at the philosophy, and his desire to expose its outrageous nature. At the final chapter of Book One, the Editor has received word from Teufelsdröckh's office in the form of several bags of paper scraps (rather esoterically organized into bags based on the signs of the Latin Zodiac) on which are written autobiographical fragments. Room in which Sartor Resartus was written. At the writing of Book Two, the Editor has somewhat organized the fragments into a coherent narrative. As a boy, Teufelsdröckh was left in a basket on the doorstep of a childless couple in the German country town of Entepfuhl ("Duck-Pond"); his father a retired Sergeant of Frederick the Great and his mother a very pious woman, who to Teufelsdröckh's gratitude, raises him in utmost spiritual discipline. In very flowery language, Teufelsdröckh recalls at length the values instilled in his idyllic childhood, the Editor noting most of his descriptions originating in intense spiritual pride. Teufelsdröckh eventually is recognized as being clever, and sent to Hinterschlag (slap-behind) Gymnasium. While there, Teufelsdröckh is intellectually stimulated, and befriended by a few of his teachers, but frequently bullied by other students. His reflections on this time of his life are ambivalent: glad for his education, but critical of that education's disregard for actual human activity and character, as regarding both his own treatment and his education's application to politics. While at University, Teufelsdröckh encounters the same problems, but eventually gains a small teaching post and some favour and recognition from the German nobility. While interacting with these social circles, Teufelsdröckh meets a woman he calls Blumine (Goddess of Flowers; the Editor assumes this to be a pseudonym), and abandons his teaching post to pursue her. She spurns his advances for a British aristocrat named Towgood. Teufelsdröckh is thrust into a spiritual crisis, and leaves the city to wander the European countryside, but even there encounters Blumine and Towgood on their honeymoon. He sinks into a deep depression, culminating in the celebrated Everlasting No, disdaining all human activity. Still trying to piece together the fragments, the Editor surmises that Teufelsdröckh either fights in a war during this period, or at least intensely uses its imagery, which leads him to a "Centre of Indifference", and on reflection of all the ancient villages and forces of history around him, ultimately comes upon the affirmation of all life in "The Everlasting Yes". The Editor, in relief, promises to return to Teufelsdröckh's book, hoping with the insights of his assembled biography to glean some new insight into the philosophy. 

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The backstory has the events of the game set in December 2006, as the castle of the title appears in the sky above Tokyo. In the beginning of the story, a giant castle appeared from above the city of Tokyo sometime during 2006. At 40 km, the ship-shaped castle was known as Nejireta castle. The battle between mankind and the gods is about to begin. 

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The game starts with the player trying to finish a term paper at G.U.E. Tech, a large MIT-like American university. The player has braved a snowstorm to travel to the school's computer lab to work on the report. The document is now mangled beyond repair, however; with the help of a hacker, the player finds that the file has been partially overwritten by the Department of Alchemy's files. Although the game begins as a quest to try to salvage the term paper, alarming events soon unfold, revealing a powerful evil within the school's depths. What began as a mere snowstorm has strengthened into a full-force blizzard. The player must traverse the University grounds in an attempt to recover the term paper's data. Much of the campus is deserted and covered in snowdrifts, rendering walkways impassable. The only accessible avenues are steam tunnels and a small complex of buildings. In the course of unraveling the mystery, the player encounters demons, zombies, and sinister references to a recent campus suicide. Failing to set things right in the hidden passages beneath the school will result in a literal fate worse than death. 

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The narrator, speaking before a scientific conference, describes his former life as an ape. His story begins in a West African jungle, in which a hunting expedition shoots and captures him. Caged on a ship for his voyage to Europe, he finds himself for the first time without the freedom to move as he will. Needing to escape from this situation, he studies the habits of the crew, and imitates them with surprising ease; he reports encountering particular difficulty only in learning to drink alcohol. Throughout the story, the narrator reiterates that he learned his human behavior not out of any desire to be human, but only to provide himself with a means of escape from his cage. Upon arriving in Europe, the ape realizes that he is faced with a choice between "the Zoological Garden or the Music Hall," and devotes himself to becoming human enough to become an able performer. He accomplishes this, with the help of many teachers, and reports to the academy that his transformation is so complete that he can no longer properly describe his emotions and experiences as an ape. In concluding, the ape expresses a degree of satisfaction with his lot. Translated by Ian Johnston. 

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In 1959 Baltimore, friends Modell, Eddie, Shrevie, Boogie, and Fenwick attend a Christmas dance before driving to their usual late-night haunt, Fell’s Point Diner. On the way, Fenwick stages a fake car accident, to his friends’ annoyance. Boogie, a hairdresser and law student, has laid a $2,000 bet on a basketball game, and declines his family friend Bagel’s offer to call off the bet. Modell accepts a ride home from Eddie while the others pick up another friend, Billy, who is in town to serve as Eddie’s best man for his wedding on New Year’s Eve. The next morning, Billy reunites with Eddie at his mother’s house, and they visit their old pool hall. Shrevie, married to Beth and working as an appliance store salesman, learns from Fenwick that Boogie is taking a date to the movies. At a screening of ‘’A Summer Place‘’, with his friends watching, Boogie tricks his date, Carol, into groping him through the popcorn box on his lap. She runs from the theater, but the smooth-talking Boogie convinces her it was an accident and their date continues; afterward, Billy punches an old high school enemy. Billy visits Barbara, a friend working at the local TV station. At the diner, Shrevie discusses married life with Eddie, who is preparing a test of football knowledge for his fiancée Elyse, to determine if they will marry. Having lost his basketball bet, Boogie wagers with his friends that he can have sex with Carol. The group parts ways in the morning, and Boogie and Fenwick encounter an equestrienne named Jane. Meeting Barbara at church, Billy learns she is pregnant, the result of an unexpected night they spent together; she tries to dissuade him from feeling obligated to marry her. Watching “College Bowl“, Fenwick is surprisingly knowledgeable, and offers to help pay Boogie’s debt. Shrevie loses his temper at Beth for disturbing his record collection, and storms out. Boogie consoles Beth, and Fenwick goes to his brother, who refuses to lend him money. Shrevie pulls Eddie and Billie from a screening of ‘’The Seventh Seal‘’ to corral Fenwick, who has drunkenly occupied the church’s Nativity scene in his underwear, leading to the friends’ arrest. In the holding cells, Eddie reveals that Elyse will take his test the following night, and Billy faces down a belligerent drunk. Eddie, Shrevie, and Billy are bailed out by their fathers, but Fenwick’s father leaves him in jail. They meet Boogie at the diner, and he deduces that Eddie is still a virgin, while Billy and Barbara discuss their predicament at the TV station. A lonely Beth visits Boogie at the hair salon, and he is threatened by his bookie, Tank. Learning Carol has the flu, which jeopardizes his bet, Boogie reminisces with Beth about their own past relationship, and they make plans for a tryst while everyone is busy with Elyse’s test. Shrevie, Fenwick, Billy, and Modell, along with Eddie’s and Elyse’s parents, await the results of the football test: Elyse fails by two points, and Eddie calls off the wedding. Boogie brings Beth a wig, secretly planning to disguise her as Carol to win the bet, and drives her to Fenwick’s apartment. There, Fenwick and Shrevie hide in the closet to verify the encounter, but Boogie tells Beth the truth, urging her to work things out with Shrevie. Eddie and Billie visit a strip club, and Boogie arrives at the diner, where Shrevie and Fenwick warn him Tank is waiting. Boogie is ready to accept the consequences, but Tank reveals that Bagel has paid off the debt. Billy commandeers a piano to lead the entire strip club in a rousing number, to Eddie’s delight. At the diner, Eddie decides to marry Elyse after all, and Billy assures Barbara he genuinely loves her. The wedding proceeds, themed around Eddie’s beloved Baltimore Colts: Shrevie and Beth reconcile; Boogie, Billy, and Fenwick bring Jane, Barbara, and Diane; and Billy delivers a heartfelt speech. The movie ends as the bouquet is tossed, landing on the friends’ table. 

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The story takes place in a Californian community known as Poker Flat, near the town of La Porte. Poker Flat is, in the opinions of many, on a downward slope. The town has lost thousands of dollars, and has experienced a moral decline. In an effort to save what is left of the town and reestablish it as a "virtuous" place, a secret society is created to decide whom to exile and whom to kill. On November 23rd of 1850, four "immoral" individuals are exiled from Poker Flat. The first of them is a professional poker player, John Oakhurst. He is among those sent away because of his great success in winning from those on the secret committee. On his way out of town, he is joined by The Duchess, a saloon girl; Mother Shipton, a madam; and Uncle Billy, the town drunk and a suspected robber. These four set out for a camp which is a day's journey away, over a mountain range. Once halfway there, all exiles other than Oakhurst decide to stop at noon for a rest, against Oakhurst's wishes. While on their rest, the group is met by a pair of runaway lovers on their way to Poker Flat to get married. Piney Woods is a fifteen- year-old girl. Her lover, Tom Simson, known also as "the Innocent", met Oakhurst before and has great admiration for him, as Oakhurst won a great deal of money from Tom. Oakhurst returned the money and pressed upon Tom that the latter should never play poker again, as he was a terrible player. Nonetheless, Tom is thrilled to have come upon Oakhurst on this day, and decides that he and Piney will stay with the group for a while. They do not know that the group is one of exiles; 'innocent' as they are, they are convinced The Duchess is an actual duchess, and so on. A decision is made for everyone to stay the night together. Tom leads the group to a half-butty cabin he discovered, where they spend the night. In the middle of the night, Oakhurst wakes up and sees a heavy snowstorm raging. Looking about, he realizes that he is the only one awake, but soon discovers someone had awoken before him: Uncle Billy is missing, with the group's mules and horses stolen. They are all now forced to wait out the storm with provisions that will likely only last for another 10 days. After a week in the cabin, Mother Shipton dies, having secretly and altruistically starved herself for young Piney. Oakhurst fashions some snowshoes for Simson to go for help, telling the others he will accompany the young man part of the way to Poker Flat. The "law of Poker Flat" finally arrives at the cabin, only to find the dead Duchess and Piney, embracing in a peaceful repose. They look so peaceful and innocent that the onlookers cannot tell which is the virgin and which is the madam. Oakhurst has committed suicide. He is found dead beneath a tree with his Derringer's bullet in his heart. There is a playing card, the two of clubs, pinned to the tree above his head with a note: > BENEATH THIS TREE LIES THE BODY OF JOHN OAKHURST, WHO STRUCK A STREAK OF BAD > LUCK ON THE 23rd OF NOVEMBER, 1850, AND HANDED IN HIS CHECKS ON THE 7TH > DECEMBER, 1850. 

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The series is set in the year 200X (20XX in the sixth game), in an alternate version of the original Mega Man universe in which networks, rather than robots, were the subject of the most research. Like the original, there were two main projects and only one was funded, but unlike the original, the work of Dr. Tadashi Hikari (the series' version of Dr. Light) in the field of networking and AI programs had been funded over Dr. Wily's research in robotics. The result of Dr. Hikari's research was the PET (PErsonal Terminal), a small computer which is used similarly to a cellular phone or PDA and which contains a customizable artificial intelligence complete with emotions, known as a NetNavi (short for Network Navigator). A NetNavi is responsible for helping the operator search, use, and surf the internet as well as protect the PET and itself from viruses. Within years the internet evolves to the point where it becomes possible to send an AI into it and physically move around as if it were another world. There is some danger, however; viruses evolve alongside Navis and the internet to become intelligent on some level. Because the internet has evolved to the point of taking on a manifestation, so, too, can virtual weapons be used. If a Navi or a Virus takes too much damage, its programming will lose integrity, disperse, and be deleted shortly afterwards. Each Navi has antiviral weapons that are built directly into its programming that provide basic defense, and can, in addition to this, be sent weapon programs from the PET via the use of BattleChips. The series focuses on Tadashi's grandson, Lan Hikari, and his NetNavi, MegaMan.EXE. The pair get involved in foiling the schemes of a net-crime organization called WWW ("World Three"), headed by Wily. In another tribute to the original series, most of the Navis in the series are named after characters from the original series. As the games progressed, however, certain characters from the X series, such as Zero, Iris, and Colonel have also appeared as NetNavis. Completely original NetNavis have also been made for the series, with some exclusive to the anime series. In every game since the second (with the exception of Battle Network 3), NetNavis used by Mr. Famous were created by fans of the series, being winners of design contests from Capcom of Japan. 

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Flannery "Flan" Culp is a senior at Roewer High School in San Francisco. Over the course of the year, Flan records the events of her life in a diary - which, with some heavy editing by Flannery herself years after the fact, becomes the narrative. She and her seven close friends refer to themselves as "The Basic Eight". They are an exclusive clique, hosting the Grand Opera Breakfast Club, and regular dinner and garden parties. The story chronicles Flannery and her friends as they cope with the stresses of their final year of high school and Flannery's complicated love life. The story reaches a dark conclusion in which lives of the members of the Basic Eight are turned upside down by revealed secrets, horrifying self-discoveries, and murder. 

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The game opens with a conversation between Garcian Smith and Christopher Mills about a new job for the killer7. The assassins battle their way to the top of a building which has become infested with Heaven Smiles. Harman confronts the source of the Smiles, an angel-like figure, but she is merely Kun Lan's puppet. Harman and Kun Lan discuss the current state of the world before the mission ends. In the subsequent missions, the killer7 target a number of individuals on behalf of the US government or for personal reasons. They kill Andrei Ulmeyda (Cam Clarke), a Texan postal worker who established a successful company based on the Yakumo, when he becomes infected with the Heaven Smile virus. Dan Smith confronts Curtis Blackburn (Alastair Duncan), his former mentor and murderer, when Mills informs the group that Blackburn is running an organ smuggling business that targets young girls. Their penultimate mission pits them against the "Handsome Men", a group of sentai rangers who assassinate a US politician. The central plot arc concerns the true nature of US–Japan relations. After a volley of two hundred intercontinental ballistic missiles are fired at Japan, the US government contracts the killer7 to eliminate Toru Fukushima (Jim Ward), the head of the UN Party. However, an assassin posing as Fukushima's secretary kills him first in an attempt to reclaim the Yakumo document for the Liberal Party, believing its wisdom would help the party to regain political power. Shortly thereafter, Kenjiro "Matsuken" Matsuoka (Steve Blum) kills two senior members of the UN Party to become its new leader, under the influence of Kun Lan. In the end, the killer7 defeat the two UN Party members who had been reanimated by Kun Lan as Japan is destroyed by the missiles. In their final mission, the killer7 seek Matsuken, who leads the 10 million UN Party members who live in the US. The government fears that if they converge on a single state, they could win a seat in the United States Senate. Garcian travels to Coburn Elementary School near Seattle, Washington and discovers tapes that reveal the school as a front for the UN Party to train children as assassins. The tapes focus on Emir Parkreiner, a gifted killer trained at the school. Garcian learns that Japan uses Coburn to control the vote of the US presidential election. The assassins battle a group of invincible Smiles and all but Garcian are incapacitated. Garcian travels to the Union Hotel where he witnesses visions of the other members being killed in their rooms. At the top, he discovers that his true identity is Emir Parkreiner, the one who killed the killer7 at the Union Hotel over 50 years ago. Following that incident, Harman absorbed Emir as a persona and Emir's memories were lost. Three years later, Garcian arrives at Battleship Island in Japan to destroy the last Heaven Smile. He meets with Matsuken, who presents Garcian with a choice: let him live, which allows Japan to mount an assault on the US; or kill him, which lets the US discover Japan's role in rigging American elections—US forces destroy Japan's last stronghold, Battleship Island, in retaliation and wipe Japan off the map. Regardless of the player's choice, Garcian finds that the last Heaven Smile is Iwazaru, whose real identity is Kun Lan, and kills him. However, Harman and Kun Lan are revealed to be immortal beings, representing a dialectic struggle between opposites, which persists a century in the future in Shanghai as they continue their eternal battle. 

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Giulietta explores her subconscious and the odd lifestyle of her glamorous neighbour, Suzy, as she attempts to deal with her mundane life and her philandering oppressive husband, Giorgio. As she increasingly taps into her desires (and her demons) she slowly gains greater self-awareness, leading to independence, although, according to Masina (Fellini's wife), the ending's meaning is debatable. 

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The farming world Akir is threatened by the tyrannical warlord Sador (John Saxon), who rules the sinister Malmori Empire and, his body parts deteriorating, is capturing and appropriating them from others. Sador's huge dreadnought, the Hammerhead, (nicknamed "Hammerhead") mounts a "Stellar Converter", a weapon that turns planets into small stars. He demands that the peaceful Akira submit to him when he returns in "seven risings of your red giant", or he will turn his Stellar Converter on their planet. Zed (Jeff Corey), last of the famous Akira Corsairs, is old and nearly blind. He suggests they hire mercenaries to protect their world. Since Akir lacks valuable resources, its people can offer just food and shelter in payment. Unable to go in person, Zed offers his ship for the job if they can find a pilot. The ship is fast and well-armed, but, despite its AI navigation/tactical computer Nell, cannot defeat Sador alone. Shad (Richard Thomas), a young man who has piloted the ship and is well known to Nell, volunteers for the recruiting mission. Seeking weapons, Shad goes to the space station of Doctor Hephaestus (Sam Jaffe), an old friend of Zed. The station is populated mostly by androids, except for two humans: Hephaestus, whose numerous life support-systems have turned him into a cyborg, and his beautiful daughter Nanelia (Darlanne Fluegel), who looks after him and the androids. The doctor wants Shad to mate with his daughter, by force if necessary. Shad cannot bring himself to abandon his people; he persuades Nanelia to help him escape. She follows in her own ship; although she has no weapons, her highly advanced computer systems might be useful. The two split up to look for more mercenaries. Shad encounters Cowboy (George Peppard), a freighter-pilot from Earth who is ambushed by Space Jackers while delivering a shipment of laser-handguns to the planet Umateal. Shad fights off the Jackers, thus saving Cowboy's life twice over; they arrive at Umateal just in time to watch Sador destroy the planet with his Stellar Converter. Lacking the fuel to carry his weapons back home, Cowboy offers them to Akir instead. Shad talks Cowboy into sharing his gunslinging experience with the Akira. Later, Shad meets a set of five alien clones who share a group consciousness named Nestor. They admit their life is incredibly dull, since their whole race shares one mind. In order to be entertained, they have sent five members to join Shad's cause. Nestor does not require payment, saying they are completely self- sufficient. Next, Shad recruits Gelt (Robert Vaughn), a wealthy assassin who cannot show himself on any civilized planet for fear of retribution. Gelt offers his services in return for being allowed to live peacefully among the Akira. Gelt's ship is highly maneuverable and well-armed. On his way back to Akir, Shad is approached by Saint-Exmin (Sybil Danning) of the Valkyrie warriors. She is a headstrong woman looking to prove herself in battle. She pilots a small, but extremely fast ship with enhanced firepower. Shad finds her annoying and wishes she would go away, but she tags along. While waiting for Shad's return, Nanelia is captured by a reptilian slaver named Cayman of the Lazuli (Morgan Woodward). Cayman possesses a powerful ship with an eclectic crew of aliens. She explains to Cayman that they are seeking mercenaries for a war against Sador. Cayman takes up their cause in return for the head of Sador, who destroyed Cayman's homeworld years ago. Back on Akir, Shad's sister Mol is captured by two Malmori warriors with the intent to rape her. As Shad and Company return, their approach frightens the Malmori into attempting to escape. Mol, in retaliation, interferes with their controls, allowing Gelt the opportunity to destroy their ship, killing all three. Upon reaching the planet's surface, the heroes are greeted with caution by the natives, who are wary of violent species. When Sador returns, his Malmori forces are intercepted by Shad's hired warriors. Gelt dogfights his way to Hammerhead, which shoots him down. Cowboy and the laser-toting Akira ward off an invasion backed by a Malmori Sonic Tank. Many of Sador's troops are killed, and their Sonic Tank is destroyed; however, many Akira die as well, including Zed. After surviving an assassination attempt by Nestor, Sador launches the remainder of his fleet in a retaliatory strike against Akir. Saint-Exmin blows herself up to knock out Sador's Stellar Converter. Although Sador's aerospace forces are wiped out, Hammerhead picks off all the remaining mercenaries with laser battery-fire and nuclear missiles. Only Nell, piloted by Shad and Nanelia, survives the Malmori onslaught. Crippled and unable to fight, Nell is captured by Hammerhead's tractor beam. Nanelia and Shad activate Nell's self- destruct program, then flee their ship in an escape pod. Sador commands Nell to surrender. Instead she detonates, causing his Stellar Converter to backfire and disintegrate Hammerhead. As Shad and Nanelia return to Akir, Nanelia despairs over their friends' deaths. Shad shares with her the teachings of Akir's "Varda": nobody is truly dead when they have been loved and are celebrated by the living. The Akira will always remember the sacrifices made by the mercenaries, who will forever be honored in the legends of Akir. 

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Working with his three friends at their new software development company Skullbocks, Stanford graduate Milo Hoffman is contacted by CEO Gary Winston of NURV (Never Underestimate Radical Vision) for a very attractive programming position: a fat paycheck, an almost-unrestrained working environment, and extensive creative control over his work. Accepting Winston's offer, Hoffman and his girlfriend, Alice Poulson (Forlani), move to NURV headquarters in Portland, Oregon. Despite development of the flagship product (Synapse, a worldwide media distribution network) being well on schedule, Hoffman soon becomes suspicious of the excellent source code Winston personally provides to him, seemingly when needed most, while refusing to divulge the code's origin. After his best friend, Teddy Chin, is murdered, Hoffman discovers that NURV is stealing the code they need from programmers around the world—including Chin—and then killing them to cover their tracks. Hoffman learns that not only does NURV employ an extensive surveillance system to observe and steal code, the company has infiltrated the Justice Department and most of the mainstream media. Even his girlfriend is a plant, an ex-con hired by the company to manipulate him. While searching through a secret NURV database containing surveillance dossiers on employees, he finds that the company has information of a very personal nature about a friend and co-worker, Lisa Calighan (Cook). When he reveals to her that the company has this information, she agrees to help him expose NURV's crimes to the world. Coordinating with Brian Bissel, one of Hoffman's friends from his old startup, they plan to use a local public-access television station to hijack Synapse and broadcast their charges against NURV to the world. However, Calighan turns out to be a double agent, foils Hoffman's plan, and turns him over to Winston. Hoffman had already confronted Poulson and convinced her to side with him against Winston and NURV. When it becomes clear that Hoffman has not succeeded, a backup plan is put into motion by Poulson, the fourth member of Skullbocks, and the incorruptible internal security firm hired by NURV. As Winston prepares to kill Hoffman, the second team successfully usurps one of NURV's own work centers—"Building 21"—and transmits the incriminating evidence as well as the Synapse code. Calighan, Winston and his entourage are publicly arrested for their crimes. After parting ways with the redeemed Poulson, Hoffman rejoins Skullbocks. 

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Helen Ayers and her young son Sammy board a intercity bus to move to a better life. Sammy’s curious questions annoy Helen but she won’t reveal the surprise and admonishes him to be silent, putting him to sleep. At a rest stop, Helen goes into a bar to get a drink but is dragged into a vacant lot and murdered as the bus leaves. Sammy sleeps through the night until the bus arrives at the end of the route, Barrington, Georgia. When a despondent Sammy ignores him, the cynical bus driver believes he is deaf and abandoned by his mother. Norm Jenkins, the kindhearted terminal manager, takes an immediate liking to Sammy and is very protective, as is Lucille, the owner and cook at the terminal’s cafe. Norm sees Sammy and Lucille as his surrogate son and wife as he had lost his own family to the Influenza pandemic of 1918. Young Tolliver Tynan stops with his adopted sister, Tallasse, and mother, Maddie, to watch Sammy being questioned by the police chief and tries to spook Sammy by lighting a cherry bomb. Sammy sees Tolliver’s activity in a reflection and steels himself to not react to the blast, which convinces the entire town that he is in fact deaf. Norm sets up Sammy to sleep in the storage room. Looking through Helen’s suitcase left on the bus, Norm finds important documents. Sammy spends the next decades living in the terminal and working as the town’s handyman, hearing various secrets from people who believe him to be deaf. Norm backtracks along the route of the bus and eventually tracks down Helen’s cold case. Tallasse has returned after years away with dreams of becoming a professional photographer. Tolliver is still arrogant and patronizing as the treasurer of the town church. As his inheritance is tied up in a trust until his mother dies, he has various unsuccessful moneymaking schemes, all financed by funds he has embezzled from the church. Sammy hears all of Tolliver's secrets. Black junk dealer Archibald Thacker and his sons masquerade as poor but are actually Harvard-educated businessmen as well as moonshine runners. They scheme to temporarily store a shipment of the liquor in the church’s large, new baptismal font. The Tynan house hosts the church’s newly ordained and unsure preacher, Reverend Pruitt. Seeing a newspaper article where a rock & roll group, the Weevils, claimed to be bigger than God (inspired by Beatle John Lennon’s “More popular than Jesus" remark), Pruitt is inspired to hold a record-burning event. The event grows out of control and gains a festive atmosphere. Embers from the bonfire ignite nearby fireworks, sending a skyrocket into the church and directly into the font full of alcohol, burning the church down. Tolliver is put on trial for his embezzlement as the church is revealed to be uninsured. Sammy is called as the first witness and everyone is surprised when he speaks. Tolliver’s mother collapses and dies from shock. Tolliver believes he is finally entitled to his inheritance. Norm reveals the notarized affidavit he found decades earlier in which Tolliver’s father identifies Sammy as his illegitimate son by Helen, born just before Tolliver. As firstborn, Sammy is the legal heir to the Tynan fortune according to the terms of the will. Tolliver is sentenced to jail. Sammy gives away much of his newfound wealth to charity as well as to Norm and Lucille. He boards a bus to begin exploring the country. Tallasse chases down the bus in her car and joins Sammy on his trip. 

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Father Wolf (Rama) and Mother Wolf (Raksha), a pair of wolves raising a family of cubs, are furious to learn from Tabaqui the jackal that Shere Khan the lame tiger is hunting in their territory because he might kill men and bring human retribution upon the jungle. But when Father Wolf (Rama) hears something approaching their den, it turns out to be not the tiger, but a naked human baby. Mother Wolf (Raksha) decides to adopt the hairless "man-cub". Her determination is only strengthened by the arrival of Shere Khan, who demands the cub for his meal. The wolves drive off the tiger, and Raksha names him Mowgli the Frog because of his hairlessness. At the wolf pack's meeting at Council Rock, Baloo the bear speaks for the man-cub, and Bagheera the black panther buys his life with a freshly killed bull. Baloo and Bagheera undertake the task of educating Mowgli as he grows. Meanwhile, Shere Khan plans to take revenge on the wolf pack by persuading the younger wolves to depose their leader Akela. When Mowgli is about 11 years old, Bagheera tells him of Shere Khan's plan. Mowgli, being human, is the only creature in the jungle that does not fear fire, so he steals a pot of burning coals from a nearby village in order to use it against Shere Khan. The young wolves prevent Akela from catching his prey, and at that night's meeting, Shere Khan demands that Akela be killed and the man-cub given to him. Mowgli, despite being naked and unprotected, relentlessly attacks Shere Khan with a burning branch and drives him and his allies away, but realises to his sorrow that he must now leave the pack and return to humanity. As he leaves, he vows to return one day and lay Shere Khan's hide upon the Council Rock. 

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By 1965, the United States and Canada have been at war with the Soviet Union and China for three years. Both sides' atomic weapons are ineffective as surface-to-air missiles shoot down any bombers or guided missiles, so ground forces have done most of the fighting. The Communist nations—whose armies greatly outnumber the North Americans—conquered Western Europe, invaded South America, and are moving toward Texas. All American males are required to either perform agricultural work to feed the armed forces or be drafted into military, construction, or factory service. Food, electricity, and gasoline are rationed, only two CONELRAD stations broadcast on radio, and New York City is reportedly under martial law. Billy Justin, a 37-year-old commercial artist and Korean War veteran, is working as a dairy farmer in Chiunga Center, New York when the radio announces that Soviet and Chinese forces have overrun the Canadian- American line at El Paso, Texas. The last American naval forces were destroyed three months earlier but the news had been kept secret. The Communist armies destroy in Los Alamos, New Mexico the incomplete Yankee Doodle, a satellite capable of dropping hydrogen bombs from orbit that are impossible to shoot down. The President of the United States surrenders to the Communists, who over the next several months divide the country at the Mississippi River, and together form the North American People's Democratic Republic. Other than a military garrison, a formal disarmament, searches for fissionable material, and the establishment of production quotas for food, the surrender of the United States leaves Chiunga Center largely untouched. The Soviets execute the Communist fifth column members who had secretly aided the invasion to prevent them from organizing against the new government, but are otherwise relatively peaceful and amenable to the black market. A paraplegic comes to Justin's farm asking for work; he is General Hollerith, a veteran of the previous war. He and Justin join a conspiracy to finish the real satellite, a manned space station buried in Chiunga County that the United States had been building for 15 years. It requires parts and engineering knowledge to launch. MVD troops arrive, shoot the corrupt Soviet soldiers, and are much more cruel. They capture, to Justin's knowledge, all of the conspirators but himself and the general. Justin deduces that the contacts he needs to make are in Washington, Pennsylvania. With a traveling preacher, Sparhawk, Justin walks the hundreds of miles from Chiunga Center to Washington, benefiting from the Democratic Republic's policy of respecting the Americans' freedom of religion. At Washington Justin receives instructions from the nationwide resistance movement for an attack planned for Christmas Eve on Chiunga Center to liberate the satellite. Despite the Soviets' arrest and torture of a local farmer, they are ignorant of what "Christmas Eve", a mild oath they have heard sworn by various citizens, means until the battle begins. Coordinated by Hollerith, bridges around the area are blown up and nearby arsenals are sabotaged. The townspeople, many of whom are veterans, battle the Soviets as the space station launches. Hollerith's forces triumph, and the Americans transmit an ultimatum to the Soviets and Chinese: The satellite is armed and will destroy Moscow and Peking in 24 hours if occupation soldiers do not leave American soil and free all prisoners of war. Hollerith offers Justin important positions in the new government and society, but he refuses them and kneels in prayer with Sparhawk, fearing the fulfillment of mutual assured destruction. 

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The series opens with the following narration, written and spoken by co-creator David Lynch: "For a millennium, the space for the hotel room existed, undefined. Mankind captured it, and gave it shape and passed through. And sometimes when passing through, they found themselves brushing up against the secret names of truth." Each story stars a new cast, and takes place in a different year, but is confined in the room 603 of the Railroad Hotel, located in New York City. The same bellboy and maid are featured in each story, as if they do not age. 

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The Warlock of Firetop Mountain is a fantasy scenario involving a dungeon quest to find "an untold wealth of treasure". The player takes the role of an adventurer travelling to find the treasure of a powerful Warlock, hidden deep within Firetop Mountain. People from a nearby village advise that the treasure is stored in a chest with two locks, and that the keys are guarded by various creatures within the dungeons. The player must then navigate the dungeons beneath Firetop Mountain, battle monsters and attempt to locate the keys. 

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An ancient prophecy foretells that the Moon Juju, the kind protector of the Pupanunu people, would be weakened by the evil Tlaloc, an embittered Pupanunu shaman, so he could turn the Pupanunu people into sheep as revenge for not being made high shaman in favor of another shaman, Jibolba. The prophecy also mentions a great and mighty warrior trained by the high shaman who would restore the Moon Juju, defeat Tlaloc, and bring peace to the Pupanunu people. Having escaped Tlaloc's spell, Jibolba believes his apprentice Lok to be the warrior of the prophecy and prepares to send him off; however, it appears that Lok has been turned into a sheep. Jibolba sends his younger apprentice, Tak (voiced by Jason Marsden), to find magical plants and change him back, though it turns out not to be Lok, but his squire Tobar. Jibolba tells Tak to obtain the Spirit Rattle, which allows the wielder to communicate with powerful Juju spirits to assist him, while he finds Lok. Tak returns with the Rattle to find that Lok has been trampled to death by a herd of sheep. Jibolba has Tak collect 100 magic Yorbels and Lok's spirit from the spirit world, allowing him to successfully resurrect Lok. An unfortunate side-effect of the resurrection, however, is a severe case of diarrhea (or the "Resurrection's Revenge", as Jibolba refers to). Tak obtains the Moon Stones instead while Lok recovers, restoring the Moon Juju to full strength. The Moon Juju reveals that the warrior of the prophecy is not Lok, but Tak, as he has already fulfilled almost everything the prophecy predicted. Using his arsenal of Juju spells, Tak defeats Tlaloc and turns him into a sheep, finally fulfilling the prophecy. 

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Finbar McBride, a quiet, withdrawn, unmarried man with dwarfism, has a deep love of railroads. He works in a Hoboken, New Jersey model train hobby shop owned by his elderly and similarly taciturn friend Henry Styles. Because he feels ostracized by a public that tends to view him as peculiar due to his size, Fin keeps to himself. When Henry dies unexpectedly, Fin is told that the hobby shop is to be closed. However, he also learns that Henry's will left him a piece of rural property with an abandoned train depot on it. He moves into the old building hoping for a life of solitude, but he quickly finds himself reluctantly becoming enmeshed in the lives of his neighbors. Joe Oramas, a Cuban American, is operating his father's roadside snack truck while the elder man recovers from an illness, and Olivia Harris is an artist trying to cope with the sudden death of her young son two years earlier and the ramifications it has had on her marriage to David, from whom she is separated; Olivia's initial and secondary meetings with Fin almost get him killed when she is distracted while driving her car. Cleo is a young girl who shares Fin's interest in trains and wants him to lecture her class about them. Emily is the local librarian, a young woman dismayed to discover she is pregnant by her ne'er-do-well boyfriend. The train station used in the movie Joe, relentlessly upbeat and overly talkative, soon cracks through Fin's reserve. The two begin to take daily walks along the tracks, and after Olivia gives Fin a movie camera, Joe drives alongside a passing train so that Fin can film it. Joe and Fin sleep over at Olivia's house after watching the footage and the next morning a flustered, unannounced David is greeted by the two of them. The three forge a tentative friendship that is threatened when Olivia descends into a deep depression, disappearing from the town. Meanwhile, Emily seeks solace in Fin, who slowly is realizing interaction with other humans may not be as unpleasant as he thought. Fin tries to protect Emily from her boyfriend at a bar, but he pushes Fin aside, causing Fin to lapse back into his asocial behavior. Emily later comes to apologize, and after she and Fin share a kiss, she spends the night with Fin. Cleo asks Fin if Olivia is coming back, to which he replies that he doesn't know. He decides to keep an eye on Olivia's house, but when he spots her fighting on the phone with David and he goes up on the porch, Olivia angrily tells him to leave. Fin spends the night drinking and, collapsing on the track, is passed over by a train, undamaged but for his pocket watch. As if feeling blessed by his gift of life (and symbolically upon his watch getting destroyed in the train mishap), Fin walks up to Olivia's home only to find she has attempted suicide. Olivia reveals that David is having another baby with a different woman. Fin takes care of Olivia's home while she recuperates in the hospital. Fin picks up the courage to talk to school kids about trains. Olivia, Joe, and Fin share a meal at Olivia's house, their conversation filled with some small talk and reconciliation. Olivia and Joe tease Fin about Emily, suggesting he go seek her again. 

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Captain Kirk, First Officer Spock and Chief Medical Officer Dr. McCoy transport to the surface of an Earth-like planet, from which they are to deflect an approaching asteroid. They discover an obelisk with strange markings, and observe a settlement whose inhabitants, according to Spock, are descended from Native Americans. Kirk, while out of sight of the others, falls through a trap door into the obelisk, where a beam shocks him into unconsciousness. Spock and McCoy are unable to locate Kirk and return to the Federation starship USS Enterprise to complete their mission. Kirk awakens with amnesia, and a pair of women, including Miramanee, the tribal priestess, see Kirk emerge from their "temple." He is hailed as a god, and taken back to their village, where the tribal elders demand proof of Kirk's divinity. At that moment, a drowned boy is brought in. Salish, the medicine chief, declares the child dead, but Kirk uses mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to revive him. The elders accept Kirk as a god, forcing Salish to relinquish his position to Kirk. In the meantime Spock, taking command of the Enterprise, rushes at maximum warp speed to meet the approaching asteroid. However, having pushed the energy and propulsion systems beyond their normal limits, there is not much energy left to deflect the asteroid. Attempts result in a change of 0.0013 degrees in its course, which the crew deems insufficient to avoid collision with the planet. Having exhausted their options, the Enterprise begins a slower travel back to the planet to attempt to rescue people ahead of the asteroid impact. Following the tradition that the tribe priestess and medicine chief marry, Miramanee rejects Salish for Kirk. Meanwhile, the Enterprise crew intercept the asteroid, but fail to deflect or destroy it. Spock orders the ship to shadow the asteroid back to the planet. Kirk falls deeper in love with Miramanee, though haunted at night by dreams of people he feels he should be with. Miramanee happily tells Kirk that she is pregnant. As the Enterprise nears the planet, Spock succeeds in partially deciphering the markings on the obelisk. It is an asteroid deflector built by the "Preservers", an ancient race that resettled various endangered humanoid populations on other planets in order to ensure their survival. Spock surmises that the obelisk has malfunctioned. As the asteroid nears the planet, the sky darkens, thunder roars and strong winds blow, and the elders tell Kirk he must go into the temple to stop the storm. As Kirk pounds fruitlessly on the side of the obelisk, the tribe turns against him, then begin stoning him and Miramanee. Spock and McCoy materialize, frightening the villagers away. Spock uses a mind meld to retrieve Kirk's memories, while McCoy tends to Miramanee's wounds. Kirk is able to open the trap door and Spock activates the deflector with minutes to spare. McCoy tells Kirk that Miramanee will not survive. 

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Outside a model "home of tomorrow" designed by Frank Lloyd Wrong, Hubie calls up Bertie and chides him for wearing a flower on his head. In the hopes of finding a home with plenty of food, the mice head on up to the House of Tomorrow. Upon entry, they step on the welcome mat, which activates an audio recording that welcomes visitors to the House of Tomorrow and invites them to try out the many gadgets the house provides. At first, Bertie is scared by the recording and tries to run away, but Hubie stops him and points out that this is the perfect place for them as everything for them can provided at the touch of a button. As a demonstration, Hubie pushes a button to the Automatic Record Player: the record player rises up out of the floor, a robotic arm on a table picks out a record disc from a collection of records and tosses it like a frisbee, and two robotic arms (one of them has a catcher's mitt) catch the record, put it on the turntable, and start playing the record. Hubie and Bertie then start dancing to the music that plays, until Hubie spies a button that demonstrates the Automatic Sweeper. Upon pressing the button, a cigarette lighter lights a cigar, a robotic puffer puffs the cigar, and a robotic arm taps the cigar ash on to the floor. This summons the Robot Sweeper, a robot armed with a broom and having a dustpan near its wheels, that comes out, sweeps up the ash into its dustpan, sweeps it into the refuse bin, and returns to its closet. Impressed by what Hubie meant by the perfect house, Bertie insists on pushing the next button they come across, but Hubie slaps him and states that he himself will be pushing the buttons as Bertie isn't smart enough to do so. As the mice go up onto the kitchen counter where some unlabeled buttons are, Bertie again requests to push a button. Hubie gives in, but (out of fear that whatever button Bertie presses might hurt him) gets a safe distance away on the other side of the kitchen before giving Bertie the A-OK. Bertie presses a button, where a light next to it reveals it's the laundry button. This makes a vacuum appear above a hamper, where Hubie just happens to be, and suck up Hubie and the laundry. Bertie then cringes and shakes as, offscreen (and to the tune of "Here we go round the mulberry bush"), Hubie goes through the washing, rinsing, mangling, ironing, and folding processes. The laundry is then returned all pressed and ironed, with Hubie (looking pressed and ironed himself) at the top. As a result, Hubie slaps Bertie for putting him through that. The laundry incident is quickly forgotten when both mice spy a button labeled "Cheese Dispenser". When Hubie presses the button, a wheel of cheese flies out, but crashes to the floor, which summons the Sweeper to come out, sweep up the mess, and put it in the bin. To prevent losing the second wheel of cheese, Hubie arranges for Bertie to stand by to catch the cheese with a plate. Straight after Hubie presses the button, another wheel of cheese flies out, but crashes on top of Bertie and the plate. Again, the Sweeper comes out, sweeps up the mess and Bertie, sweeps them into the bin, and return to its closet. Bertie escapes the bin, but thinking that Bertie is "escaping refuse", the Sweeper comes back out, sweeps up Bertie again, sweeps him back into the bin, and returns to its closet. Twice, Bertie peeks out, but the Sweeper sticks its head out as if to say "Oh, no you don't!" Seeing this, Hubie comes up with a plan to rescue Bertie. He does this by taking a large vase up to the house's second floor and tossing it out the window, where it crashes to the ground. As expected, the Sweeper takes the bait, rushes up to the second floor (allowing Bertie to escape), and jumps out the window where it too crashes to the ground. Afterwards, Bertie is thanking Hubie for saving him when the doorbell rings and Bertie answers it. It's the Sweeper (looking battered from its fall) and, as a way of saying "Nobody tricks me into jumping out of a window and gets away with it", it sweeps up Bertie again, sweeps him back into the bin, and returns to its closet. Coming up with another plan to save Bertie, Hubie pushes a box full of dynamite and fireworks off a shelf and onto the floor. Detecting the new mess, the Sweeper leaves its closet (allowing Bertie to escape again), sweeps up the explosives, and sweeps them into the bin. Hubie then pushes a lit candle and its holder off the shelf and onto the floor, once more making the Sweeper fall for the ruse. The Sweeper sweeps up the candle and sweeps it into the bin, but the lit candle makes contact with the explosives already in the bin and they blow up on the Sweeper. The Sweeper rolls away (dazed and severely damaged by the explosion) and breaks apart to pieces on the floor, but its hand presses a button labeled "Repair Service". This summons the Robot Medic, a hodgepodge looking robot with pincers, a hammer, and a crane arm. The Robot Medic leaves the same closet the Sweeper resides in, rebuilds the Sweeper offscreen, and both robots return to their closet. To really drive the Sweeper crazy, Hubie and Bertie nail the floor doors of the Automatic Record Player shut so that when Hubie presses the button, the record player can't rise up out of the floor. The robotic arm still picks out a record and tosses it, but with nothing to catch it, the record crashes against the wall and breaks into pieces which land on the floor, thus summoning the Sweeper to clean up the mess. Hubie then increases the robotic arm's speed to fast, thus making the robotic arm toss the records at the wall faster than ever before. The Sweeper returns to clean up the mess from the next record, but soon finds itself facing flying records that smash against the wall and tries to keep with cleaning up one mess after another. Soon, the Sweeper's dustpan is so full of broken record pieces that when it tries to empty them into the bin, they just bury the bin. Fed up with the ever increasing messes, the Sweeper dons a coat and hat, picks up a briefcase, puts an "I Quit!" sign on its closet door, and leaves the house. Hubie starts to revel in their victory over the Sweeper, but the victory is short lived when Bertie spies a button labeled "Spring Cleaning Service" and stupidly pushes it. This ends up summoning a whole army of Robot Sweepers that come straight out of another closet and begin cleaning up the place. Hubie and Bertie try to escape the onslaught, but get caught up in a carpet being rolled up by one of the Sweepers and taken outside. In the cartoon's final scene, as the Sweepers begin the carpet beating process and whack the mice in the process, Hubie says "HEY, BOIT! C'MERE!" and starts repeatedly slapping Bertie for getting them into this recent mess. 

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The cartoon opens with a bar of "Merrily We Roll Along", followed by a segment of the "lively" portion of Wagner's Siegfried funeral march, as Bugs walks onstage to applause and prepares to play the grand piano. Throughout the cartoon he runs through a large assortment of visual gags while continuing to play the Hungarian Rhapsody. The first gag involves an (off-screen) audience member who coughs and hacks loudly just as Bugs is poised to play. When it happens a second time, Bugs pulls a revolver out of his tailcoat and shoots the audience member. After blowing the smoke from the barrel and returning the gun to his pocket, Bugs resumes the concert. Bugs Bunny prepares to play the piano. Although the film is mostly pantomime, Bugs speaks a few times. At one point he is interrupted by the ring of a phone, timed to echo a short fluttering strain that Bugs is playing at that moment. The phone is inside the piano: "Eh, what's up doc? Who? Franz Liszt? Never [heard] of him. Wrong number." When playing a repeated, descending three-note sequence in the middle of the piece, which happens to be the same three-note sequence (Mi-Re-Do) notably used in the unrelated Rossini aria "Largo al factotum" (from The Barber of Seville, which would be spoofed in a later Bugs cartoon), Bugs accompanies his piano playing by singing, "Fi-ga-ro! Fi-ga-ro!" A mouse appears and pesters Bugs the rest of the way, although the first ("slow") half of the piece is played nearly "straight", with just a few small gags. Bugs stops at the very short pause in the piece, acknowledging the applause of the audience. Before he can begin the "fast" part of the piece (where the gags accelerate), the mouse instigates a major musical shift, to a "Boogie-woogie" number. Bugs joins in, although he eventually traps the mouse (which responds by playing "Chopsticks" while still trapped) and seemingly disposes of the pest with dynamite; when the mouse begins quietly playing "Taps" and stops 1 note short, Bugs peeks inside and the mouse "plays" the final note by hitting Bugs with a mallet. Bugs then returns to playing the Rhapsody. As the pace picks up, he speaks to the camera (for the last time in the cartoon): "Look! One hand! ... NO hands!" The camera pulls back, and he is deftly playing the piano keys with his toes. Nearing the end of the Rhapsody, he is in shock after turning to the finale page which consist of scrambled, quick playing, nearly impossible to read notes after which he takes off his shirt, oils his hands, and prays. Then, preparing to play the intense part, he is startled to hear the frenzied finalé playing, behind him. It is the mouse, complete with tie and tails, playing a toy piano that plays like a normal-sounding piano. Cut back to Bugs after the full-orchestra finalé, and he disgustedly plays the three single notes that actually end the piece, and then mutters inaudible profanity which can be lip-read as the short ends. 

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Jérôme Lange, a famous private investigator, receives a letter from his childhood friend Julia Defranck, requesting him to investigate some strange events in Mortville Manor. Upon arrival Jérôme is informed of Julia's death. With a storm approaching, the investigator begins his search around the manor. 

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Captain Kirk, along with First Officer Spock and Chief Medical Officer Dr. McCoy, beams down to a planet to investigate a distress call. Once there, they are greeted by a friendly dwarf named Alexander (Michael Dunn). He leads the landing party to meet the rest of his people, who have adopted classical Greek culture, and named themselves Platonians in honor of the Greek philosopher Plato. All of the Platonians, except for Alexander, possess telekinetic powers, and the planet's ruling class have become exceedingly arrogant as a result, believing they can do as they please because of their powers. The Platonians explain they "lured" the Enterprise to their planet because their leader, Parmen, requires medical help. After being treated by Dr. McCoy, Parmen demands McCoy remain on the planet to treat other Platonians. When Captain Kirk objects, the Platonians use their powers to punish him. Alexander wishes to tell Kirk and Spock that Parmen wishes to kill them but is afraid. Parmen repeatedly humiliates Kirk and Spock as Dr. McCoy watches, trying to make him agree to stay on the planet. Later, the Platonians use their powers to force two other Enterprise officers to the planet for their entertainment: Communications Officer Lt. Uhura and Nurse Chapel. McCoy takes a sample of Alexander's blood and manages to isolate and identify the kironide mineral that provides the inhabitants with their special powers; it is abundant in the natural food and water supply of the planet. McCoy is able to prepare a serum and inject Kirk and Spock with doses to make them have twice the power of Parmen. Alexander asks where does Kirk come from and if size matters. Kirk says size, color, and species does not matter. Alexander asks to go with Kirk. While waiting for it to take effect, Parmen forces the four to perform again. Alexander becomes angry after watching the humiliating tricks played upon the crew by his fellow Platonians and he tries, unsuccessfully, to attack Parmen with a knife. Kirk uses his new-found telekinetic powers to defeat Parmen and save Alexander's life. Parmen then promises to mend his bullying ways, but Kirk doesn't believe him, and warns Parmen, should he go back on his word, the powers can be recreated by anyone whenever they wish to defeat him. Kirk promises to send appropriate medical technicians to the planet as long as the Platonians behave themselves, and Alexander requests to go with the Enterprise to start a new life elsewhere in the Galaxy. With Alexander by his side, Kirk contacts the Enterprise and tells Scotty. "I am bringing a little surprise onboard." 

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The novel covers Miller's growing inability and outright refusal to accommodate what he sees as America's hostile environment. It is autobiographical but not chronological, jumping between Miller's adolescent adventures in Brooklyn in the 1900s, recollections of his first love Una Gifford, a love affair with his nearly-30-year-old piano teacher when he was 15, his unhappy marriage to his first wife Beatrice, his years working at Western Union (called The Cosmodemonic Telegraph Company in the book) in Manhattan in the 1920s, and his fateful meeting with his second wife June (known in the book as Mara), who he credits with changing his life and making him into a writer. The Rosy Crucifixion continues the story of June, in greater detail, over the course of nearly 1,500 pages, and also described the process of Miller finding his voice as a writer, until eventually he sets off for Paris, where the activities depicted in Tropic of Cancer begin.Hoyle, The Unknown Henry Miller, p. 27.Dearborn, The Happiest Man Alive, p. 197.Ferguson, Henry Miller: A Life, p. 65.Frank N. Magill, editor, "Tropic of Capricorn," Masterpieces of American Literature, New York: Salem Press, 1993, pp. 567-69. 

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Marie and Alex are best friends on their way to stay at Alex's parents' house for the weekend to study. When they arrive, Alex gives Marie a tour of her house before they settle down for dinner. After dinner, Marie and Alex get ready to go to bed. As Alex sleeps, Marie lies on her bed listening to music and masturbating. Marie hears a doorbell ring and Alex's father Daniel wakes to answer it. The man at the door is a serial killer, who slashes Daniel's face with a straight razor. His head is pressed between two spindles of the staircase, and the killer shoves a bookcase towards his head, decapitating him. The noise awakens Alex's mother, who finds Daniel dead and is approached by the killer. Marie, hearing the mother's screams, quickly arranges the guest room to make it appear that no one is staying there, and hides under her bed. The killer inspects Marie's room but does not find her. Marie creeps downstairs and finds Alex chained in her bedroom. Promising to find help, she sneaks into the parents' room to find a phone. After hearing loud thuds, she hides in the closet and through the slats of the door witnesses the killing of Alex's mother as her throat is brutally slashed with a razor. Alex's younger brother Tom runs from the house to the cornfield, pursued by the killer. Marie returns to Alex, where she witnesses Tom's murder from a window. Marie promises to free Alex, but the killer is heard returning. Marie sneaks into the kitchen and takes a butcher knife. Alex is dragged into the killer's truck. Marie sneaks into the truck with the butcher knife and hides there with Alex. He locks them in and drives off. When the killer stops at a gas station, Marie gives Alex the knife and sneaks into the gas station shop for help. When the killer comes into the shop, Marie hides and she witnesses the store clerk Jimmy being murdered with an axe. The killer returns to the truck and Marie calls the police, but hangs up in frustration when she's unable to tell them where she is. She takes the clerk's keys and uses his car to follow the killer down a deserted road. The killer notices Marie following him, and rams Marie's vehicle, pushing the car off the road where it wrecks. Exiting on foot, badly injured, Marie runs into the forest as the killer seeks her. Eventually, Marie bludgeons the killer with a fence post covered in barbed wire. As Marie inspects the body, he grabs at her throat, so Marie suffocates him with a plastic sheet and makes her way back to the truck. Alex seems terrified of Marie as she returns to the vehicle. As police investigate the gas station murders via the in-store videotape, the tape shows Marie murdering the store clerk. In retrospect, it is revealed that Marie is murderous, delusional, and in love with Alex and the real killer of Alex's family. At the truck, Marie unties Alex. As soon as Alex is free, she threatens Marie with the knife and accuses her of butchering her family. Alex slashes Marie's face and stabs her in the stomach before running into the forest. Marie chases Alex with a concrete saw. Alex finds a road and flags down a car. As Alex is climbing into the car, Marie appears brandishing the concrete saw and disembowels the driver. A stray piece of glass slices Alex's Achilles tendon. Alex takes a crowbar from the car's toolbox and crawls along the road. Marie forces Alex to tell her that she loves her, and she kisses her. While engaged in the kiss, Alex plunges the crowbar into Marie's upper-chest as Marie proclaims she'll never let anyone come between them. Some time later, Marie is in a psychiatric hospital room, with Alex watching her through a one-way mirror. Marie grins and reaches for Alex, evidently aware that she is behind it. 

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Based on the Depression-era bildungsroman memoir of writer A. E. Hotchner, the film follows the story of a boy struggling to survive on his own in a hotel in St. Louis after his mother enters a sanatorium with tuberculosis and his younger brother is sent to live with an uncle. His father, a German immigrant and traveling salesman working for the Hamilton Watch Company, is off on long trips from which the boy cannot be certain he will return. 

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The main character and the narrator in Armageddon 2419 A.D. is Anthony Rogers, who later appears in the various comic strips, radio shows, and film serials that follow as "Buck Rogers". Rogers recounts the events of the “Second War of Independence” that precedes the first victory of Americans over Hans, in which he plays an important role. Born in 1898, he was a veteran of the Great War (World War I) and was by 1927 working for the American Radioactive Gas Corporation. He was investigating reports of unusual phenomena in abandoned coal mines near Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania. On December 15, while investigating one of the lower levels of a mine, there was a cave-in. Exposed to radioactive gas, Rogers fell into "a state of suspended animation, free from the ravages of katabolic processes, and without any apparent effect on physical or mental faculties." Rogers remained in “sleep” for 492 years. He awakens in 2419 and, thinking he has been asleep for just several hours, wanders for a few days in unfamiliar forests (what had been Pennsylvania almost five centuries before). He finally notices a wounded boy-like-figure, clad in strange clothes and moving in giant leaps, who appears to be under attack by others. He defends the person, killing one of the attackers and scaring off the rest. It turns out that he is helping a woman, Wilma Deering, who, on “air patrol”, was attacked by an enemy gang, the "Bad Bloods", which is presumed to have allied themselves with the Hans. Wilma takes Rogers to her camp, where he is to meet the bosses of her gang. He is invited to either stay with their gang or leave and visit other gangs. They hope Rogers’ experience and the knowledge he gained fighting in the First World War may be useful in their struggle with the Hans. Rogers stays with the gang for several days, learns about the community life of Americans in the 25th century, and makes friends with the people, especially with Wilma, with whom he spends a lot of time. He also experiences a Han air raid, during which he manages to destroy one of the enemy ships. Rogers and his friends hurry to the bosses to report the incident and explain the method he has used when shooting the aircraft. As the raid has caused much destruction, there is suspicion that the location of the gang’s industrial plants may have been revealed to the Hans by rival gangs. They await a fight with the Hans who will likely wish to take revenge for the destruction of their airship. The bosses direct Wilma and Rogers to investigate the wreck. While there, a Han party arrives to investigate as well. Thanks to Rogers’ quick and wise instructions, he and Wilma manage to escape and shoot down some more of the Hans' ships. The day after, Wilma and Anthony get married, and Rogers becomes a member of the gang. In the meantime, knowing Rogers’ technique, the other gangs start the hunt for Han ships. The Hans respond by improving the security of their ships, forcing the Americans to develop new tactics to press their sudden advantage and identify the traitors working with the Han. Anthony develops a plan to get the records of the traitorous transaction, which are kept somewhere in the Han city of Nu- Yok. With the help of other gangs, he creates a team that will go with him. They learn that the traitors are the Sinsings, the gang located not far from Nu-Yok. The Americans appreciate Rogers’ courage and brave deeds and, grateful to him, make him the new boss. He instantly reorganizes the governing structures of the gang by creating new offices and makes plans for the battle with the Sinsings, again using the knowledge he gained in the First World War. The raid on Sinsings turns out to be a great success and gives the Americans the confidence in their ability to overcome the Hans. 

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The backstory of the ride revolves around the attempts of Evil Emperor Zurg (voiced by Andrew Stanton in the Astro Blasters attractions and Frank Welker in Space Ranger Spin) steal the batteries (known as "crystallic fusion cells") used to power the space vehicles of the "Little Green Men" (voiced by Jeff Pidgeon and Debi Derryberry). Participants are "Star Command" raw recruits sent to defeat Zurg. The queue area is awash in the chartreuse, white, and bright blue hues of Buzz Lightyear himself (voiced by Pat Fraley, who does voice for all Buzz Lightyear attractions [minus the Shanghai and Japanese rides]). Since Buzz Lightyear is a toy, the attraction is cleverly scaled to give the illusion that one has just been reduced to the size of an action figure, featuring such detail as giant, exposed Philips screw heads and an explanation of the interactive phase of the ride that resembles a toy's instruction sheet, only on a gigantic scale. An Audio-Animatronic Buzz Lightyear figure and giant Etch-a-Sketch (Disneyland) and/or View-Master (Walt Disney World) provide explanation of the "mission" to destroy Zurg's secret weapon with your blasters. While his body is audio-animatronic, Buzz's face is actually a screen with a projection of computer animation, allowing better lipsync and more expressive features, making him look like a more realistic representation of the character from the films. 

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On 20 January 1942, as Nazi Germany's war effort sours due to the failure of Operation Barbarossa, the entrance of the United States into World War II, and the death of Walther von Reichenau, a meeting is held to determine the method by which the government is to implement Adolf Hitler's policy, that the German sphere of influence should be free of Jews, including those in the occupied territories of Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Czechoslovakia and France. As the film opens, various officials from different German agencies arrive and mingle at a lakeside villa in the Berlin borough of Wannsee. Among those present: *Wilhelm Stuckart (Colin Firth), a lawyer representing the Interior Ministry and co-author of the anti-Semitic Nuremberg Laws *Friedrich Wilhelm Kritzinger (David Threlfall), deputy head of the Reich Chancellery *Gerhard Klopfer (Ian McNeice), a Falstaffian lawyer from the Nazi Party Chancellery *Otto Hofmann (Nicholas Woodeson), Chief of the SS Race and Settlement Main Office *Martin Luther (Kevin McNally), the obsequious Foreign Ministry's liaison to the SS. *Heinrich Müller (Brendan Coyle), Gestapo chief and Adolf Eichmann's immediate superior *Josef Bühler (Ben Daniels), State Secretary for the General Government of occupied Poland *Rudolf Lange (Barnaby Kay), a Sicherheitsdienst (SD) Commander *Alfred Meyer (Brian Pettifer), Deputy Reich Minister, Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories *Erich Neumann (Jonathan Coy), the apparently out-ranked Director of the Office of the Four Year Plan *Reinhard Heydrich (Kenneth Branagh), Heinrich Himmler's right-hand man in the SS, who begins by explaining the purpose of the meeting. It is quickly established by those present that there is a significant "Jewish problem", in that the Jews of Europe cannot be efficiently contained, nor can they be forced onto other countries. Kritzinger interrupts at several points to say that the meeting is pointless, given that the Jewish Question had previously been settled, but Heydrich promises to revisit his concerns. Heydrich announces that the government's policy will change from emigration from German-held territories to "evacuation" to the Occupied Eastern Territories, and that Fascist Italy will be forced to cooperate. As the squalor at the camps and ghettos for Jews, including Theresienstadt, becomes apparent to the attendees, there is consternation over the use of euphemisms from the SS members, including Meyer, who want to adopt an open policy of genocide. A discussion follows of the possibilities of sterilisation, and of the exemptions for mixed race Jews who have one or more non-Jewish grandparents. At this point, Stuckart loses his temper and insists that a sturdy legal framework is paramount, and that ad hoc application of standards will lead to administrative chaos. He also chides Klopfer for his simplistic portrayal of Jews as subhuman beasts, simultaneously painting his own picture of Jews as clever, manipulative and untrustworthy. Heydrich calls a break in the proceedings, and after praising Stuckart aloud takes him aside to warn him about the consequences of his stubbornness, implying that others in the SS will take an unwanted interest in his actions. When the meeting reconvenes, Heydrich steers the discussion in the direction of wholesale extermination using gas chambers. This causes consternation among some attendees, especially Kritzinger and Bühler. Kritzinger objects on the grounds that Hitler had given him personal guarantees that extermination of the Jews was not being considered. Bühler is shocked to discover that the SS have been building extermination camps at Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka, and making preparations for the "Final Solution" under his nose. It eventually becomes clear to everyone at the meeting that they have been called together not to discuss the problem but to be given orders by the SS, who are intent on wresting control of the operation from other agencies such as the Interior Ministry and the Reich Chancellery. Eichmann now describes the method that will be used: the gassing of Jews. Many have already been killed in specially designed trucks and his figures include tens of thousands of victims. Eichmann explains that permanent gas chambers will be built at locations such as Auschwitz. He even describes their bodies as coming out "pink" (a symptom of carbon monoxide poisoning), at which point Hofmann is suddenly taken ill. He later attributes this to a bad cigar. Throughout the meeting and over refreshments attendees raise other side issues, reflecting the interests of their respective work areas. Lange warns that executing Jews by shooting has a deleterious effect on the morale of his troops, and he clashes with Luther's indifference. Klopfer requests that the Party retains some discretionary power over the process. Bühler presses for urgency, concerned that typhus could break out from the overpopulated ghettos in Poland. Meyer and Neumann do not want production stymied due to disruption or the loss of skilled workers. Heydrich admonishes Hofmann over his insistence that his office takes the lead in managing resettlement in Hungary. A break is called and this time it is Kritzinger's turn to be taken aside and intimidated by Heydrich, who warns that Kritzinger is influential but not invulnerable. Heydrich tells Kritzinger that he wants not only consent but active support, and Kritzinger realises that any hopes he had of assuring livable conditions for the Jewish population are unrealistic. In return, he tells Heydrich a cautionary tale about a man consumed by hatred of his father, so much so that his life loses its meaning once his father dies. Heydrich later interprets this as a warning that a similar fate awaits them if they allow their lives to revolve around antisemitism. Heydrich then recalls and concludes the meeting, giving clear directives that the SS are to be obeyed in all matters relating to the elimination of the Jews. He also asks for explicit assent and support from each official, one by one. After giving careful instructions on the secrecy of the minutes and notes of the meeting, they are adjourned and begin to depart. As the servants at the villa tidy away the remains of the meeting, and the officials depart, a brief account of the fate of each one is given. Most of the members either died during the war or were acquitted by Allied military tribunals to live a peaceful life in postwar West Germany. Heydrich would be assassinated by Czechoslovak partisans for his brutal rule in Bohemia and Moravia within several weeks, while Eichmann would flee to Buenos Aires but be captured and sentenced to death by Israel in the 1960s. The film ends with the house tidied up and all records of the meeting destroyed as if it had never happened. The final card before the credits reveals that Luther's copy of the Wannsee minutes, recovered by the US Army in the archives of the German Foreign Office in 1947, was the only record of the conference to survive. 

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In the fictional Hotel Bristol in San Francisco, four parties arrive, each carrying identical plaid overnight bags. *The mysterious "Mr. Smith" is carrying top-secret government papers. There is at least some indication that he has them illegally and wishes to make them public, as a whistleblower. The equally mysterious "Mr. Jones" identifies himself as from the government, and is on a mission to recover the documents. *Dr. Howard Bannister is carrying a bag of igneous "tambula" rocks that have certain musical properties. Bannister, a musicologist from the Iowa Conservatory of Music, and his tightly wound, overbearing fiancée, Eunice Burns, have come to San Francisco to compete for a grant offered by Frederick Larrabee. Howard, who struggles to be patient with Eunice, has a theory that ancient man may have used rocks to create music. Howard's rival for the grant is the ethically challenged, dubiously-accented Hugh Simon, who is apparently from Yugoslavia but seems to be doing work in Western Europe. *Judy Maxwell's overnighter is filled with her clothing and a large dictionary. No matter where Judy goes, trouble happens, from car crashes to spontaneous combustion of hotel rooms. She never finished college, but nevertheless has amassed a considerable amount of knowledge from all of the courses she took at the many institutions of higher learning from which she was expelled. *Wealthy socialite Mrs. Van Hoskins has a bag containing her sizable collection of valuable jewels. Howard, Eunice, Mrs. Van Hoskins, and Mr. Smith all check into the Hotel Bristol at the same time. Judy, trying to score a free meal, lodges herself there without paying, notices Howard and begins pursuing him (to his bewilderment). Two hotel employees, Harry and Fritz, attempt to steal the jewels, while Mr. Jones attempts to retrieve Smith's bag. Over the course of the evening, the bags get switched haphazardly from room to room as the four parties unwittingly take one another's suitcases. Howard ends up with the jewels, Judy with the documents, Mr. Smith with Judy's clothes, and the thieves with the rocks. Meanwhile, Judy uses her humor, charm and academic knowledge to secure the grant for Howard, while masquerading as Eunice at the musicologists banquet hosted by Larrabee. She then indirectly contributes to the madcap destruction of Howard's hotel room (after Howard finds her taking a bubble bath in his tub, and Eunice suddenly appears). The following day (after Howard and Judy share a romantic moment), everyone makes their way to a party in the lobby of Larrabee's upscale Victorian home, where a major fight scene occurs involving guns, furnishings and thrown pies. Howard and Judy take all four bags and flee through San Francisco, first on a delivery bike, and then in a decorated Volkswagen Beetle stolen from a wedding party, pursued by the thieves, Mr. Smith, Mr. Jones, Eunice, Simon, Larrabee and a few roped-in bystanders. They go through Chinatown disrupting a parade, down winding Lombard Street, through wet cement, through a panel of glass, and eventually into San Francisco Bay at the ferry landing, after causing several collisions. All the protagonists finally end up in court, under the gavel of the world-weary, medication- dependent and curmudgeonly Judge Maxwell who turns out to be Judy's father. At the shock of seeing his daughter revealed to be the root of the trouble (she was hiding in a blanket during the proceeding), he leans on his heavily gaveled bench, which collapses under his weight. In the end, everything is cleared up: Howard gets his rocks back, Mrs. Van Hoskins pays the considerable damages in Howard's name with the reward money he would have received for the return of her jewels, the hotel thieves are forced to flee the country, and the papers are put back in the hands of the government. Judy exposes Simon as a fraud and plagiarist, thus getting Howard the grant. Eunice leaves Howard for Larrabee, and Judy announces she is making one more attempt at college, studying Music History at the Iowa Conservatory of Music with Bannister as her professor. Howard and Judy proclaim their love for one another, sharing an airborne kiss while their in-flight movie is the Bugs Bunny cartoon that gave the film its name. 

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Three years after the events in Vietnam, John Rambo has settled in a Thai monastery and is helping with construction work on the monastery grounds. He also makes money by competing in krabi-krabong matches (using fighting sticks) in nearby Bangkok. Colonel Sam Trautman visits his old friend and ally John Rambo in Thailand. He explains that he is putting together a mercenary team for a CIA-sponsored mission to supply the Mujahideen and other tribes as they try to repel the Soviet Army in Afghanistan. Despite being shown photos of civilians suffering at the hands of the Soviet military, Rambo refuses to join, as he is tired of fighting. Trautman proceeds anyway and is ambushed by enemy forces near the border, resulting in all of his men being killed. Trautman is captured and sent to a large mountain base to be interrogated by Soviet Colonel Zaysen and his henchman Sergeant Kourov. Embassy official Robert Griggs informs Rambo of Col. Trautman's capture but refuses to approve a rescue mission for fear of drawing the United States into the war. Aware that Trautman will die otherwise, Rambo gets permission to undertake a solo rescue on the condition that he will be disavowed in the event of capture or death. Rambo immediately flies to Peshawar, Pakistan, where he intends to convince arms dealer Mousa Ghani to bring him to Khost, the town closest to the Soviet base where Trautman is held captive. The Mujahideen in the village, led by chieftain Masoud, hesitate to help Rambo free Trautman. Meanwhile, a Soviet informant in Ghani's employ informs the Soviets, who send two attack helicopters to destroy the village. Though Rambo manages to destroy one of them with a turret, the rebels refuse to aid him any further. Aided only by Mousa and a young boy named Hamid, Rambo attacks the base and inflicts significant damage before being forced to retreat. Hamid, as well as Rambo, are wounded during the battle and Rambo sends him and Mousa away before resuming his infiltration. Skillfully evading base security, Rambo reaches Trautman just as he is about to be tortured with a flamethrower. He and Trautman rescue several other prisoners and hijack a Hind gunship helicopter to escape the base. The helicopter is damaged during takeoff and quickly crashes, forcing the escapees to flee across the sand on foot. An attack helicopter pursues Rambo and Trautman to a nearby cave, where Rambo destroys it with an explosive arrow. A furious Zaysen sends Spetsnaz commandos under Kourov to kill them, but they are quickly routed and killed. An injured Kourov attacks Rambo with his bare hands, but is overcome and killed. As Rambo and Trautman make their way to the Pakistani border, Zaysen and his forces surround them. But before the duo are overwhelmed, Masoud's Mujahideen forces attack the Soviets in a surprise cavalry charge. Despite being wounded, Rambo takes control of a tank and uses it to attack Zaysen's Hind gunship in a head- on battle with both vehicles firing high-calibre machine gun rounds, Rambo firing the tank's main gun and Zaysen unleashing volleys of the Hind's high explosive rockets and missiles. The final charge sees the two vehicles collide, but Rambo survives after firing the tank's main gun after colliding with Zaysen's Hind. At the end of the battle, Rambo and Trautman say goodbye to the Mujahideen and leave Afghanistan. 

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Eurydice's father reads to her from King Lear in a Shimer College production of Eurydice. The play consists of three movements, divided into numerous scenes: 7 in the first movement, 20 in the second movement, and 3 in the third movement. The play begins with Eurydice and Orpheus, two young lovers, who are about to get married. In the underworld, Eurydice's dead father has managed to preserve his memory and his ability to read and write, and tries to send her letters. During the wedding, Eurydice goes outside to get a drink of water and she meets a man (the "Nasty Interesting Man") who tells her he has a letter from her father. Eurydice decides to go to his apartment to retrieve the letter, but as she leaves his apartment after resisting the man's attempts to seduce her, she trips and falls to her death on the stairs. At the beginning of the second movement, there is no set change, but "the movement to the underworld is marked by the entrance of stones": Little Stone, Big Stone, and Loud Stone, who serve as a chorus. Eurydice enters the underworld through an elevator, inside which it is raining. Upon arrival, she meets her father, who tries to reteach Eurydice about her past since she has lost her memory after being dipped in the river Lethe. The Stones try unsuccessfully to stop them, because the dead are not allowed to remember their past or speak in human language. Rooms are also not allowed in the underworld, but Eurydice's father creates one for her out of pieces of string. He gradually re-teaches her human language and her past. While the father is away at work, the lord of the underworld enters as a child riding a tricycle and attempts to seduce Eurydice, but fails. Meanwhile, in the land of the living, Orpheus writes a letter to Eurydice, which her father delivers and reads to her. Orpheus also sends her a copy of the Complete Works of Shakespeare by attaching it to a piece of string, and Eurydice's father reads to her from King Lear. Orpheus sends another letter, and then resolves to go to the underworld himself to find her. In the third movement, Orpheus arrives at the gates of the underworld, singing a song so powerful it makes the Stones weep. The lord of the underworld tells him that he may take Eurydice back, but only if he does not turn around to look at her. Eurydice is then faced with the decision to either stay with her father or go back with her husband. At her father's insistence, she follows Orpheus. But as she catches up to him, she calls out his name, and he turns to look at her, causing her to die a second death. Meanwhile, her father has decided that he wants to forget everything, and dips himself in the river again. When Eurydice returns, her father is lying silent on the ground, having lost all of his language and memory forever. As Eurydice mourns her father, the lord of the underworld returns, having grown from a child to superhuman height. He orders her to be his bride. Eurydice pens a letter to Orpheus and his next wife, then immerses herself in the river and lies down in forgetfulness. Finally, Orpheus too enters from the elevator, having truly died this time. He finds Eurydice's letter to him, but because he has been dipped in the river, he cannot read it. 

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Captain Kirk orders the Federation starship USS Enterprise into Romulan space without any authorization from Starfleet of which the bridge crew are aware. Romulan vessels intercept the Enterprise and Kirk negotiates an hour's time to consider surrendering his ship. Kirk, along with the Vulcan First Officer Spock are then invited aboard the Romulan flagship. Once aboard the Romulan ship, Kirk and Spock are taken before a female commander who demands an explanation for their intrusion into Romulan space. Kirk claims that instrument failure caused the ship to stray off course, but Spock divulges that the captain ordered entry into Romulan space, and asserts that he is insane. Romulan guards lead Kirk to their brig. Alone with Spock in her quarters, the commander questions Spock about his career. She argues that humans may have shown their disregard for his talents and capabilities by not giving him command of a ship, but the Romulans, if he were willing, would not make that mistake. In the Romulan brig, Kirk injures himself by lunging against the force field door. Chief Medical Officer Dr. McCoy is summoned from the Enterprise to attend to him. The commander asks McCoy to confirm Spock's characterization of the captain as mentally incompetent and McCoy does so, whereupon the commander calls on Spock to assume command of the Enterprise. Kirk, calling Spock a traitor, attacks him, and Spock defends himself using what he calls the "Vulcan death grip". Kirk slumps to the floor, and McCoy declares him dead. Back on the Enterprise, Kirk awakens from the state of suspension brought on by the so-called death grip. His apparent insanity, the unauthorized venture into Romulan space, and Spock's betrayal have all been part of a secret Federation plan to steal the Romulan cloaking device. Kirk orders McCoy to perform plastic surgery to give him Romulan features and then transports back to the Romulan vessel disguised as one of their officers. Meanwhile, Spock and the commander dine in her quarters, and their conversation grows intimate. When the commander goes to change her attire, Spock directs Kirk, via communicator, to the location of the cloaking device. His signal is discovered and tracked, and Spock surrenders himself to the Romulan officers, but they are too late to prevent Kirk from stealing the cloaking device and returning with it to the Enterprise. Chief Engineer Scott attempts to adapt the Romulan cloaking device to the Enterprise while Ensign Chekov succeeds in distinguishing Spock's life signs from those of the Romulans. Both Spock and the Romulan commander are beamed to the Enterprise where Kirk gives the order to return to Federation space. The pursuing Romulans are ready to fire upon them as Scott successfully activates the cloak and the Enterprise vanishes before their eyes. The now- captured Romulan commander chides Spock that any advantage the Federation gains from studying the new cloaking device model will be temporary, as before too long the Romulans will simply build an even better model. Spock admits that military secrets are perhaps the most fleeting of all. She asks if what passed between them was all just a ruse, but Spock admits that he actually was tempted - though his sense of duty to Starfleet is even stronger. 

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Set in 1898, the cartoon offers a nostalgic look at the United States at the turn of the century. It starts with a barbershop quartet, composed of four men with handlebar moustaches who play old-fashioned music on found objects, leading up to the annual Fourth of July celebration at the local fairground, where a hero and villain fight for the heart of a woman. The original “So Long Folks” sequence is missing due to a splice between an airing of Honeymoon Hotel which features that short's closing sequence. The original short, except for the titles, was found on a Nickelodeon Looney Tunes airing from 1990. 

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Dr Ram Prasad Ghayal (Amitabh Bachchan) is a renowned doctor who has been successful in all the operations in his career and has skillfully operated many delicate surgeries. He lives with his wife Janki (Dimple Kapadia) and brother Bharat (Arbaaz Ali Khan). Bharat is in love with Renu (Karishma Kapoor), the daughter of Umeshchan Jain (Tiku Talsania). At the same time, Raja Tunga (Deepak Tijori), the brother of Rana Tunga (Mukesh Rishi) has a longing for Renu. The miscreant Raja with his mob severely assaults Bharat when Bharat resists Raja's advances towards Renu. A corrupt minister Mohanlal (Ashish Vidyarthi) wants to execute a disastrous scheme called "Pawanghat Power Project" at the expense of the lives and property of the tribes living at the project site. He coaxes and later threatens Bharat, the concerned engineer to sign his approval for the project, whereas Bharat refuses to endorse such a scheme. On the other hand, Rana devises an evil plot against Bharat to wipe the latter out eventually leading to his brother Raja winning Renu. Bharat is framed for murdering a woman and Inspector Danapani (Mushtaq Khan), a subordinate of Rana, arrests him and puts him behind bars. Woefully, Bharat dies in jail presumably by committing suicide. The agony of Bharat's death claims the life of Janki as well. With the death of his beloved wife and brother, Dr Ram becomes desolate and alcoholic. Renu marries Raja, without any regret for the death of her former lover. Now that Bharat is dead, Mohanlal conspires with Rana for the implementation of the power project. However, they end up becoming enemies of each other. Mohanlal plans to kill Raja. His henchmen attack Raja who is critically injured. Raja is admitted to hospital where Dr Ram is to conduct his operation. Renu fears that Dr Ram may kill Raja to take vengeance for the death of his brother. She refuses to sign the operation papers, but Dr Ram, who considers it his moral duty to save the life of a patient regardless of them being his friend or foe, conducts the operation. His expertise pays off as Raja is saved. He goes out to convey the news to Renu, but returns to find Raja dead, beyond all his expectations. Renu files an F.I.R. against Dr Ram, who is arrested and imprisoned. In jail, Dr Ram meets an inmate bearing the number 92, Prof Nizamuddin Azad (Pran), a scientist of "Bharat Atomic Energy". He has been jailed after a false allegation of revealing confidential nuclear formulae to foreign nations. He tells Dr Ram that his brother Bharat did not commit suicide, but was tortured to death by Insp. Danapani, which he witnessed. Dr Ram now realises that his past misfortune was a result of the evil motives of some antagonists of the nation. He becomes the Angel of Death (Mrityudaata), who will put all those malefactors to death. Dr Ram breaks away from jail and nabs Insp. Danapani who says that Mohanlal planned the murder of Bharat using his influence over police. He also says that Raja was killed by Dr Siddiqui (Avtar Gill) by cutting off the oxygen supply after Mohanlal bribed him to kill Raja. Dr Ram kicks Danapani off the building to his death. Meanwhile, Mohanlal has allied with another influential politician, Trilochan Tripathi, a.k.a. TT or Terror of Terrors (Paresh Rawal), who keeps up an honest appearance among the masses, but works for his own interests at the cost of the welfare of the public. Dr Ram corners Dr Siddiqui at the roof of Umeshchan Jain's house, who confesses to killing Raja, and accepting a bribe from Mohanlal. Dr Ram captures a video of Dr Siddiqui's revelation before putting him to death. Soon, Dr Ram kills Mohanlal. One day, Trilochan Tripathi addresses a gathering when Dr Ram publicly puts a video on view in which Tripathi signs an agreement with a foreign syndicate related to "Pawanghat Power Project". Later, Tripathi would fool the public with false promises of power distribution. The enraged crowd chases Tripathi through the streets when Rana arrives for his rescue. Rana fires at Dr Ram who burns Rana and Tripathi to death. The movie ends after Dr Ram succumbs to his injuries. 

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The federation starship Enterprise arrives at the planet Triacus. Captain Kirk, Dr. McCoy, and First Officer Spock beam down in time to witness the death of Professor Starnes, the leader of a scientific expedition team. The other members of the expedition, apart from their five seemingly unconcerned children, seem to have died at their own hands. The crew bring the children back to the Enterprise, where McCoy evaluates them and determines that they are suffering from lacunar amnesia, unaware of what happened to their parents and unable to grieve. However, when left unattended in one of the ship's rooms, the children chant an evocation and summon a glowing humanoid named Gorgan. He advises them to take control of the crew in order to get to Marcus XII, his preferred destination. The eldest child, Tommy, uses mental powers Gorgan has bestowed on the children to trick the crew into steering the ship while presenting illusions that make them think they are still in orbit above Triacus. Upon reviewing a troubling expedition film recorded by Starnes, Spock, McCoy, and Kirk return to the bridge to find the children and Gorgan fully in control of the crew. Unable to break their hold on the crew, Spock observes that the children are merely possessed by Gorgan, who must be the evil embodiment of an ancient group of space-warring marauders released by Starnes's archaeological survey. Believing they can break the hold Gorgan has on the children, Spock plays back footage showing the children happy with their parents, who are then shown to be dead. As the children realize what has happened, they break down emotionally and Gorgan's appearance begins to deteriorate. With the children's powers gone, the crew regains control and Kirk orders a course for Starbase 4 while they take care to comfort the children. 

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At the Roman camp of Aquarium near the Gauls' village, Gluteus Maximus, an athletic Roman legionary, is chosen as one of Rome's representatives for the upcoming Olympic Games in Greece. Gaius Veriambitius, his centurion, hopes to share in the glory of Olympic victory. While training in the forest, Gluteus Maximus encounters Asterix and Obelix, who unintentionally outdo him at running, the javelin and boxing, thanks to the power of the magic potion. Demoralised, he consigns himself to sweeping the Roman camp instead of training. When Veriambitius asks Vitalstatistix that Gluteus Maximus be left alone, Vitalstatistix decides the Gauls should enter the Olympic Games as well. Veriambitius argues they cannot, as Romans are the only non-Greeks allowed, but Asterix rationalizes that as Gaul is part of the Roman Empire, they are technically Romans (despite their resistance to Roman rule), making them a Gallo-Roman team, demoralising the centurion and his legionary further. The Gauls hold trials that prove inconclusive as everyone is dosed with the magic potion and thus do everything at the same top speed and strength. Eventually, they decide to register only Asterix and Obelix as competitors. The entire (male) population of the village travels to Olympia (aboard a galley where they have to do the rowing), where Asterix and Obelix register as athletes (with Getafix as their coach) and the others all enjoy a holiday. When Gluteus Maximus and Veriambitius discover that the Gauls have come to compete, they are left in despair (Vitalstatistix telling them "We're not stopping you entering, it's just that we're going to win"), and this despair spreads among all the Roman athletes. They give up training and spend all their time having elaborate parties, washing their uniforms and sweeping the whole area. The scent from their feasts eventually causes the Greek competitors to complain about their own healthy food. Alarmed, the Greeks send a judge to warn the Romans that even if they think drinking will somehow make them better athletes, it will be held against them as all artificial stimulants are forbidden, prompting Veriambitius to tell him about the Gauls' magic potion. The Gauls are dejected by the news that victory is not as certain as they had expected, but Asterix decides to compete anyway. Obelix, being permanently affected by the potion, now cannot compete and anyway doesn't quite understand what's going on – he thinks he's been dismissed just because he fell into a cauldron and wonders if telling the officials he fell into a regular pot or amphora will change anything. At the games, Asterix and the Roman athletes are beaten at every turn by the Greeks, causing a dilemma to the Olympic officials. Although their victories prove what they've believed all along (that Romans are decadent barbarians and the Greeks are perfect beings), too much success will reflect badly on the country's reputation, so they announce a special race for just Romans. After the announcement, Asterix and Getafix start talking, very loudly, about a cauldron of magic potion left in an unguarded shed. Eager to win, the other Roman athletes steal the potion that night. The race begins, and the Roman athletes easily beat Asterix - they all overtake him and cross the finish line simultaneously. After the race, Getafix accuses them of having used magic potion and, when the Romans deny the accusation, Asterix sticks his tongue out at them. When the Romans return the gesture, it is revealed that Getafix had added an extra ingredient to this particular batch of potion and the Romans now have blue tongues from drinking it. They are disqualified, and Asterix is declared the winner. The Gauls return home for their traditional banquet. Getafix notices Asterix hasn't brought his Palm of Victory home. Asterix explains he gave it to someone who needed it more: Gluteus Maximus. Gluteus' apparent victory is shown to have greatly pleased Julius Caesar, who promotes Maximus to centurion and Veriambitius to tribune. 

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In 1928, Douglas Bader joins the Royal Air Force (RAF) as a Flight Cadet. Despite a friendly reprimand from Air Vice- Marshal Halahan for his disregard for service discipline and flight rules, he successfully completes his training and is posted to No. 23 Squadron at RAF Kenley. In 1930, he is chosen to be among the pilots for an aerial exhibition. Later, although his flight commander has explicitly banned low level aerobatics (as two pilots have been killed trying just that), he is goaded into it by a disparaging remark by a civilian pilot. His plane crashes. Mr Joyce, surgeon at the Royal Berkshire Hospital, has to amputate both legs to save Bader's life. During his convalescence, he receives encouragement from Nurse Brace. Upon his discharge from the hospital, he sets out to master prosthetic legs. At a stop for some tea, he meets waitress Thelma Edwards. Once he can walk on his own, he asks her out. Despite his undiminished skills, he is refused flying duties simply because there are no regulations covering his situation. Offered a desk job instead, he leaves the RAF and works unhappily in an office. He and Thelma marry. As the Second World War starts, Bader talks himself back into the RAF. He is soon given command of a squadron comprising mostly dispirited Canadians who had fought in France. Improving morale and brazenly circumventing normal channels to obtain badly needed equipment, he makes the squadron operational again. They fight effectively in the Battle of Britain. Bader is then put in charge of a new, larger formation of five squadrons. Later, he is posted to RAF Tangmere and promoted to wing commander. In 1941, Bader has to bail out over France. He is caught, escapes, and is recaptured. He then makes such a nuisance of himself to his jailers, he is repeatedly moved from one POW camp to another, finally ending up in Colditz Castle. He is liberated after four years of captivity. The war ends (much to Thelma's relief) before Bader can have "one last fling" in the Far East. On 15 September 1945, the fifth anniversary of the greatest day of the Battle of Britain, Bader, now a group captain, is given the honour of leading eleven other battle survivors and a total of 300 aircraft in a flypast over London. 

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The play opens in a restaurant, where Marlene is waiting for some friends to arrive. She is throwing a dinner party to celebrate her promotion at the employment agency where she works. As the women arrive and start the meal, they begin to talk about their lives and what they did. Each of her guests is a historical, fictional or mythical woman who faced adversity and suffered bitterly to attain her goals. Lady Nijo recalls how she came to meet the ex-Emperor of Japan, and her encounter with him. While the rest of the women understand the encounter as rape, she explains that she saw it as her destiny: the purpose for which she was brought up. Within the context of Pope Joan's narrative, the women discuss religion. At this point the waitress, who punctuates the scene with interruptions, has already brought the starter and is preparing to serve the main courses. All the women except Marlene discuss their dead lovers. They also recall the children that they bore and subsequently lost. Nijo's baby was of royal blood, so he couldn't be seen with her. Pope Joan was stoned to death when it was discovered that she had given birth and was therefore female and committing heresy. Griselda was told that her two children had been killed, in a cruel test of her loyalty to her husband. After dessert, the women sit drinking brandy, unconsciously imitating their male counterparts. In Act One, Scene Two, Marlene is at the agency where she works, interviewing a girl named Jeanine. Marlene takes a fancy to her even though she seems lost and helpless. She doesn't know what type of job she wants—only that she wants to travel and be with her husband. Act Two, Scene One begins with two girls, Angie and Kit, playing in Angie's backyard. Angie is abrasive and argumentative with both her friend and her mother, Joyce. She and Kit fight and Angie says she is going to kill her mother. Kit doesn't believe her, and they start to talk about sex. Angie accuses Kit's mother of sleeping around, but it becomes apparent that neither of them know what they are talking about; Kit is only 12 and Angie is quite immature for her sixteen years. In Act Two, Scene Two, the action turns to the "Top Girls" employment agency, where Nell and Win are sharing the latest office gossip, until Marlene arrives. They then express their congratulations to Marlene for getting the top job. Win meets Louise, a client who after conscientiously working for many years at the same firm is deciding to quit. She slowly opens up to Win, describing how she had dedicated her life to her job, working evenings at the expense of her social life, without reward. She has found herself at 56, with no husband or life outside of work, in a position where she trains men who are consistently promoted over her. The action then switches to Marlene's office where Angie arrives, having taken the bus from Joyce's house in the country. She is shy and awkward and her presence is clearly an unwelcome surprise to Marlene, who nevertheless offers to let Angie stay at her place overnight. They are interrupted by Mrs. Kidd, the wife of Howard, who was passed up for promotion in favor of Marlene. Mrs. Kidd tells Marlene how much the job means to her husband, how devastated he is, and questions whether she should be doing a 'man's job'. It becomes clear that she is asking Marlene to step down and let her husband have the job instead, which Marlene firmly declines to do. She tries to clear Mrs. Kidd out of her office, but Mrs. Kidd only becomes more insistent until Marlene finally asks her to "please piss off". Lights shift to Shona arriving in Nell's office looking for job opportunities. At first Nell is impressed by her surprisingly accomplished resume, but quickly figures out that Shona is underaged and making it all up as she goes. At the same time, Angie is having a conversation with Win about Angie's aunt and Win's life, but falls asleep in the middle of Win's story. Nell comes in with the news that Howard has had a heart attack. Marlene is informed but is unperturbed, and Nell responds "Lucky he didn't get the job if that's what his health's like". The final act takes place a year earlier in Joyce's kitchen. Marlene, Joyce and Angie share stories with each other. Angie is very happy that her Aunt Marlene is there, since she looks up to her and thinks that she is wonderful. Shortly before Angie goes to bed, Marlene pulls a bottle of whiskey out of her bag to drink with Joyce. As they drink, they discuss what is to become of Angie. With brutal honesty, Joyce tells Marlene that Angie is neither particularly bright nor talented and it is unlikely that she will ever make anything of herself. Marlene tries to brush this off, saying that Joyce is just running Angie down, as this sober reality contradicts Marlene's conservative mentality. It is revealed that Angie is actually Marlene's daughter, whom she abandoned to Joyce's care, causing Joyce to lose the child she was carrying from the stress. The play ends with Angie calling for her Mum towards Marlene. It is unclear how much Angie heard of Joyce and Marlene's argument. 

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A beautiful young woman (Natalie Portman) and Dan Woolf (Jude Law) see each other for the first time from opposite sides of a street as they are walking toward each other, among many other rush-hour pedestrians. She is a young American who just arrived in London, and Dan is an unsuccessful British writer who is on his way to work, where he writes obituaries for a newspaper. Not used to the direction of the traffic, she looks the wrong way as she crosses the street and is hit by a taxi cab right in front of Dan. After he rushes to her side, she smiles at him and says: "Hello, stranger." He takes her to the hospital, where she is treated and released. Afterward, on the way to his office, they stop by Postman's Park, the same park that he and his father visited after his mother's death. Pausing in front of the office before going to work and leaving her, Dan reminds her that traffic in England tends to come on from the right. On impulse, he asks her name, which she gives as Alice Ayres. They soon become lovers. A year later, Dan has written a novel based on Alice's life. While being photographed to publicize it, he flirts with the American photographer Anna Cameron (Julia Roberts). Anna shares a kiss with Dan before finding out that Dan and Alice are in a relationship. Alice arrives and uses Anna's bathroom, leaving Anna and Dan alone again. Dan takes the chance to try to persuade Anna to have an affair with him but is cut short by Alice's return. Alice asks Anna if she can have her portrait taken as well. Anna agrees, and Alice asks Dan to leave them alone during the photo shoot. While being photographed, she reveals to Anna that she overheard them, and she is photographed while crying. Alice doesn't tell Dan what she heard, and Dan spends a year stalking Anna. Another year later, Dan enters a cybersex chat room and randomly meets Larry Gray (Clive Owen), a British dermatologist. With Anna still on his mind, Dan pretends to be her, and using the pretense that they will be having sex, Dan invites Larry to meet at the aquarium, where Anna told Dan she often went. Larry goes to the rendezvous, where he by chance meets Anna, and learns that he is the victim of a prank. Anna tells Larry that a man who had pursued her, Dan, was most likely to blame for the setup. Soon, Anna and Larry become a couple, and they refer to Dan as "Cupid" from then on. Four months later, at Anna's photo exhibition,The scene at the photo exhibition is the only one where all four characters are seen together. Larry meets Alice, whom he recognizes from a photograph of her in tears that is being exhibited. Larry knows that Alice and Dan are a couple from talking to Anna. Dan persuades Anna to become involved with him. They cheat on their respective lovers for a year, even though Anna and Larry marry halfway through the year. Eventually Anna and Dan each confess the affair to their respective partners, leaving their relationships for one another. Alice becomes a stripper, heartbroken by her loss. One day, Larry runs into her accidentally at the strip club. He repeatedly asks her real name, but no matter how much money he gives her, she keeps telling him her name is Jane Jones. He asks her to have sex with him, but she refuses. Later, Larry and Anna meet for coffee. She asks him to sign their divorce papers, and he bargains with her—she agrees to sleep with him so that he will sign the documents and thereafter leave her alone. Anna and Dan meet the same day at the opera house. Soon after she reveals to him that the divorce papers have been signed, Dan realizes she has had sex with Larry. She claims she did it so he would sign the papers and leave them alone, but Dan is furious and does not trust her. A distraught Dan confronts Larry to try to get Anna back. Larry tells him Anna never filed the signed divorce papers and suggests that he return to Alice. Since Dan doesn't know where she is, Larry tells him. During the conversation he claims he did not have sex with Alice, but just before Dan leaves he admits that he did. Alice takes Dan back and decides to return to the States on vacation. While in a hotel room celebrating being back together (and noting that it has been four years since they first met), they talk about the way they met. After bringing up Larry, Dan asks her whether she had sex with him. She initially denies it, but when Dan comes back from going to get cigarettes and instead brings back a rose, she says she doesn't love him anymore and that she did sleep with Larry. Dan reveals that Larry had already told him about the escapade, but he says he forgives her. She insists that it's over and tells him to leave. The argument culminates in Dan slapping Alice. The Alice Ayres tile in the Memorial to Heroic Self-Sacrifice, Postman's Park, London At the conclusion of the film, Larry and Anna are together, and Alice returns to New York City alone. As she passes through the immigration checkpoint on her way back into the United States, a shot of her passport shows her real name to be Jane Rachel Jones. She had lied about her name during her entire four-year relationship with Dan but had told Larry her real name at the strip club. Back in London, Dan returns to Postman's Park, and to his surprise, notices the name Alice Ayres on the tiles of the Memorial to Heroic Self-Sacrifice. The Ayres dedication is to a young woman, "who by intrepid conduct" and at the cost of her young life, rescued three children from a fire. The final scene, which resembles the first, shows Jane walking on a New York street alone. 

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In Universal Century (UC) 0133, ten years after the events of F91, Crossbone Vanguard forces attack a transport ship called the Smashion as it heads to the space colonies run by the Jupiter Empire. Tobia Arronax, a 13-year-old boy aboard the ship, flies out in a Batara mobile suit to fight the Crossbone Vanguard, who have long been derided as space pirates. Unfortunately, he is captured by Crossbone Vanguard ace pilot Seabook Arno, who now goes by the name Kinkedo Nau and brought before their leader, Berah Ronah, who offers him to join the Vanguard or go to Jupiter and forget the attack. Tobia decides to be with the Vanguard, who reveal to him that the Jupiter Empire has spent several years building up its military strength to destroy the Earth Federation, with whom it has a partnership. Now armed with this information, Tobia is trained in mobile suit piloting by Kinkedo and to discover his own Newtype abilities. He flies into action as pilot of the XM-X3 Crossbone Gundam X-3 mobile suit. 

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Birdsong has an episodic structure, and is split into seven sections which move between three different periods of time before, during and after the war in the Stephen Wraysford plot, and three different windows of time in the 1970s Benson plot. 

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San Diego Police Detective Michael Dooley leaves his car to contact his girlfriend, Tracy, when a helicopter suddenly appears and opens fire on his car, which ignites. Presuming him dead, the assassins leave the scene. At the police station, Dooley argues with his lieutenant, refusing to take a partner; instead, he decides to get a police dog. At home, he finds Tracy with another man and spends the night in his new car. The next day, Dooley coerces Freddie, an informant, into revealing that the drug lord Ken Lyman is responsible for the attack. Dooley is assigned a German Shepherd named Jerry Lee, whom he dislikes. Dooley and Jerry Lee head to a warehouse assumed to be filled with drugs. When Jerry Lee does not follow Dooley's orders, the workers laugh at him. Dooley is forced to leave after Jerry Lee finds only a cigarette when commanded to find drugs. The duo drive to a pub where Dooley stakes out Benny the Mule in an attempt to charge Lyman. When his cover is blown, Jerry Lee saves Dooley from a beating; with the dog's help, Dooley subdues Benny and learns the location of Lyman's next shipment. Meanwhile, Lyman kills Freddie and demands that his henchman Dillon kill Dooley before the shipment arrives. At Dooley's apartment, Jerry Lee steals the spotlight after Tracy accepts Dooley's story that he rescued the dog from the streets. The next day, Dooley and Jerry Lee bond when they eat together and spy on Lyman. The two are nearly killed when someone shoots at them, and the two chase the assailant to an empty building. Jerry Lee leads Dooley to the man, who falls to his death after a fistfight with Dooley. In the man's car, Dooley finds a clue that leads him to an auto-dealer shop. There, Jerry Lee identifies a red Mercedes owned by Lyman, and Dooley learns from Halstead, the owner of the dealership, that he works for Lyman. Later, Jerry Lee falls in love with a poodle to the disapproval of its owner. When Dooley returns home, he discovers Lyman has kidnapped Tracy. Infuriated, Dooley crashes a party at Lyman's mansion and demands her return. Lyman pretends to know nothing, and Dooley is arrested by an officer from his own department and put in a squad car. Angry, Dooley's lieutenant calls him crazy. When Jerry Lee's flatulence annoys the other officers, Dooley uses it to his advantage and escapes with the dog. As Dooley tells Jerry Lee how he met Tracy, he spots a truck driven by Halstead that is pulling a trailer with Lyman's Mercedes. Dooley purses the truck, and Halstead blows a tire. After Halstead shoots at Dooley, Jerry Lee kills Halstead. Meanwhile, in a stranded desert in San Diego, Lyman holds Tracy hostage in his limo and becomes suspicious when Halstead is late. Dooley arrives with the truck and trailer, which is revealed to be the next shipment of drugs. Not worrying about the case anymore, Dooley orders Lyman to surrender his girlfriend to him, or he will blow up the truck. Lyman calls Dooley's bluff, and a shootout ensues. Dooley kills Lyman's henchmen Dillon and Jerry Lee chases Lyman as he runs for his helicopter. Unable to outrun the dog, Lyman shoots Jerry Lee; enraged, Dooley shoots at Lyman but misses. Lyman is, instead, shot and killed by his associates who were waiting in the helicopter. Dooley and Tracy rush Jerry Lee to a hospital, where the reluctant surgeon operates. In the recovery room, Dooley delivers a eulogy to Jerry Lee, not knowing that he is alive. When the surgeon tells him he is going to be fine, Dooley responds in anger, thinking he was speaking to a dead dog. Jerry Lee licks Dooley's face out of love, making him give in. To take a break from police work, Dooley, Tracy, Jerry Lee, and a poodle spend a vacation together in Las Vegas. 

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A female tax auditor, Ryōko Itakura, inspects the accounts of various Japanese companies, uncovering hidden incomes and recovering unpaid taxes. One day she persuades her boss to let her investigate the owner of a string of love hotels who seems to be avoiding tax, but after an investigation no evidence is found. During the investigation the inspector and the inspected owner, Hideki Gondō, develop an unspoken respect for each other. She is promoted to the post of government tax inspector. When the same case reappears she is again allowed to investigate. During a sophisticated series of raids against the hotel owner's interests, she accidentally comes across a hidden room containing vital incriminating evidence. On the same day, she helps Gondō with his relationship with his teenage son. While she is doing all of this, she is neglecting her own son at home, calling him from her office at night and saying, "You can heat up your own dumplings in the microwave! You are big now! You are five!" Six months later the two meet again. The man is tired after daily interrogations. She tries to persuade him to surrender his last secrets for the sake of his son. After she declines an offer to live with him, he cuts his finger and writes the name of the secret bank account in blood on a handkerchief of hers that he saved from the first time she investigated him. 

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"She slowly advanced into the parlor, clutching her doll": Illustration from Sara Crewe; or, What Happened at Miss Minchin's (1888) Captain Richard Crewe, a wealthy English widower, has been raising his only child, Sara, in India where he is stationed with the British Army. Because the Indian climate is considered too harsh for children, British families living there traditionally send their children to boarding school back home in England. The captain enrolls his young daughter at Miss Minchin's boarding school for girls in London, and dotes on his daughter so much that he orders and pays the headmistress for special treatment and exceptional luxuries for Sara, such as a private room for her with a personal maid and a separate sitting room (see Parlour boarder), along with Sara's own private carriage and a pony. Miss Minchin openly fawns over Sara for her money, but secretly and jealously despises her for her wealth. Despite her privilege, Sara is neither selfish, arrogant, nor snobbish, but rather kind, polite, and generous. She extends her friendship to Ermengarde, the school dunce; to Lottie, a four-year-old student given to tantrums; and to Becky, the lowly, stunted fourteen-year-old scullery maid. When Sara acquires the epithet "Princess", she embraces its favorable elements in her natural goodheartedness. After some time, Sara's birthday is celebrated at Miss Minchin's with a lavish party, attended by all her friends and classmates. Just as it ends, Miss Minchin learns of Captain Crewe's unfortunate demise. Furthermore, prior to his death, the previously wealthy captain had lost his entire fortune; a friend had persuaded him to cash in his investments and deposit the proceeds to develop a network of diamond mines. The scheme fails, and Sara is left an orphan and a pauper, with no other family and nowhere to go. Miss Minchin is left with a sizable unpaid bill for Sara's school fees and luxuries, including her birthday party. Infuriated and pitiless, she takes away all of Sara's possessions (except for some old frocks and one doll), makes her live in a cold and poorly furnished attic, and forces her to earn her keep by working as an errand girl. She forces Sara to wear frocks much too short for her, with her thin legs peeking out of the brief skirts. For the next several years, Sara is abused by Miss Minchin and the other servants, except for Becky. Miss Minchin's kind-hearted sister, Amelia, deplores the way that Sara is treated, but is too weak-willed to speak up about it. Sara is starved, worked for long hours, sent out in all weathers, poorly dressed in outgrown and worn-out clothes, and deprived of warmth or a comfortable bed in the attic. Despite her hardships, Sara is consoled by her friends and uses her imagination to cope, pretending she is a prisoner in the Bastille or a princess disguised as a servant. Sara also continues to be kind to everyone, including those who find her annoying or mistreat her. One day, she finds a coin in the street and uses it to buy buns at a bakery, but despite being very hungry, she gives most of the buns away to a beggar girl dressed in rags who is hungrier than herself. The bakery shop owner sees this and wants to reward Sara, but she has disappeared, so the shop owner instead gives the beggar girl bread and warm shelter for Sara's sake. "He was waiting for his master to come out to the carriage, and Sara stopped and spoke a few words to him": Illustration from Sara Crewe; or, What Happened at Miss Minchin's (1888) Meanwhile, Mr. Carrisford and his Indian assistant Ram Dass have moved into the house next door to Miss Minchin's school. Carrisford had been Captain Crewe's friend and partner in the diamond mines. After the diamond mine venture failed, both Crewe and Carrisford became very ill, and Carrisford in his delirium abandoned his friend Crewe, who died of his "brain fever". As it turned out, the diamond mines did not fail, but instead were a great success, making Carrisford extremely rich. Although Carrisford survived, he suffers from several ailments and is guilt-ridden over abandoning his friend. He is determined to find Crewe's daughter and heir, although he does not know where she is and thinks she is attending school in France. Ram Dass befriends Sara when his pet monkey escapes into Sara's adjoining attic. After climbing over the roof to Sara's room to get the monkey, Ram Dass tells Carrisford about Sara's poor living conditions. As a pleasant distraction, Carrisford and Ram Dass buy warm blankets, comfortable furniture, food, and other gifts, and secretly leave them in Sara's room when she is asleep or out. Sara's spirits and health improve due to the gifts she receives from her mysterious benefactor, whose identity she does not know; nor are Ram Dass and Carrisford aware that Sara is Crewe's lost daughter. When Carrisford anonymously sends Sara a package of new, well-made, and expensive clothing in her proper size, Miss Minchin becomes alarmed, thinking Sara might have a wealthy relative secretly looking out for her, and begins to treat Sara better and allows her to attend classes rather than doing menial work. One night, the monkey again runs away to Sara's room, and Sara visits Carrisford's house the next morning to return him. When Sara casually mentions that she was born in India, Carrisford and his solicitor question her and discover that she is Captain Crewe's daughter, for whom they have been searching for years. Sara also learns that Carrisford was her father's friend and her own anonymous benefactor, and that the diamond mines have produced great riches, of which she will now own her late father's share. When Miss Minchin angrily appears to collect Sara, she is informed that Sara will be living with Carrisford and her entire fortune has been restored and greatly increased. Upon finding this out, Miss Minchin unsuccessfully tries to persuade Sara into returning to her school as a star pupil, and then threatens to keep her from ever seeing her school friends again, but Carrisford and his solicitor tell Miss Minchin that Sara will see anyone she wishes to see and that her friends' parents are not likely to refuse invitations from an heiress to diamond mines. Miss Minchin goes home, where she is surprised when Amelia finally stands up to her. Amelia has a nervous breakdown afterwards, but she is on the road to gaining more respect. Sara invites Becky to live with her and be her personal maid, in much better living conditions than at Miss Minchin's. Carrisford becomes a friend to Sara and quickly regains his health. Finally, Sara—accompanied by Becky—pays a visit to the bakery where she bought the buns, making a deal with the owner to cover the bills for bread for any hungry child. They find that the beggar girl who was saved from starvation by Sara's selfless act is now the bakery owner's assistant, with good food, clothing, shelter, and steady employment. 

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Set in Cuba in 1958, the last year of Fulgencio Batista regime, the plot revolves around a boy who is torn between his friendship with a blonde American named Julia and the strife facing his family as a result of the revolution and turmoil in their nation. 

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Josh Parker and Tiffany Henderson are childhood friends who became high school sweethearts, but when he enrolls at the University of Ithaca and she enrolls at the University of Austin (both of which are fictional), they have to deal with a long-distance relationship. They promise continued fidelity to one another; however, when Josh loses touch with Tiffany, he believes she might be seeing other people. Nonetheless, he makes regular recorded video tapes to mail to her. Josh asks his friend Rubin Carver to mail his tape to Tiffany before leaving for class. In class, Josh is failing Ancient Philosophy and the professor informs him he needs a B+ on his mid-term to pass the semester, and furthermore, to re-enroll. Still worrying about Tiffany, Josh's best friend E.L. Faldt convinces him to accept his friend Beth Wagner, who has a loving attraction to Josh. Jacob, the T.A. of Philosophy, has an obsessive crush on Beth and is hostile towards Josh, aware of Beth's feelings for him. During E.L.'s party, Josh attends and E.L. holds an auction of several women, including Beth. Jacob also attends the party, and Beth, scared of Jacob, convinces Josh to outbid Jacob, which he does. They quickly escape to Josh's room, and videotape their intercourse with Josh's camcorder. The next morning, Josh arrives in the room in a very jovial mood, confessing that he slept with Beth. His friends play his tape but Josh discovers that Rubin accidentally mailed the sex tape to Tiffany, having confused it with the other tape. Josh then receives a voicemail from Tiffany saying that she did not call him because her grandfather had died and she will be away from school until Monday. Accompanied by E.L. and Rubin, Josh asks a student named Kyle to tag along, mainly because he needs Kyle's car. Kyle is a shy loner who lives in constant fear of his overly strict father, Earl Edwards, the rightful owner of their car. The group heads out to drive the nearly to Austin and back in three days and leave their friend Barry to take care of Mitch, their pet snake. When they reach Bedford, Pennsylvania,taking a supposed "shortcut", they come upon a small collapsed bridge, and are annoyed that they will waste five hours backtracking. E.L. and Rubin convince the other two that they could jump the gap. Kyle objects but they proceed. They make it across, but the car is effectively destroyed. They continue on foot and stop at a motel. Rubin tries to buy marijuana from the eccentric, unsympathetic motel clerk and is informed that Kyle's credit card is maxed out. E.L. looks for transportation, and talks an otherwise rather savvy blind woman, Brenda, who works for a local school for the blind, into letting him take a bus away to be repaired. The crew resume their journey. Meanwhile, Kyle's father, Earl, tries to pay for a meal with the maxed out card, but is denied service. He then begins an all-out search for Kyle when he is informed by the police that Kyle's car was found wrecked and Kyle is missing, believing that Kyle is kidnapped. On their way to Austin, the group goes through a series of misadventures, such as two of them making deposits at a sperm bank to raise needed funds; Kyle losing his virginity at a fraternity party after an African-American fraternity pulls a prank on the group; and a visit with Barry's grandparents. Since Josh's books were destroyed in the car wreck, he calls his professor to ask for an extension on his midterm exam. Jacob answers the phone, impersonating the professor, and grants a fake extension. While Barry is trying to feed Mitch, Beth comes back to the room inquiring of Josh's whereabouts; Barry informs her that Josh has feelings for her. Jacob walks in and informs Beth that he tricked Josh about the mid-term extension, and that he is about to fail Philosophy. Mitch bites Barry in the hand, causing a vicious struggle which ends with Mitch landing on Jacob, biting his neck, and making him lose consciousness. The group finally gets to Austin and, once they get to Tiffany's dorm, Josh eventually intercepts the tape he sent to Tiffany, who has just arrived back at school. However, Earl shows up, furious over what happened with the car and the credit card and threatens to drag Kyle back home with him. Kyle finally summons the confidence to stand up to him and states that he is going back to school with his friends. Earl assaults him and confusion reigns in an all-out mini-riot in the dorm's lobby. Josh and Tiffany retreat and discuss their relationship, but Beth calls to warn Josh that he has been tricked by Jacob, and while Josh talks to her, Tiffany starts to watch the tape, which turns out to be nothing but Barry mooning for the camera. Josh now has 48 hours to get back to school or else he will fail his midterm and the course and possibly be kicked out of college. After they talk, Josh and Tiffany agree to break up but remain friends. Josh and his friends head back to school and Josh arrives just in time to take his midterm – with a little, albeit illegal, help from Beth. Barry closes the film, ending the visitors' tour by confirming to them that Josh passed the course; that Josh and Beth are still together, a happy couple still making videos; that Jacob eventually became leader of a cult and tried to stage a mass suicide, in which he ended up the only person to kill himself; that Rubin became a successful marijuana cultivator; and lastly relates humorous facts about E.L.'s and Kyle's futures. The credits roll while Barry has sex with a mother, from the tour group, in the middle of campus. 

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In the middle of the 19th century, in the town of Darkness Falls, elderly widow Matilda Dixon was adored by the town's children. She would give them a gold coin whenever they lost a tooth, earning her the nickname Tooth Fairy. One night, a fire broke out in her house and left her face disfigured and severely sensitive to light. She wore a white porcelain mask and would only leave her house at night. However, the town's adults were suspicious of Matilda, believing her to be a witch. When two children went missing, the town quickly turned on Matilda. They exposed her face to light and hanged her. Before her death, Matilda placed a curse on the town and swore revenge. When the two missing children returned home unharmed, the town realized their mistake and quickly buried Matilda's body, keeping their deed a secret. Over the next 150 years, the story of Matilda became the legend of the Tooth Fairy; her spirit visits children on the night they lose their last tooth. If anyone lays eyes upon her, they will forever be marked for her vengeance. In 1990, Kyle Walsh, an antisocial teenager befriended by Caitlin Greene (Emily Browning), loses his last baby tooth. That night, he wakes after a horrific nightmare and senses Matilda's presence, discovering that the story is true. Knowing she cannot bear the light, he shines a flashlight into her face and flees, hiding in the brightly lit bathroom. His mother tries to reassure him that there is nobody else in the house, but is killed after seeing Matilda in Kyle's room. The next morning, police arrive and Kyle is removed to a psychiatric institution after mistaken speculations that he killed his mother. Twelve years later, Caitlin (Emma Caulfield) telephones Kyle (Chaney Kley) to ask for his help with her younger brother Michael (Lee Cormie), who refuses to sleep in the dark. Kyle still suffers extreme paranoia from his encounter with Matilda; he has dozens of flashlights and numerous medications for anxiety, depression and sleep disorders. Kyle visits Michael at the hospital but denies any relation to his condition and walks away from Caitlin, who still believes that the legend of Matilda Dixon is just a story, one which they were all told as children, but a story nonetheless. Kyle tries to warn others of Matilda but faces ridicule and skepticism, which leads to the death of many townspeople. A lightning storm blacks out the whole town, and realizing that Michael and Caitlin are in danger, Kyle rushes to the hospital. He rescues them and gains allies along the way, as others see Matilda and realize the story is true. Kyle, Michael and Caitlin flee and hide in the lighthouse. They are helped by several medical personnel, all of whom are killed by Matilda. During his final confrontation with Matilda, power is restored and the lighthouse beacon is activated. The sudden exposure to light causes Matilda excruciating pain, and Kyle tears off her mask. Seeing her grotesque, disfigured face, he realizes she is now vulnerable. Enraged, she resumes her attack. Kyle sets his right sleeve on fire and he strikes her face with it. As her spirit is engulfed in flame, Matilda is destroyed and her curse is finally brought to an end. In a final scene, a young boy is being tucked into bed by his parents, having just lost his last baby tooth. As he sleeps, his mother replaces the tooth under his pillow with a gold coin, indicating that Matilda is gone and her curse is lifted. 

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A convict named Malcolm Rivers awaits execution for several vicious murders that took place at an apartment building. Journals belonging to Malcolm are discovered mis-filed in the case evidence, not introduced during the trial. Malcolm's psychiatrist, Dr. Malick, and his defense attorney argue that the evidence was intentionally suppressed by the prosecution and move to stay Rivers' execution, contending that Malcolm is legally insane. With this late evidence brought forth, a midnight hearing takes place, to determine if the journal is adequate evidence to grant their motion. Meanwhile, ten strangers find themselves stranded in the middle of a torrential rainstorm at a remote Nevada motel, run by Larry Washington. The group consists of an ex-cop, now limousine driver, Ed Dakota; Caroline Suzanne, a washed-up, irritable actress; Officer Rhodes, who is transporting convicted murderer Robert Maine; Paris Nevada, a prostitute; newlyweds Lou and Ginny Isiana; and the York family, George, Alice and their nine-year-old son, Timmy, who are in crisis because Alice has been struck by Ed's car. With both ends of the road completely flooded, the group is forced to spend the night at the motel. Rhodes handcuffs Maine to a toilet in his room to prevent him from moving about freely. As everyone is settling down for the night, Suzanne is decapitated after she ventures out alone looking for a cell phone signal. Ed discovers her head in a dryer after waking up to a loud noise. He finds a number 10 key in the dryer, and Maine is suspected to be the killer when he, Rhodes, and Larry discover he has escaped. After Ed alerts everyone about Suzanne's death and Maine's escape, Lou and Ginny get into a fight, and they return to their room, arguing. Lou eventually is angered by the fact that Ginny had been lying to him about being pregnant, and Ginny locks herself in the bathroom to avoid him. After yelling back and forth between the door, Lou starts frantically banging as if he's terrified of something until he goes silent, and Ginny slowly unlocks the door only to see a silhouette of a knife wielding assailant approaching. She retreats to the bathroom again, and escapes out of the window. Rhodes, Paris, Ed, and Larry are alerted to her screams, and find Lou's corpse shortly after, stabbed to death. At the hearing, the contents of Malcolm's diaries are revealed, indicating Malcolm suffers from an extreme case of dissociative identity disorder, harboring eleven distinct personalities. His journal contains entries written by his different personalities, each with distinct handwriting and prose, as if they were the personal thoughts of several different people. His defense attorney argues that Malcolm is completely unaware of the crimes for which he is being executed, which is in violation of existing Supreme Court rulings on capital punishment. Dr. Malick is introducing the concept of integrating the personalities of someone with dissociative identity disorder, when Malcolm arrives, strapped into a wheelchair. While taking photos of Lou's crime scene and talking with Paris, Ed finds the number 9 key in Lou's bloody hands. He begins to suspect that the killer is counting down and targeting them in order. Meanwhile, Maine is making his escape over the wet terrain, but strangely finds himself right back at the motel. Rhodes spots Maine trying to hide and Ed helps subdue him during a struggle. They tie Maine to a pole and Larry is appointed to guard him. Not long after, Larry is found away from his post and Maine dead with Larry's bat sticking out of his throat in a grisly manner. Rhodes and Ed find the number 8 key next to Maine's body, and harass Larry, who grabs Paris and threatens to cut her if they keep blaming him for something he didn't do. Paris wrestles him off and the freezer is opened accidentally to reveal the frozen body of the real motel manager; Larry runs away and attempts to escape in a truck, accidentally crushing and killing George as he tried to save Timmy from being hit. The remaining survivors (except Alice, still in bed) tie Larry to a chair, and Rhodes tells them that they're going to stay together until dawn, or he'll shoot the next suspect. With eyes full of tears, Larry tells them the story of how he came upon the dead body of the manager and started running the motel for him, and how he wasn't the suspect, convincing Paris and Ed. Alice is then checked on and presumably has died from her injuries, but Rhodes finds the number 6 key. George's body is then stripped from its place and the number 7 key is found in his pocket, which confuses the remaining survivors. Against Rhodes' commands, Ed tells Ginny and Timmy to flee in a car near the edge of the motel, but it explodes, leaving no trace of Ginny or Timmy behind. The last four survivors discover that the bodies of all the previous victims have disappeared. Paris, yelling in hysterics at their unknown assailant, says that her birthday is the next week; it transpires that all eleven people were born on May 10 — which is also Malcolm's birthday, and the day he committed the murders. Ed leaves the other three and checks their ID cards in the office, discovering that each one of them is named after a state, and that their birthdays all do indeed match. Ed begins to hear a voice call out to him, and as he listens he finds himself in a different building, strapped to a chair, with Dr. Malick calling out to him. Ed finds he is at the meeting to argue and postpone Malcolm's execution, but is confused as to why he's being told of the crimes and Malcolm Rivers' past. Dr. Malick explains that he is in fact one of the personalities that Malcolm Rivers created as a child to cope with the abandonment and abuse he was subjected to. Informed that one of the personalities is the homicidal template that went on a killing spree, Ed is instructed to "go back" to the motel to try to eliminate this identity. Ed 'awakens' to find himself standing in the rain, looking at the motel from a distance. Paris finds convict- transportation files for both Maine and Rhodes in the police car. A flashback reveals that Rhodes killed the correctional officer transporting him and Maine, putting the officer's body in the trunk, and then assumed his identity. Rhodes attacks Paris, but she is saved by Larry, who is then shot twice and killed by Rhodes. Finally believing Rhodes to be the murderous personality, Ed goes after him after instructing Paris to hide, and they end up shooting each other fatally, leaving only Paris still alive. When Malick demonstrates that the homicidal personality is dead, Malcolm's execution is stayed and it is determined that he should be placed in a mental institution under Malick's care. In Malcolm's mind, Paris has driven back to her hometown in Frostproof, Florida. As she tends to some soil in her orange grove, she shakily discovers the number 1 key buried in the dirt, and finds Timmy behind her. Flashbacks reveal that Timmy orchestrated all of the deaths at the motel, and made it appear that he had been killed with Ginny. Timmy kills Paris, while Malcolm strangles Malick, causing the van that is en route to the mental institution to swerve off the road and stop before Timmy's voice repeats the poem "Antigonish" by William Hughes Mearns one more time, now the sole personality of Malcolm Rivers. 

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Washington, D.C. detective and forensic psychologist Alex Cross heads to Durham, North Carolina when his niece Naomi, a college student, is reported missing. He learns from police detective Nick Ruskin that Naomi is the latest in a series of young women who have vanished. Soon after his arrival, one of the missing women is found dead, bound to a tree, and a short time later, Kate McTiernan is kidnapped from her home. When she awakens from a drugged state, Kate discovers that she is being held by a masked man calling himself Casanova, and she is one of several prisoners trapped in his lair. She manages to escape and is severely injured when she jumps from a cliff into a river. After she recuperates, she joins forces with Cross to track down her captor, whom Cross concludes is a collector, not a killer, unless his victims fail to follow his rules. This means there is time to rescue the other imprisoned women, as long as they remain obedient. Clues lead them to Los Angeles, where a series of gruesome kidnappings and murders have been credited to Dr. William Rudolph, known as the Gentleman Caller. Cross's efforts to capture and question Rudolph are foiled when Rudolph escapes. In North Carolina, Cross traces Casanova up the river. Alerted by a gunshot, he discovers Casanova's underground hideout. Rudolph is revealed to be Casanova's partner. Casanova escapes, while Rudolph is shot by Cross. Cross rescues the kidnapped women, including Naomi. Later, Kate invites Cross to dinner at her house. Ruskin drops by Kate's house and sends home the two officers guarding her. While Cross is at home preparing to meet Kate for dinner, he discovers that Ruskin's signature on the arrest warrants matches Casanova's handwriting. Cross tries calling Kate to inform her, but Ruskin has already disconnected her phone line. Kate becomes suspicious of Ruskin while conversing with him. He then drops his accent, revealing he is Casanova. After a fight and attempted rape, Kate manages to handcuff him to the oven. Ruskin slashes Kate's arm with a kitchen knife. In attempting to free himself, Ruskin pulls the oven away from the wall, rupturing the gas pipe. Ruskin takes out a lighter, threatening to cause an explosion due to the leaking gas. Cross shows up and tries to discourage Ruskin. When this fails, Cross shoots Ruskin, firing through a milk carton to avoid igniting the gas. Cross comforts Kate as the police arrive. 

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Alice Paul and Lucy Burns return from England where they met while participating in the Women's Social and Political Union started by radical suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst and led by her daughter Christabel Pankhurst. The pair presents a plan to the National American Woman's Suffrage Association (NAWSA) to campaign directly in Washington D.C. for national voting rights for women. They find that their ideas are too forceful for the established suffragist leaders in the U.S., particularly Carrie Chapman Catt, but they are allowed to lead the NAWSA Congressional Committee in D.C. They start by organizing the 1913 Woman Suffrage Procession on the eve of President Woodrow Wilson's inauguration. While soliciting donations at an art gallery, Paul convinces labor lawyer Inez Milholland to lead the parade on a white horse. Paul also meets a Washington newspaper political cartoonist, Ben Weissman (a fictional character), and there are hints of romantic overtones. In a fictional scene, Paul tries to explain to Ida B. Wells why she wants African American women to march in the back of the parade in order to not anger southern Democrats and activists, but Wells refuses, and she comes out of the crowd to join a white group during the middle of the parade (Wells did refuse to be segregated, and marched with her state delegation, but never met with Paul about it.). After disagreements over fundraising, Paul and Burns are forced out of the NAWSA, and they found the National Woman's Party (NWP) to support their approach. Alice Paul briefly explores a romantic relationship with Ben Weissman. Further conflicts within the movement are portrayed as NAWSA leaders criticize NWP tactics, such as protesting against Wilson, and their sustained picketing outside of the White House in the Silent Sentinels action. Relations between the American government and the NWP protesters also intensify, as many women are arrested for their actions and charged with "obstructing traffic." The arrested women are sent to the Occoquan Workhouse for 60-day terms. Despite abusive and terrorizing treatment, Paul and other women undertake a hunger strike, during which paid guards force-feed them milk and raw eggs. The suffragists are blocked from seeing visitors or lawyers, until (fictional) U.S. Senator Tom Leighton visits his wife Emily, one of the imprisoned women. News of their treatment leaks to the media after Emily secretly passes a letter to her husband during his visit. Paul, Burns, and the other women are released. Pressure continues to be put on President Wilson as the NAWSA joins in the NWP call for passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Wilson finally accedes to the pressure rather than be called out in the international press for fighting for democracy in Europe while denying democracy's benefits to half of the U.S. population. During the amendment's ratification, Harry T. Burn, a member of the Tennessee legislature, receives a telegram from his mother at the last minute, changes his vote, and the amendment passes. 

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It is the autumn of 1944. Allied armies are sweeping through France towards Germany. A British Lockheed Hudson has been damaged in aerial combat with a German Messerschmitt, with both aircraft ditching in the North Sea, twenty miles off the Dutch coast. The four crew from the British aircraft are unable to send a complete mayday alert, although a signal fragment reaches England. Among them is Air Commodore Waltby (Michael Redgrave) who has a briefcase containing secret German plans related to rocketry. Flight Sergeant Mackay (Dirk Bogarde) assumes a leading role in the rescue dinghy, tying everyone together to prevent anyone falling overboard, and sharing his boots with the pilot despite the cold. As the weather closes in and a freezing cold night descends, aircraft suspend their search, leaving the now waterlogged dinghy to face the sea alone. Cryptically, Waltby orders the crew members that if he dies, they must get the briefcase to London or throw it overboard should they face capture. An RAF Air Sea Rescue sea launch is deployed to the search. Commanded by Flying Officer Treherne (Anthony Steel), Launch 2561, or "Sixty One" in radio signals, struggles against the bad weather, mechanical problems and a fire in the galley. Second in command, Flight Sergeant Singsby (Nigel Patrick) dominates the crew, playing a benevolent but demanding hand with the questionable seamanship of junior ranks. On the second day, updated intelligence about the dinghy's likely location is received from the downed German Messerschmitt pilot, who the RAF has since rescued. RAF Air Sea Rescue is now aware the dinghy has drifted inshore, far from its ditching point. As the weather clears, "Sixty One" sights the dinghy and approaches for rescue, negotiating fire from enemy shore batteries and a mine field. Launch 2561 safely returns to England where the briefcase with secret documents is delivered. An injured Flying Officer Treherne and Flight Sergeant Mackay are applauded by senior officers. 

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Ned Kelly begins his autobiography with a description of his father, John "Red" Kelly, an Irishman transported to Van Diemen's Land and eventually settling in the colony of Victoria, Australia. After marrying Ned's mother Ellen (née Quinn), the Kellys settle in Avenel, a rural area northeast of Melbourne. Red Kelly is shown to have numerous brushes with the colonial police forces, resulting in his imprisonment and death when his son Ned was twelve years of age. After the rest of the family resettles in northeast Victoria under the Land Grant Act, Ned's mother attempts to provide for her children by running a shebeen and taking on a series of lovers, including the notorious bushranger Harry Power. Power agrees to take on the young Ned as an apprentice, and provides Ned with knowledge of the land, hideouts, and strategies for bushranging. Kelly eventually leaves Power and returns to his family's settlement, where he is shown making dogged attempts to live an honest lifestyle. Kelly is arrested and sentenced to three years in prison for reception of a stolen horse (although Kelly claims that a friend, "Wild" Wright, knowingly sold him the stolen horse without Kelly's knowledge – Kelly later exacts revenge on Wright in a bare-knuckle boxing match). After two years of working as a sawmill hand, he is drawn back to bushranging when a herd of his horses is appropriated by a rival squatter. His descent back into crime is precipitated by a visit from a local police officer, Constable Alex Fitzpatrick. The policeman woos Ned's younger sister Kate, prompting Ned to reveal that Fitzpatrick has multiple mistresses in other towns and has no intention of marrying Kate. After his mother Ellen threatens the constable with violence, Fitzpatrick pulls his revolver on the family and Ned shoots him in the hand in self-defense. Although he dresses the wound and Fitzpatrick leaves while promising that no action will be taken, warrants for the arrest of Ned and his younger brother Dan are issued the next day. Ned Kelly and his brother Dan hide out in the hills of northeast Victoria, eventually being joined by their friends Steve Hart and Joe Byrne (later becoming known as the Kelly Gang). Kelly's mother is eventually arrested along with her baby daughter and imprisoned in Melbourne as enticement for Kelly to give himself up. A detachment of four policemen is eventually sent to kill the quartet after efforts to arrest them prove unsuccessful; the Kelly Gang ambushes them at Stringybark Creek, where Ned kills three of the policemen. This adds to the growing folklore surrounding the Kelly Gang, which they fuel by robbing banks and giving parts of the money to the lower-class settlers in Victoria who help to shelter the gang. During the gang's raids, Ned Kelly meets a young Irish girl named Mary Hearn, who already has a young son by Kelly's stepfather, George King. Kelly falls in love with Mary and makes plans to escape the colony with her after she becomes pregnant with his child. Crucially, it is Mary who motivates Kelly to begin writing the story of his life as a legacy for his future child, who she fears will never know its father. Following two successful bank robberies, Mary uses the money to emigrate to San Francisco with her son and Kelly's unborn daughter; Kelly remains behind, however, unwilling to leave Australia until his mother is released from jail. The gang is eventually cornered by a large squad of dozens of policemen (versus just four in the Kelly Gang) in the town of Glenrowan where the gang has taken numerous hostages and constructed several suits of plate-steel armor for protection. One of the hostages is the crippled local schoolmaster, Thomas Curnow, who encourages Kelly to relate the story of his entire life after seeing samples of his writing. Curnow betrays the gang by warning the incoming police train that the gang has sabotaged the tracks, feeling that history will view him as a "hero". The policemen surround the town and engage in a furious shootout with the armor-clad gang, seriously wounding Ned Kelly and killing the other three members of the gang. Kelly's narrative stops abruptly just before the shootout itself; a secondary narrator, identified as "S.C", relates the tale of the gunfight and Kelly's death by hanging. Since Curnow is shown to have escaped Glenrowan with Kelly's manuscripts, it is assumed that this narrator is a relative of Curnow's. Kelly dies a hero to the people of northeastern Victoria, with the legend of his life left to grow over time. 

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Florence Forrest (Lauren Ambrose) is a Gidget-like character determined to learn to surf, and earns the nickname "Chicklet" from the surfer guys. However Chicklet begins displaying multiple personalities, experiences inexplicable blackouts, and fears that she might be the one responsible for a series of mysterious murders in her beachside town. The deaths are investigated by Captain Monica Stark (Charles Busch), who also suspects Chicklet's mother (Beth Broderick), Chicklet's best friend Berdine (Danni Wheeler), surfing guru the Great Kanaka (Thomas Gibson) and B-movie actress Bettina Barnes (Kimberley Davies). Other characters include university dropout (and Chicklet's love interest) Starcat (Nicholas Brendon), purported Swedish exchange student Lars (Matt Keeslar), surfers Yo-Yo (Nick Cornish) and Provoloney (Andrew Levitas), Starcat's girlfriend Marvel Ann (Amy Adams), and the wheelchair-bound class "queen bee" Rhonda (Kathleen Robertson). 

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May and her best friend Mary work in a resort in the Hamptons during their summer vacation, looking for some fun away from home. Soon they make friends with fellow service staff members Richard and his brother Ben, and the four of them begin hanging out. After a couple of days of hard work and being bossed about by the guests, May and Mary go to a dance together. After the dance and a round of night swimming, they head back to their rooms; May takes Ben to her room and sleeps with him, while Mary tells Richie it is too fast for her, and she wants to wait before having sex with him. She later reveals to him it is because a palm-reader told her she would become a mom before she was twenty if she had sex in her teens. The same fortune-teller also told May nobody was ever going to call her "mom", which explains why May is so open in her relationships. Richie is not very understanding of her reasons for not sleeping with him, and starts an affair with May. May tells Mary she is cheating on Ben, but not with whom. A while later, she finds out that she is pregnant. Upon realizing the fortune-teller must have been wrong, Mary now finally sleeps with Richie, who then ends the affair with May. When May reveals her pregnancy to Ben, it turns out he's sterile and her affair with Richie, who must be the father, is uncovered. May is thinking about having an abortion, but decides against it. Afraid of going home and facing her dad with an unwanted child, May runs away. May finds a man to stay with, but does not tell him about her pregnancy. She grows to be disgusted by him. May contacts Mary and meets with her. Mary is still very angry with May for having an affair with Richie, and tells her she deserves all the trouble she is going through, but decides to help her when May tells her she has been thinking about suicide. Mary comes up with the plan to tell everybody the baby is hers, so May will not have to face her fundamentalist parents and Mary can test if she can trust Richie, who is still in love with her and writing her frequent letters, none of which she has answered yet. Once May gives birth to her healthy baby boy, Peter, Mary takes him to Richie, and they start a family, while May returns home to her parents as if nothing had happened. 

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The Federation starship Enterprise is assigned to escort Medusan ambassador Kollos and psychologist Miranda Jones to a rendezvous with a Medusan vessel. Medusans are non-humanoid creatures whose outward appearance is described as being so ugly as to cause humanoids who see them to go insane and then die. Kollos travels in a carrier to hide him from view, and First Officer Spock assists as necessary using a special visor which allows his Vulcan psychology to withstand the sight of Kollos. Jones is also able to observe Kollos with the help of the visor, a fact which she claims is due to Vulcan-style mental discipline. At a dinner with Captain Kirk and the senior officers, Jones, a telepath, explains that her assignment is to attempt a mind link with Kollos in the hope of allowing Starfleet to utilize the Medusan's unique senses and navigational abilities. In the course of the discussion, Jones breaks off, sensing someone nearby with murderous intentions. She then returns to her quarters, where she is visited by her associate Lawrence Marvick. Marvick is in love with Jones, a feeling which she does not reciprocate, and she senses that he is the would-be murderer. He then makes his way to Kollos's quarters with a phaser, but is overcome by the sight of the Medusan before he can fire. Now insane, Marvick rushes to Engineering, overpowers and renders unconscious Chief Engineer Scott and other crew members, and takes control of the engines. The Enterprise quickly accelerates past Warp Factor 9.5, which takes it far outside of the galaxy and into a strange swirling void. Marvick, now restrained, screams wild accusations at Jones before he dies. With no navigational references, the Enterprise crew cannot return home. Kirk suggests that Kollos's superior navigational abilities could be of use, and Spock volunteers to mind meld with Kollos, allowing the two to pilot the Enterprise as one entity. Miranda Jones objects that she is a more logical choice, but McCoy reveals that she is blind and therefore couldn't possibly pilot a starship. (Her jeweled wrap, it turns out, is actually an elaborate sensor web.) A partition is set up on the bridge to hide Kollos, and Spock, wearing the visor, completes the mind link. Kollos and Spock, acting through Spock's body, successfully return the Enterprise to known space, and then retire behind the partition to dissolve the link, but forgetting the visor. Kirk shouts a warning, but Spock, unable to look away in time, goes mad and attacks the crew. He is subdued by a phaser blast from Kirk and rushed to Sickbay, where his condition deteriorates. Jones attempts to make mental contact with Spock but is apparently unable to help, and Kirk suggests that she, in her jealousy, does not really wish to. Enraged by the accusation, she makes one more attempt, and succeeds in bringing Spock's mind back to reality. The Enterprise arrives at its destination, and Kollos and Jones prepare to depart. Jones thanks Kirk for his insight, crediting it with ensuring her future. Kollos and Jones are now "one", and she now knows the joy of the mind link for herself. Kirk gives Jones a rose as they leave, reminding her that every rose has thorns. 

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Jack Burden, a Louisiana news reporter, takes a personal interest in Willie Stark, an idealistic small-town lawyer and parish treasurer. Circumstances develop that result in Tiny Duffy, a local political leader Burden knows, urging Stark to run for governor. Burden's upbringing makes him familiar with the undercurrent of politics – he was raised by his loving godfather Judge Irwin, a former state attorney general, while his good friend, Dr. Adam Stanton, and his sister Anne Stanton—also Burden's former lover—are the children of a former governor. Burden therefore decides to take Duffy's advice and travels as a reporter on Stark's campaign for governor. The politically astute Burden soon deduces, and Duffy strategist (and Stark mistress) Sadie Burke confirms, that Duffy is using Stark to split his party's vote and thus allow the opposing party to win. They tell Stark, who begins to give speeches in a straightforward manner to appeal to the public, in defiance of the advice given to him by Duffy. His vigorous strategy attacks the corruption of the existing players and promises schools and roads for his “fellow ignorant hicks”, resulting in Stark winning the election. He manages Duffy by making him his lieutenant governor. Stark recruits Burden to work for him as an adviser. Stark proves to be a very persuasive governor, delivering on many of his new projects. Irwin disapproves of Stark and publicly supports an investigation of possible graft in the new spending. Burden points out that graft is the elite's word for what the previous politicians had always done, while Stark openly tells his crowds that his “crooks, unlike theirs, are itty bitty” compared to the elite's. Stark convinces Stanton to head a new public hospital while he begins having an affair with Anne, provoking Burke's jealousy and Burden's disappointment. Irwin continues criticizing Stark as political controversies begin to unfold. Stark demands that Burden seek information on the judge to be used against him. Jack insists that there is no such information, but eventually discovers evidence of a bribe that Irwin used to get his appointment many years prior, leading an opponent to commit suicide. Following this revelation, Irwin himself commits suicide. Burden's mother then tells him that Irwin treated him with such love because he was his biological father, which causes a great amount of guilt for Burden. Stark utilizes many methods of corruption to consolidate his power, including patronage and intimidation. Adam is told that Stark is using the hospital project to rob the state and is framing him in the process. Burden and Anne both assure Adam that this is false. Adam also becomes enraged when he learns of Stark's affair with his sister. Adam waits at the state capitol and assassinates Stark, only to be immediately killed by the governor's bodyguard. It is later revealed that Adam was influenced by Duffy and Burke to murder Stark, allowing Duffy to succeed Stark as governor. 

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Set at a bucolic mid-western college known only as The-College-on-the-Hill, White Noise follows a year in the life of Jack Gladney, a professor who has made his name by pioneering the field of Hitler studies (though he has not taken German lessons until this year). He has been married five times to four women and rears a brood of children and stepchildren (Heinrich, Denise, Steffie, Wilder) with his current wife, Babette. Jack and Babette are both extremely afraid of death; they frequently wonder which of them will be the first to die. The first part of White Noise, called "Waves and Radiation", is a chronicle of contemporary family life combined with academic satire. There is little plot development in this first section, which mainly serves as an introduction to the characters and themes which dominate the rest of the book. For instance, the mysterious deaths of men in "Mylex" (intended to suggest Mylar) suits and the ashen, shaken survivors of a plane that went into free fall anticipate the catastrophe of the book's second part. "Waves and Radiation" also introduces Murray Jay Siskind, Jack's friend and fellow college professor, who discusses theories about death, supermarkets, media, "psychic data," and other facets of contemporary American culture. In the second part, "The Airborne Toxic Event", a chemical spill from a rail car releases a black noxious cloud over Jack's home region, prompting an evacuation. Frightened by his exposure to the toxin (called Nyodene Derivative) Jack is forced to confront his mortality. An organization called SIMUVAC (short for "simulated evacuation") is also introduced in Part Two, an indication of simulations replacing reality. In part three of the book, "Dylarama", Jack discovers that Babette has been cheating on him with a man she calls "Mr. Gray" in order to gain access to a fictional drug called Dylar, an experimental treatment for the terror of death. The novel becomes a meditation on modern society's fear of death and its obsession with chemical cures as Jack seeks to obtain his own black-market supply of Dylar. However, Dylar does not work for Babette, and it has many possible side effects, including losing the ability to "distinguish words from things, so that if someone said 'speeding bullet', I would fall to the floor and take cover".p. 193, original Penguin paperback edition. Jack continues to obsess over death. During a discussion about mortality, Murray suggests that killing someone could alleviate the fear. Jack decides to track down and kill Mr. Gray, whose real name, he has learned, is Willie Mink. After a black comedy scene of Jack driving and rehearsing, in his head, several ways in which their encounter might proceed, he successfully locates and shoots Willie, who at the time is in a delirious state caused by his own Dylar addiction. Jack puts the gun in Willie's hand to make the murder look like a suicide, but Willie then shoots Jack in the arm. Suddenly realizing the needless loss of life, Jack carries Willie to a hospital run by German nuns who do not believe in God or an afterlife. Having saved Willie, Jack returns home to watch his children sleep. The final chapter describes Wilder, Jack's youngest child, riding a tricycle across the highway and miraculously surviving. 

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Chrysagon de la Cruex (Heston) is a Norman knight charged with defending a Flemish village. At the heart of the story is a doomed romance which defies the social norms and sparks a growing confrontation with Chrysagon's brother, Draco (Stockwell). Chrysagon encounters Bronwyn (Forsyth), his future love, as she is harassed by his own men. Gradually he finds himself falling for the girl he's rescued. Bronwyn's father, the village chief, Odins, later asks Chrysagon's permission for Bronwyn to marry Marc, to whom Bronwyn has been betrothed since childhood. Chrysagon approves, but soon regrets the decision. He wants Bronwyn for himself. He later learns of "Droit du seigneur", a right which permits the Lord of the Domain to sleep with any virgin woman on her wedding night. But custom demands Bronwyn be given up by dawn. The following day, Bronwyn is not returned and Marc demands justice. What the village doesn't realize is that she's chosen to stay of her own free will. All of this takes place against the background of war against Frisian raiders who plague the Flemish coast. 

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A group of tourists are stranded in the Namibian desert when their bus loses its way and runs out of fuel. Canned carrots and dew keep the tourists alive, but they are helplessly entrapped, completely cut off from the rest of the world. As courage and moral fibre weaken and relationships grow shaky, Henry, a theatrical manager, persuades the group to put on Shakespeare's tragedy King Lear. As the tourists work their way through Henry's hand-written scripts for an audience of only the sand dunes and one distant, indigenous watcher, real life increasingly begins to resemble the play. 

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Julien, a young man with untreated schizophrenia, meets a young boy playing with several turtles in a New York City park. Fascinated by the animals, Julien asks if he can have one. When he is denied, he strangles the boy to death, then buries his body in the mud before praying for mercy from God. At home, Julien resides with his dysfunctional family, consisting of his domineering and emotionless German father; his childlike pregnant sister Pearl (whose child may be Julien's); his younger brother, Chris, an aspiring wrestler who spends his days exercising and practicing wrestling moves; and their paternal grandmother, who is largely disconnected from the rest of the family. The family's father spends the majority of his time recounting national historical narratives, drinking, and inflicting psychological and physical abuse on Chris. During one of Chris's exercise sessions, his father forces him outside in the cold and hoses him down with water. He also pines for his deceased wife, going so far as begging Chris to wear his mother's wedding dress and dance with him. Meanwhile, Julien works as a teacher's aide at a school for the blind. Julien spends most of his spare time going to confession, muttering to himself on the streets, and imagining conversations with Adolf Hitler. Julien is also riddled with grief over his mother's death, and Pearl sometimes soothes him by pretending to be their mother on the telephone. Pearl spends most of her days searching for baby clothes for her soon-to-be-born child, and making lists of her favorite baby names. Searching for other hobbies, she decides to take up learning to play the harp. Chris compulsively exercises practices wrestling moves on trash cans, and sometimes incites match with Julien. Their father recounts historical stories, lambasts Julien and Pearl for "artsy-fartsy" poetry and being "a dilettante and a slut" respectively, and pines for his dead wife. Julien and Pearl accompany their father to a sermon at a local Baptist church, which has a profound impact on Julien. Some time later, Pearl and Julien spend a day together going ice skating at an indoor skating rink. Julien tries to sell some homemade skates to a Hasidic boy and Pearl takes to the ice despite being heavily pregnant. She trips, landing on her abdomen and causing a miscarriage. At the hospital, Julien convinces a nurse to let him hold the baby, saying it is his. She allows it, but while alone with the baby, Julien escapes home on a bus. Julien goes to his room, hides under the blankets, cradles the baby and mutters prayers. 

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The game's intro starts in Gamul Date 312 where Nigel, a treasure hunter who is 88 years old, far older than he appears, is shown traversing a dungeon of rolling boulders and moving platforms called Jypta Ruins to acquire the Statue of Jypta. After selling this statue to a shop owner in a port town, Nigel is accosted by a wood nymph named Friday. She explains that she is being chased by three persistent yet bumbling thieves named Kayla, Ink, and Wally because she knows the location of the legendary treasure of King Nole. Once Nigel spends most of his money on a bird to carry him to the island, Friday admits that while she doesn't know the exact location of the treasure she has a "feeling" where it is. The player controls Nigel from here on where he and Friday, who accompanies him for the entire game, first journey through a dungeon until they fall into a river and end up in the care of the red-furred bear-people of Massan. When Nigel awakes, he finds his way to the neighboring village of Gumi, where the yellow-furred bear-people are ready to sacrifice the daughter of Massan's leader, Fara. Nigel follows the crazed tribe into their shrine and breaks them of their curse, freeing Fara and earning the respect of both tribes and a clue to help him to the treasure. Nigel and Friday travel westward until they come to the lighthouse town of Ryuma which has been attacked by thieves. Nigel goes to the thieves' cave and rescues the mayor and some other men who have been kidnapped. He also finds a lithograph of a dragon, which Friday tells him is a clue to the treasure. Before he can leave, Kayla, Ink, and Wally show up and hold Friday hostage until Nigel hands them the lithograph. Nigel's heroics earn him a place in the court of Duke Mercator, who orders him to go and defeat an old wizard, Mir, who is locked in a tower nearby and who has been terrorizing the town and extorting the Duke. Nigel braves a crypt and the wizard's tower and faces him in single combat. Defeated, Mir confesses all he knows about King Nole's treasure and then explains that the Duke is his brother and had been using him as a scapegoat for years. Nigel returns to the Duke and is about ready to confront him when he is tossed into a dungeon. While imprisoned he finds out that the princess of Maple, his home country, who had been a guest at the castle, has been taken away by the Duke's dragon-like henchman, Zak. He manages to escape to find the castle knights in open revolt and ships stuck in the harbour because the lighthouse in Ryuma is broken. Nigel saves Arthur, the Duke's general, and is given the key to the Greenmaze, where the Sunstone can be found, the gem that powers Ryuma's lighthouse. Nigel navigates the maze despite the best efforts of troublesome gnomes and restores the lighthouse. He then takes a ship to pursue the Duke. He makes landing up the coast of the island at Verla, which has practically become a ghost town. The Duke had enslaved the population of the town and forced them to work in nearby mines searching for a legendary treasure. Nigel frees the townspeople, and they give him a legendary sword they found but had hidden from the Duke. Nigel continues through the mine to find the Duke sailing, via rafts, across a lake to an island temple. Nigel finds a way over and navigates through the labyrinth to fight the Duke but is caught off-guard by Zak. Nigel is teleported to safety by Mir before the Duke and Zak can finish him off. Mir then proceeds to give Nigel some more information about King Nole's treasure. Mir also gives a magical axe to Nigel which allows him to cut down trees with a single swing of his sword. Nigel retakes his sword in hand, and Friday leads him up through mountains to get to the entrance to the underground dungeon where King Nole hid his treasure. They encounter Zak again, who has decided that while he doesn't like working for the Duke any longer he still wants to face Nigel one on one. After Nigel proves his superiority, Zak gives Nigel something he stole from the Duke that will allow Nigel to enter the underground. Zak departs defeated. Nigel finds himself back at the same cave he started in, this time filled with monsters but no traps. He gets to the Duke just as he uses the Princess to open the gate between the above and below worlds (referencing the song In-A-Gadda-Da- Vida). Nigel charges through into the center of the island and into King Nole's labyrinth, a massive confusing dungeon guarding King Nole's palace. After making it through the labyrinth and the palace, Nigel makes it to the room which held the treasure. After all the challenges so far, things are not quite finished for King Nole's restless Spirit attacks Nigel but Nigel makes quick work of him. The Duke then shows up and as he thanks Nigel for doing the dirty work for him, Gola, the Dragon God that King Nole worshipped, burns him alive. Nigel fights Gola using all of his strength and cunning, and when the beast is finally vanquished, the treasure is his. With vast sums of gold under his control he decides that rather than retire he and Friday will continue their adventures. In the original ending in the Japanese and European version the treasure vanishes after Gola's last stand. Nigel isn't very upset and suggests taking Friday with him to the main country for new adventures. 

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James Anderson, a retired U.S. Marshal, comes home after a trip to the general store to find his wife Anna dying and that his daughter Sarah has been kidnapped by two outlaws known as Matt "Dr. Death" Jackson and "Slim" Sam Fulton, under the employ of the railroad baron Bob Graham. Graham has hired several wanted outlaws to "enlighten" the people of the county to sell their land to him, so that he can make money on a huge railway. However, the psychotic Dr. Death misinterprets Graham's meaning of enlightenment, attacks Anna and leaves her for dead, kidnaps Anderson's daughter, and burns his home to the ground. After burying his wife, the retired Marshal picks up his gun once again and rides off to find his daughter. He travels around the old West, shooting his way through each member of Graham's hired outlaws. On his journey Anderson is haunted by dreams of his father's murder as a child. He recalls that while the two were camping out in the wild, an unknown assailant shot his father in his sleep, but left young James alive, telling him "to keep that fear [of death], kid". After questioning more and more outlaws, Anderson is confronted by Dr. Death in an old mine. Anderson eventually gets the drop on him; he gets tangled up in a rope above a deep mine shaft. Dr. Death tells him that his daughter is hidden in an old Indian cliff village. After finding out that Anderson is not going to let him out of the pit, he teases Anderson about the murder of his wife. Anderson is enraged and puts his cigar in the pulley from which the rope is hanging, eventually burning up the rope and sending Dr. Death plummeting to his demise at the bottom of the shaft. At the Indian village, Anderson is ambushed by renegade Indian Two Feathers. After defeating him, Two Feathers praises Anderson's strength in battle, and out of sympathy because he once had a child he had lost, tells him the real location of Sarah: Bob Graham's estate, Big Rock ranch. Anderson blasts his way into Graham's villa, and finally confronts him. After a fierce gunfight, Graham is believed dead and falls to the ground, and Anderson reunites with his daughter. Graham, clinging to life and gun trained on Anderson, reveals that he was the one who murdered Anderson's father. Just as Graham is about to finish off Anderson, Sarah manages to shoot Graham with Anderson's gun avenging her grandfather's death. After a tearful reunion, father and daughter ride into the sunset. 

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Despite the essentially elaborate scope of the plot revealed in the novel's conclusion, the narrative focuses almost exclusively on the bleak and unrewarding day-to-day lives of the protagonists, two half-brothers who barely know each other. They seem devoid of love, and in their loveless or soon-to-be loveless journeys, Bruno becomes a saddened loner, wrecked by his upbringing and failure to individuate, while Michel's pioneering work in cloning removes love from the process of reproduction. Humans are proved, in the end, to be just particles and just as bodies decay (a theme in the book) they can also be created from particles. The story unfolds as a sort of framed narrative, so despite the events described therein having taken place mostly in 1999, the story is essentially set some fifty or so years in the future. A similar device was used by Kurt Vonnegut in the novel Galápagos; however, unlike Vonnegut, Houellebecq only reveals the frame to the reader in the epilogue. Large sections of the story are presented in the form of suppertime storytelling dialogues between Michel, his childhood sweetheart Annabelle, Bruno, and Bruno's post-divorce girlfriend Christiane. The story focuses on the lives of Bruno Clément and Michel Djerzinski, two French half-brothers born of a hippie-type mother. Michel is raised by his paternal grandmother and becomes an introverted molecular biologist, who is ultimately responsible for the discoveries which lead to the elimination of sexual reproduction. Bruno's upbringing is much more tragic as described: shuffled and forgotten from one abusive boarding school to another, he eventually finds himself in a loveless marriage and teaching at a high school. Bruno grows into a lecherous and insatiable sex addict whose dalliances with prostitutes and sex chat on Minitel do nothing to satisfy him, to the point where he finds himself on disability leave from his job and in a mental hospital after a failed attempt at seducing one of his students. 

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The storyline is about a little alien boy named "Cosmo". Cosmo's parents are taking him to Disney World for his birthday. A comet hits their ship, forcing them to land on an unknown planet (called Zonk in WIP) and repair the ship. Cosmo goes exploring, and when he returns, his parents are missing. Seeing large footprints, Cosmo thinks that his parents have been captured and sets off to rescue them before they are eaten. There are 3 episodes in the game series in which Cosmo must navigate through 10 alien- themed levels for each episode. At the end of the first episode, Cosmo unexpectedly gets swallowed by a large creature. The story continues in the second episode, where Cosmo ends up in the creature's body and has to find a way out. At the end of the second episode, Cosmo finds the city where he thinks his parents might have been taken. In the final episode, Cosmo finds his parents (who were in no danger of being eaten the whole time) and has a great time at Disney World for his birthday. 

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The American USS Haynes detects and attacks a German U-boat that is on its way to rendezvous with a German merchant raider in the South Atlantic Ocean. Lieutenant Commander Murrell (Robert Mitchum), a former officer in the merchant marine now an active duty officer in the Naval Reserve, has recently taken command of Haynes, even though he is still recovering from injuries incurred in the sinking of his previous ship. Before the U-boat is first spotted, one sailor questions the new captain's fitness and ability. However, as the battle begins, Murrell shows himself to be a match for wily U-boat Kapitän zur See von Stolberg (Curd Jürgens), a man who is not enamored with the Nazi regime, in a prolonged and deadly battle of wits that tests both men and their crews. Each man grows to respect his opponent. Murrell skillfully stalks the U-boat and subjects von Stolberg and his crew to hourly depth charge attacks. In the end, von Stolberg takes advantage of Murrell's too-predictable pattern of attacks and succeeds in torpedoing the destroyer escort. Although the Haynes is fatally wounded and sinking, it is still battle capable, and Murrell has one last trick up his sleeve. He orders his men to set fires on the deck to make the ship look more damaged than it actually is. Then he orders the majority of his crew to evacuate in the lifeboats, but retains a skeleton crew to man the bridge, engine room, and one of his ship's guns. As Murrell had hoped, von Stolberg decides to surface before firing his torpedos, keeping the deck gun trained on the ship. Murrell orders his gun crew to fire first at the U-boat's stern to immobilize it, and then at the deck gun. Murrell orders his executive officer, Lieutenant Ware (Al Hedison), to ram the U-boat. With his boat sinking, von Stolberg orders his crew to set scuttling charges and abandon ship. Murrell, the last man aboard, is about to join his crew in the lifeboats when he spots von Stolberg standing on the conning tower of the sinking U-boat with his injured executive officer, Oberleutnant zur See Heini Schwaffer (Theodore Bikel). Murrell tosses a line to the submarine and rescues the pair. It is clear that Schwaffer is dying, but von Stolberg refuses to leave his friend behind. Ware returns with American and German sailors in the captain's gig to take the three men off before the U-boat's scuttling charges detonate. Later, aboard another American ship, the German crew consigns Schwaffer's remains to the deep in a traditional ceremony, as the American crew respectfully watches. 

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In the crime and injustice-riddled city of Townsville, Professor Utonium creates a mixture of sugar, spice, and everything nice in the hopes of producing the "perfect little girl" to improve Townsville. However, he gets shoved by his laboratory assistant, the destructive chimpanzee Jojo, which causes him to accidentally break and spill a flask of Chemical X onto the concoction. The experiment is successful, producing three little girls whom the Professor names Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup. He also discovers that the girls have gained superpowers from the added Chemical X. Despite the girls' recklessness with their powers, they all immediately grow to love each other as a family. On their first day of school, the girls learn about the game of tag and begin to play it among themselves, which quickly grows destructive once they use their powers. The girls take their game downtown, where they accidentally cause massive damage to the city until the Professor calms them down. The next day, the girls are treated as outcasts by the citizens of Townsville as a result of the destruction they have caused and the Professor is arrested for creating the girls. Believing that using their powers again will only anger the townspeople more, the girls try to make their way home from school on foot, but they become lost in an alleyway and are attacked by the Gangreen Gang. They are rescued by Jojo, whose brain has been mutated by the Chemical X explosion, giving him superintelligence. Planning control of the city and revenge on the Professor for replacing him with the girls, Jojo gains the girls' sympathy by convincing them that he is also hated for his powers; he tricks the girls into helping him build a laboratory and machine powered by Chemical X, which he claims will earn them the affections of the city. Afterwards, Jojo rewards the girls with a trip to the local zoo, where he secretly implants small transportation devices on all the primates there, to which that night Jojo brings the primates to his lab and uses his new machine to inject them with Chemical X, which turns them into evil mutants like himself. The next morning, after the Professor is released from prison, the girls show him all the "good" they have done, only to discover that the city is under attack by the primates. Jojo, renaming himself as Mojo Jojo, publicly announces the girls as his assistants, which damages their reputation further and makes the distraught Professor lose faith in them. Dejected, the girls exile themselves to an asteroid in outer space. Mojo Jojo announces his intention to rule the planet, but becomes frustrated when his minions disobey him and concoct their own plans to terrorize Townsville. Overhearing the turmoil from space, the girls return to Earth and rescue the citizens, realizing they can use their powers to fight the primates. After his army is defeated, Mojo Jojo injects himself with Chemical X and grows into a giant monster, overpowering the girls in an intense battle. Rejecting Mojo Jojo's offer of an alliance to take over the world, the girls push him off a decrepit skyscraper as soon as the Professor arrives with an antidote for Chemical X to help the girls. Mojo Jojo lands on the Antidote X, which shrinks him down to his original size, battered and defeated. The girls consider using the Antidote X to erase their powers, thinking they would be accepted as normal girls, but the people of Townsville protest against this and apologize for misjudging them, thanking them for their heroic deeds. At the request of Townsville's Mayor, the girls agree to use their powers to defend Townsville with the Professor's permission, becoming the city's beloved crime-fighting superhero team "the Powerpuff Girls". 

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In the Brazilian village of Belo Quinto, Father Andrew Kiernan, a former scientist and a Jesuit priest who investigates supposed miracles, examines a statue of the Virgin Mary weeping blood at the funeral of Father Paulo Almeida, who had previously experienced stigmata. While Andrew is collecting evidence, a young boy steals a rosary from the father's hand. The boy later sells it to a woman in a marketplace, who sends it to her daughter, Frankie Paige, living in Pittsburgh. Shortly afterward, Frankie is attacked by an unseen force while bathing, and receives two deep wounds on her wrists. As the wounds are treated, doctors cannot find the cause. Frankie asks a priest if he is Andrew Kiernan, the scientist, priest and investigator. When the priest says he is Father Derning, the lights in the train flash and Frankie is whipped from behind by an unseen force. While Frankie is hospitalized again, the priest sends security tapes showing the attack to the Vatican, and Andrew is sent to investigate. Andrew interviews Frankie, believing her wounds may also be stigmata. When she tells him she is an atheist, Andrew tells her that stigmata is when the deeply devoted are struck with the five wounds that Jesus received during the crucifixion. Frankie begins to research on her own what the cause could be. Her head begins to bleed, the third stigmata wound caused by the Crown of Thorns. Frankie runs home, where Andrew is waiting, and then runs into an alley. As Andrew pursues her, Frankie smashes a glass bottle and uses the shards to carve symbols on the hood of a car: when Andrew approaches her, she yells at him in another language. Andrew takes Frankie to Father Derning's church, and the Vatican translates what she was yelling in Aramaic. The next morning, Andrew returns to her apartment to find her writing on the wall, now covered in Aramaic. Frankie talks in a male voice, speaking Italian. Wounds appear in her feet, the fourth wound of stigmata. Andrew emails photographs of Frankie's apartment wall to the Vatican, where Brother Delmonico recognizes the words and deletes the pictures. He tells Andrew the words are from a document the church found that looked to be an entirely new gospel. Father Dario shows the pictures to Cardinal Daniel Houseman, who also recognizes them. Delmonico phones Marion Petrocelli and tells him the missing gospel has been found in Pittsburgh. Andrew goes to Frankie's apartment to find the wall she wrote on painted over, and Frankie attempts to seduce him. When Andrew rejects her, she attacks him and denounces his beliefs in a male voice, ending with Frankie levitating off the bed, crying tears of blood. Houseman and Dario arrive with Derning and take Frankie to another church, sending Andrew to Derning's. At Derning's church, Andrew meets Petrocelli, who tells him the words Frankie has been writing are part of a document found outside Jerusalem they believed to be a gospel in the exact words of Jesus. Petrocelli, Delmonico and Alameida were assigned to translate it, but Houseman ordered them to stop. Alameida refused and stole the document to continue translating it alone, having been excommunicated by Houseman. Petrocelli tells Andrew that the document was Jesus telling his disciples that the Kingdom of God is in all of us and not confined to churches. Petrocelli tells Andrew that Alameida suffered from stigmata. Andrew races to the church where Frankie is, while Houseman and Dario attempt to perform an exorcism on Frankie. Frankie shouts at them in a male voice, and Houseman attempts to strangle her. Andrew stops him, and the room is set on fire. Now believing Frankie is possessed by Alameida's spirit, Andrew offers to be Alameida's messenger instead. He walks unharmed through the fire to retrieve Frankie, bidding Alameida's spirit to depart in peace. Some time later, Andrew returns to Belo Quinto and finds the original documents for the lost gospel in Alameida's church. Text describes the discovery of the Gospel of Thomas, stating that the Catholic Church refuses to recognize the document as a gospel and considers it heresy. 

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In the sphere of Athum there once lived two beautiful angels by the names of Seth and Holth. Seth was gentle, kind, and anxious one; Holth was strong, determined, and bold. They lived in peace in the sphere of Athum for eternity, since there is no time, nor age, nor decay in this world. The waters flow uphill and time is irrelevant. Athum takes all and creates everything, for eternity. The angels Seth and Holth lived there undisturbed forever. They made love by their eyes, tasting their tears, they spoke to each other by their blood. They slept in Athum's womb not knowing of any evil, plight or fear. No worry, no pain ever harmed them... and they could have gone on like this forever, if not one day bold Holth had started to ask questions... questions about other worlds, other beings, questions about life and death. He tried to force Athum to tell him but instead for an answer the angels Seth and Holth were banished to planet Earth, thrown into the harshness of light, noise and madness. They woke up from their eternal dream to find themselves reborn to a world full of questions; hectic and evil. Not knowing what to do, only trying to get home again, home to Athum, home to peace. Hunted down by humans who did not understand, nor ever loved, Seth and Holth were sacrificed and murdered. Seeing their plight in the human world Athum pitied them and allowed them to return home, but home was not the same anymore. They had seen too much, heard too much, felt too much in the human world. They lost their innocence and their faith, they could ignore the questions no longer. 

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The setting is the city of Lucknow in northern India, where Islamic culture flourished. Two of the three best friends who live in this city have fallen in love with the same woman named Jameela. Aslam (Guru Dutt) and Nawab (Rehman) are the two friends caught in this love triangle with Jameela (Waheeda Rehman). An integral part of any Guru Dutt film, comic relief was provided by Johnny Walker, who plays Mirza Masaraddik Shaida. 

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Orgon's family is up in arms because Orgon and his mother have fallen under the influence of Tartuffe, a pious fraud (and a vagrant prior to Orgon's help). Tartuffe pretends to be pious and to speak with divine authority, and Orgon and his mother no longer take any action without first consulting him. Tartuffe's antics do not fool the rest of the family or their friends; they detest him. Orgon raises the stakes when he announces that he will marry Tartuffe to his daughter Mariane (already engaged to Valère). Mariane feels very upset at this news, and the rest of the family realizes how deeply Tartuffe has embedded himself into the family. In an effort to show Orgon how awful Tartuffe really is, the family devises a scheme to trap Tartuffe into confessing to Elmire (Orgon's wife) his desire for her. As a pious man and a guest, he should have no such feelings for the lady of the house, and the family hopes that after such a confession, Orgon will throw Tartuffe out of the house. Indeed, Tartuffe does try to seduce Elmire, but their interview is interrupted when Orgon's son Damis, who has been eavesdropping, is no longer able to control his boiling indignation and jumps out of his hiding place to denounce Tartuffe. Frontispiece and titlepage of Tartuffe or The Imposter from a 1739 collected edition of his works in French and English, printed by John Watts. The engraving depicts the amoral Tartuffe being deceitfully seduced by Elmire, the wife of his host, Orgon who hides under a table. Tartuffe is at first shocked but recovers very well. When Orgon enters the room and Damis triumphantly tells him what happened, Tartuffe uses reverse psychology and accuses himself of being the worst sinner: : : :(Yes, my brother, I am wicked, guilty. :A miserable sinner just full of iniquity) (III.vi). Orgon is convinced that Damis was lying and banishes him from the house. Tartuffe even gets Orgon to order that, to teach Damis a lesson, Tartuffe should be around Elmire more than ever. As a gift to Tartuffe and further punishment to Damis and the rest of his family, Orgon signs over all his worldly possessions to Tartuffe. In a later scene, Elmire takes up the charge again and challenges Orgon to be witness to a meeting between herself and Tartuffe. Orgon, ever easily convinced, decides to hide under a table in the same room, confident that Elmire is wrong. He overhears Elmire resisting Tartuffe's very forward advances. When Tartuffe has incriminated himself beyond all help and is dangerously close to violating Elmire, Orgon comes out from under the table and orders Tartuffe out of his house. But this wily guest means to stay, and Tartuffe finally shows his hand. It turns out that earlier, before the events of the play, Orgon had admitted to Tartuffe that he had possession of a box of incriminating letters (written by a friend, not by him). Tartuffe had taken charge and possession of this box, and now tells Orgon that he (Orgon) will be the one to leave. Tartuffe takes his temporary leave and Orgon's family tries to figure out what to do. Very soon, Monsieur Loyal shows up with a message from Tartuffe and the court itself – they must move out from the house because it now belongs to Tartuffe. Dorine makes fun of Monsieur Loyal's name, mocking his fake loyalty. Even Madame Pernelle, who had refused to believe any ill about Tartuffe even in the face of her son's actually seeing it, has become convinced by this time of Tartuffe's duplicity. No sooner does Monsieur Loyal leave than Valère rushes in with the news that Tartuffe has denounced Orgon for aiding and assisting a traitor by keeping the incriminating letters and that Orgon is about to be arrested. Before Orgon can flee, Tartuffe arrives with an officer, but to his surprise the officer arrests him instead. The officer explains that the enlightened King Louis XIV—who is not mentioned by name—has heard of the injustices happening in the house and, appalled by Tartuffe's treachery towards Orgon, has ordered Tartuffe's arrest instead; it turns out that Tartuffe has a long criminal history and has often changed his name to avoid being caught. As a reward for Orgon's previous good services, the King not only forgives him for keeping the letters but also invalidates the deed that gave Tartuffe possession of the house and all Orgon's possessions. The entire family thanks its lucky stars that it has escaped the mortification of both Orgon's potential disgrace and their dispossession. The drama ends well, and Orgon announces the upcoming wedding of Valère and Mariane. The surprise twist ending, in which everything is set right by the unexpected benevolent intervention of the heretofore unseen King, is considered a notable modern-day example of the classical theatrical plot device deus ex machina. 

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In Manhattan, cockroaches are spreading the deadly "Strickler's disease" that is claiming hundreds of the city's children. Dr. Peter Mann, Deputy Director of the CDC, recruits entomologist Dr. Susan Tyler, who uses genetic engineering to create what she calls the Judas breed, a hybrid between a mantis and a termite that releases an enzyme which accelerates the roaches' metabolism, thus causing them to starve to death faster than they can nourish themselves. The disease is successfully eradicated, and Peter and Susan later marry. Three years later, a priest is chased and dragged underground by a strange assailant. The only witness is Chuy, the autistic ward of an immigrant subway shoe shiner named Manny. Two kids later sell a "weird bug" from the subway to Susan, which she performs tests on, and realizes is similar to the Judas breed. Initially, she believes that this is impossible, since the specimens she released were all-female and designed with a lifespan of only a few months, ensuring that the breed would die off after a single generation. She later consults with her mentor, Dr. Gates, who autopsies a larger specimen found in the city's sewage treatment plants, and finds that its organs are fully formed, meaning the Judas breed is not only alive, but has developed into a viable species, with a sizable colony underneath the city. Looking for more valuable specimens, the kids go down the tracks where they find a large egg sac and are then killed by the same strange assailant. Chuy also enters the church to find "Mr. Funny Shoes" and is abducted. Peter, his assistant Josh and MTA officer Leonard enter the maintenance tunnels to investigate but Peter and Leonard get stuck and send Josh for help. Susan encounters what appears to be a shadowy man in a trench coat on a train platform. As she approaches, it unfolds into an insect the size of a human being which has evolved to appear human. The creature abducts Susan and carries her into the tunnels. Meanwhile, Josh finds a way out but is found by a Judas and killed. Manny also enters the tunnels in search of Chuy and comes across Susan, whom he rescues along with Peter and Leonard, and they barricade themselves inside a train car. Susan surmises that the Judas breed's accelerated metabolism has allowed them to reproduce at a similarly accelerated rate, and have managed to evolve over tens of thousands of generations within only three years, including developing the ability to mimic their human prey. The group formulates a plan to get the car moving: Peter will switch the power on, and Manny will switch the tracks. Susan projects that the Judas will spread throughout the tunnels and overrun the city unless they are able to kill the colony's single fertile male. Manny finds Chuy but is killed by the male Judas, so Susan goes in search of him but finds only Chuy. Leonard's injured leg starts bleeding heavily, so he creates a diversion that allows the others to get away, before being killed. Peter finds a dumbwaiter and puts Susan and Chuy in it, but stays behind to destroy the breed for good. He is chased into a room where hundreds are nesting, and blows them all up by setting fire to a loose gas pipe, before diving underwater to safety. The male Judas escapes the blast and goes after Chuy but is distracted by Susan, who lures it into the path of an oncoming train, which runs over it. The two successfully make it to the surface where they are reunited with Peter; Susan assumed that he had died in the blast. 

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Once a peaceful country, Persia was overrun by the powerful forces of the evil conqueror Bakaar the Black Sultan. When all the states of Persia were overthrown, Bakaar invaded the capital city of Baghdad. Bakaar and his forces breached the royal palace and forcibly claimed the throne from Prince Turhan and ordered the prince to be killed. Prince Turhan fled the palace, pursued by the guards of Bakaar. In his escape, the prince is helped by a magician named Fariik who with his magic slipped away from the guards. On their way to the state of El-Rabaul to seek aid from his uncle the Caliph, Turhan and Fariik meet Raseem while being chased by the guards in the Caves of Doom. Raseem tells them that Bakaar's forces have already usurped the throne of El-Rabaul and imprisoned the Caliph and his daughter Princess Nida. The trio then heads to El-Rabaul on Raseem's donkey Zazuum. In El-Rabaul, they rescue Princess Nida who is about to be sold into slavery. There, Princess Nida demonstrates her mastery of disguise and voice mimicry by tricking the guards, but they soon find themselves cornered by Bakaar's men. There Bez jumps into the scene, shapeshifts into an elephant, charges through the guards, and carries everyone to safety. In the Caves of Doom, they decide to form a heroic band and swear to protect their land from the tyranny of Bakaar, thus forming an alliance called the Arabian Knights. 

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Jocelin, the Dean of the cathedral, directs the construction of a towering spire funded by his aunt, Lady Alison, a mistress of the former King. The project is carried on against the advice of many, and in particular the warnings of the master builder, Roger Mason. The cathedral has insufficient foundations to support a spire of the magnificence demanded by Jocelin, but he believes he has been chosen by God and given a vision to erect a great spire to exalt the town and to bring its people closer to God. As the novel progresses, Golding explores Jocelin's growing obsession with the completion of the spire, during which he is increasingly afflicted by pain in his spine (which the reader gradually comes to realise is the result of tuberculosis). Jocelin interprets the burning heat in his back as an angel, alternately comforting or punishing him depending on the warmth or pain he feels. Jocelin's obsession blinds him to reality as he neglects his duties as Dean, fails to pray and ignores the people who need him the most. The pit dug to explore the foundations at the Cathedral crossing becomes a place where chthonic forces surge, as the four tower pillars begin to 'sing'. Jocelin also struggles with his unacknowledged lust for Goody Pangall, the wife of the crippled and impotent cathedral servant, Pangall. Jocelin seems at first to see Goody as his daughter in God. However, as the novel progresses, and Goody's husband is tormented and ridiculed as their 'fool' by the bullying workmen, Jocelin becomes tormented by sexual desire, usually triggered by the sight of Goody's red hair. Comparisons between Goody and Rachel, Roger Mason's wife, are made throughout the novel. Jocelin believes Goody sets an example to Rachel, whom he dislikes for her garrulousness and for revealing that her marriage to Roger remains unconsummated. However, Jocelin overestimates Goody's purity, and is horrified when he discovers Goody is embarking upon an affair with Roger Mason. Tortured by envy and guilt, Jocelin finds himself unable to pray. He is repulsed by his sexual thoughts, referred to as "the devil" during his dreams. The Cathedral building, its ordered life, and the lives of the people around Jocelin are disrupted because of the intractable problems arising from the construction of the spire, but Jocelin continues to drive his dream to its conclusion. His visions and hallucinations, hence his denial of the reality of the situation, mark his descent into irrationality. As the true costs, financial and spiritual, of the endeavour become apparent, the story moves to its tragic conclusion. Pangall disappears; although his fate is never made explicit, it is clear from the clue of the mistletoe that he was a pagan sacrifice buried at the Crossing by the builders to secure their luck against the stupidity of continuing the work. Goody Pangall dies in childbirth, bearing Roger Mason's child. Roger becomes a drunkard and at the end Jocelin dies of his illness, though only after first hearing from his aunt that his appointment was due only to her sexual influence, not to his merits. Before he dies, the phallic imagery of the Spire is displaced by the mysterious symbol of the tree. The spire is incomplete at the end of the story, and there is a growing sense of impending disaster due to the instability of the over-ambitious structure. 

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The film is based on a true story: the tragic life of China's first prima donna of the silver screen, Ruan Lingyu. This movie chronicles her rise to fame as a movie actress in Shanghai during the 1930s. Nicknamed the "Chinese Garbo," Ruan Lingyu began her acting career when she was 16 years old and committed suicide at age 24. The film alternates between present scenes (production talks between director Kwan, Cheung, and co-star Carina Lau, interviews of witnesses who knew Ruan), re-creation scenes with Cheung (as Ruan, acting inside this movie), and extracts from Ruan's original films including her final two films The Goddess and New Women. 

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Jimmy Tong (Leslie Cheung) is an expert blackmailer and thief who specialises in white-collar crimes. With his side- kick (Vincent Kok), Jimmy steals a personal diary belonging to a Yakuza leader, Ken Sato (Masaya Kato), intending to use its details as a platform for blackmailing and to extort money. Sato agreed to the uneasy deal and made preparations to pay Jimmy his exorbitant demands only for Sato's girlfriend, Jenny (Faye Wong) to betray him and make off with the money to Okinawa. Elsewhere, Dat Lo (Tony Leung) was vacationing with his girlfriend (Gigi Lai) and another jilted girl (Stephanie Che) in Okinawa (intending to use the vacation to dump his own girlfriend), but stumbles into Jimmy whom he had little problems recognising as an international crook. From here onwards, Dat set aside his irrelevant plans to dump his companions and sought to devise a plan to entrap and to subsequently arrest Jimmy. Dat tried to convince Jimmy as an accomplice to a new bank heist of which Jimmy needed little persuasion. However, Jenny comes into the frame and before long, both Jimmy and Dat fell in love with her. 

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