From Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ===== While there were originally four F-Zero pilots in the first game, this has grown with each title to over forty characters in the later games of the series. Each character has their own unique vehicle, story and reason for entering the F-Zero Grand Prix. The winner of the Grand Prix receives a huge sum of prize money, but many pilots have been lost pursuing it. The F-Zero games are derived from the 20th and 21st century Formula One races and the fictitious F-Max Grand Prix races from the 24th century. The games portray races in the future as having come under the influence of wealthy ex-space merchants. They thought that a fast and violent race would be an effective way to get people to gamble, so the ex-merchants established the F-Zero Execution Project. The F-Zero Grand Prix dates to the 26th century, and is still sponsored by the wealthy elite who originally organized the Execution Project for those events. These races feature the most technologically advanced racing machines, competing in numerous circuits of fast-paced action. It is known for its wild fans, and usually eccentric competitors. Winners of the Grand Prix receive large sums of money, as well as a great deal of prestige throughout the universe. The F-Zero games are primarily set on a futuristic Earth in the 26th century, although some games take place much earlier and some circuits have been set on different planets. F-Zero X defined the F-Max Grand Prix as the precursor to the F-Zero races which took place during the 24th century. According to the American version of F-Zero GX, the greatest driver in the F-Max Grand Prix was Sterling LaVaughn; a statement that would lead to inconsistencies in the sequence of events of F-Zero's storyline. F-Zero begins in the year 2560 where the human race's countless encounters with alien life forms throughout the universe greatly expanded Earth's social framework resulting in trade, technology transfer, and cultural interchange are carried out on an interplanetary basis. An association of wealthy space merchants created the "F-Zero Grand Prix", in an attempt to add some excitement to their opulent lifestyles. When the first race was held, people were angered at the brutality of the competition, due to the various obstacles and traps along the raceway. As time passed, however, they became accustomed to these dangers, and even began to demand more excitement and danger in the races. Winning the F-Zero championship soon became the highest claim to fame in the universe. This period of time is called the "old-school" F-Zero days where the rules seemed non-existent in F-Zero X. F-Zero Xs storyline starts after the seven- year suspension of Grand Prix races due to the Horrific Grand Finale. The game explains the "Horrific Grand Finale" was a violent and fiery accident that burnt fourteen drivers to death, including Sterling LaVaughn during the old days of F-Zero. A racer named Super Arrow escaped unscathed as the only survivor. No racing was allowed by the Federation after the crash; despite the F-Zero racing prohibition, the sport went underground where many racers went to hone their skills in secret. The crash ushered in the establishment of the "F-Zero Racing Academy", after a speech, by Super Arrow to the Federation Congress, which helped to lift the ban. The fictional competition was brought back with the rules and regulations revised. F-Zero: Maximum Velocity takes place twenty-five years after the SNES title in the year 2585. Players race against the descendants of the original F-Zero racers. Maximum Velocity is considered a reboot continuity to the rest of the home console titles since the game has made no indication of the safety revisions carried forth after the huge accident, in fact it states just like the original F-Zero game, the extreme danger involved when participating in those races. F-Zero GX does not mention the Grand Finale event, but instead the game states Sterling LaVaughn was racing during the F-Max era and the F-Zero Grand Prix was suspended four years ago. This game states the character Mighty Gazelle was injured in the huge accident four years ago. However, the Nintendo 64 game mentions that Mighty Gazelle's accident and the accident that suspended the Grand Prix were two separate events. F-Zero: GP Legend is set in a different continuity and begins in the year 2201. It was continued with F-Zero Climax. These games feature some different incarnations of Captain Falcon, Zoda, and other characters. ===== Jerry and Joanna Burton, a brother and sister from London, take residence in Miss Barton's country house in the quiet town of Lymstock, for the last phase of Jerry's recovery after suffering injuries in a plane crash. Shortly after moving in and meeting their neighbours, they receive an anonymous letter that makes the false accusation that the pair are lovers, not siblings. The Burtons quickly learn that such poison pen letters have been received by many in town. Despite the letters containing false accusations, many in town are quite upset by them and fear something worse to happen. Mrs Symmington, the wife of the local solicitor, is found dead after receiving a letter, stating that her husband, Mr Dick Symmington, was not the father of their second son. Her body is discovered with the letter, a glass containing potassium cyanide, and a torn scrap of paper which reads "I can't go on". While the inquest rules that her death was suicide, the police begin a hunt for the anonymous letter writer. Her daughter, Megan Hunter, an awkward, frumpy 20-year-old, stays with the Burtons for a while after the loss of her mother. The Burtons' housekeeper, Partridge, receives a call from Agnes, the Symmingtons' maidservant, who is distraught and seeks advice. Agnes fails to arrive for the planned meeting, nor is she found at Symmington's when Jerry calls in the evening to check on Agnes. The following day, her body is discovered in the under-stairs cupboard by Megan Hunter. An investigator arrives from Scotland Yard to investigate the murder. He concludes that the letter-writer/murderer is a middle-aged woman among the prominent citizens of Lymstock. Progress in the murder investigation is slow, until the vicar's wife calls up an expert of her own – Miss Marple. Jerry conveys many clues to her from his observations, as well as telling her some of his ideas on the reasons why Agnes was killed. Elsie Holland, governess for the Symmington boys, receives a letter. The police observed Aimée Griffith, the doctor's sister, typing the address on the same typewriter used for all the previous letters, and arrest her for the letter. Heading to London to see his doctor, Jerry impulsively takes Megan along with him, and brings her to Joanna's dressmaker for a complete makeover. He realises he has fallen in love with her. When they return to Lymstock, Jerry asks Megan to marry him; she turns him down. He asks Mr Symmington for his permission to pursue Megan. Miss Marple advises Jerry to let Megan alone for a day, as she has a task. Megan blackmails her stepfather later that evening, by implying that she has proof of her stepfather's guilt in the murder of her mother. Mr Symmington coolly pays her off while not admitting his guilt. Later in the night, after giving Megan a sleeping drug, he attempts to murder her by putting her head in the gas oven. Jerry and the police are lying in wait for him at Miss Marple's recommendation. Jerry rescues Megan and Symmington confesses. The police arrest him for murdering Agnes and his wife. Miss Marple reasons that the letters were a diversion, not written by a local woman, because none contained true accusations. One person benefited from Mrs Symmington's death, her husband. He is in love with the beautiful Elsie Holland, wanting her and his sons in his life. Planning his wife's murder, he modelled the letters on those in a case known to him from his legal practice. The police's theory about who wrote them was completely wrong. The one letter that Symmington did not write was the one to Elsie. Aimée Griffith, who was in love with Symmington for years, wrote that one. Knowing that it would be hard to prove his guilt, Miss Marple concocted a scheme to expose him, enlisting Megan to provoke him with the certain result that he would then attempt to kill her. Following the successful conclusion of the investigation, Megan realises that she does love Jerry. Jerry buys Miss Barton's house for them. His sister Joanna marries the local doctor, and stays in Lymstock. Meanwhile Emily Barton and Aimée Griffith go on a cruise together. ===== Mickey is able to push aside the impostor police inspector advancing on Jackie in her flat. Escaping the electrical pulse of the Slitheen in 10 Downing Street, the Ninth Doctor attempts to get the police, but by the time he has returned the Slitheen get back into their suits. The Doctor escapes to the upper floors of Downing Street and reunites with Rose and Harriet in the Cabinet Rooms. Just before sealing off the rooms, the Doctor confronts the Slitheen and learns that they are a family rather than a race. The Slitheen tell him that they are not invading Earth but raiding it for some commercial purpose. The Slitheen, as they appear at the Doctor Who Experience. Making contact with Mickey, the Doctor gives him instructions on how to log into the UNIT website on his computer. The Doctor uses the information to determine that the Slitheen ship is presently in the North Sea transmitting a signal. After the Doctor figures out the Slitheen are weak to acetic acid, Jackie and Mickey use gherkins, pickled onions and pickled eggs from Mickey's flat to kill the Slitheen who was impersonating the police inspector. Green and the other Slitheen declare a matter of national security and request that the United Nations release the activation codes to launch a nuclear strike against a fictitious mothership. The Doctor realises that the Slitheen actually plan to fire the weapons against other countries in order to start World War III. The Slitheen plan to sell the Earth's radioactive remains as a fuel source, which they have already begun advertising through the signal. Through Harriet's insistence, the Doctor helps Mickey to hack into the controls of a Royal Navy submarine and fire a missile at 10 Downing Street, even though the Doctor is unsure whether they will survive. The Slitheen are caught in the explosion when the missile hits but the Doctor, Rose, and Harriet all survive. With the Prime Minister dead, the Doctor suggests that Harriet could become Prime Minister. The Doctor gives Mickey a CD to upload to the internet that will remove all mentions of the Doctor from the web. He also privately offers Mickey the chance to travel with him, but Mickey admits that he is too scared to handle it. He asks the Doctor not to tell Rose about his concerns. Rose arrives with a full backpack and asks the Doctor if Mickey can come along, and the Doctor covers for him. ===== In 1953 in the English village of St Mary Mead, home of Miss Jane Marple, a big Hollywood production company arrives to film a costume drama about Mary, Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I with two famous movie stars, Marina Rudd and Lola Brewster. The two actresses are old rivals. Marina is making a much heralded comeback after a prolonged "illness" and retirement (due to what was really a nervous breakdown when her son was born with severe brain damage). She and her husband, Jason Rudd, who is directing the film, arrive with their entourage. When she learns that Lola will be in the film as well, she becomes enraged and vents her anger. Lola then arrives with her husband, Marty Fenn, who is producing the film. Excitement runs high in the village as the locals have been invited to a reception held by the film company in a manor house, Gossington Hall, to meet the celebrities. Lola and Marina come face to face at the reception and exchange some comically potent insults, as they smile and pose for the cameras. At the reception Marina is cornered by a gushing, devoted fan, Heather Babcock, who bores her with a long and detailed story about having actually met Marina in person during the Second World War. After recounting the meeting they had all those years ago, when she arose from her sickbed to go and meet the glamorous star, Heather drinks a cocktail that was made for Marina and quickly dies from poisoning. Everyone is certain Marina was the intended murder victim. Not only has Marina been receiving anonymous death threats made up of newspaper clippings, once shooting begins on the film she discovers that her cup of coffee on the set has also been spiked with poison, sending her into fits of terror. The police detective from Scotland Yard investigating the case, Inspector Dermot Craddock, is baffled. He asks his aunt, who happens to be Jane Marple, who recently injured her foot at the reception and is therefore confined to her home, for help. The suspects are Ella Zielinsky, Jason's assistant who is secretly in love with him and would like Marina out of the way, and the hotheaded actress Lola. The main suspect, Ella Zielinsky, after going to a pay phone in the village where she telephoned and threatened to expose the murderer, is then killed by a lethal nasal spray substituted for her hay-fever medication. Miss Marple, now back on her feet, visits Gossington Hall, where Marina and Jason are staying, and views where Heather's death occurred. Working from information received from her cleaning woman, Cherry Baker, who worked as a waitress the day of the murder, Marple begins to piece together the events and solves the mystery. By that time, however, another death occurs at Gossington Hall, which explains who was the killer: Marina Rudd has apparently died by suicide. Miss Marple explains that Heather Babcock's story was Marina's motive. Heather suffered from German measles, a rather harmless disease to most adults, but dangerous for a pregnant woman. Heather innocently infected Marina when she met her during the Second World War while Marina was pregnant: she had caused Marina's child to be born with mental retardation. Upon hearing Heather cheerfully tell this story, Marina was overcome with rage and deliberately poisoned her. She then spread the idea that she was the intended victim, concocting the death threats and poisoning her own coffee. Ella, who in fact made phone calls to various suspects from a phone box, accidentally guessed correctly, prompting Marina to murder her. As Marina is now dead, she will not be brought to justice. Jason confesses to Miss Marple that he had put poison in his wife's hot chocolate to save her from being prosecuted; however, the drink has not been touched. Marina is nonetheless found dead, seeming to have poisoned herself. ===== When the Fabre family move into their dream house with wonderful neighbors, everything seems perfect except for one thing – the youngest child Ludovic wishes to live as a girl; while she is biologically male, she feels that she is a girl and wants to live as female. The rest of the family humour her as best they can, rationalizing that Ludovic is only trying to find her identity and will soon be over it. Trouble begins when Ludovic befriends Jérôme, the son of his father's boss (whose family lives across from the Fabres), and expresses a desire to marry him. When visiting Jérôme's house, Ludovic enters his sister's room and puts on one of her dresses, not realizing that the sister is deceased and the room was merely kept in memory of her. Jérôme's mother sees this and she and the rest of the neighbors are horrified. The community turns against Ludovic and, by extension, the rest of the Fabre family. After Ludovic stands in as Snow White in a school play, the parents of the other students send in a petition to have her expelled. Ludovic's father, under strain as an employee of Jérôme's father, is unable to cope and causes conflict within the family. After a particularly bad argument, Ludovic attempts to mend the situation by hiding in a freezer to commit suicide. She is found in time and allowed to wear a skirt to a neighborhood party. While the other neighbors greet her warmly, Ludo's father gets fired the next day and finds his house spray-painted with graffiti. Ludo runs out of the house, distraught. Hanna, Ludovic's mother, blames Ludovic for everything that has gone wrong. She wants to set Ludo straight, so she cuts her hair to make her look like her brother's. Ludo resents her mother for doing this, ultimately deciding that she wants to live with her grandmother. When Ludo and her grandmother go visit his parents one weekend, the father announces that he has a new job, but it is out of town and they have to move. At their new house, Ludovic is befriended by Chris Delvigne, a child who happens to be biologically female but chooses to live as male. Chris' mother invites Ludovic to Chris' dress-up birthday party, which Ludo attends in a musketeer outfit. Chris, unhappy in a princess outfit, asks Ludo to swap and has the other young party guests force Ludo to do so upon refusal. When Ludovic's mother sees her in the dress, she fears that their troubles are beginning again and lashes out by hitting Ludo until the other party guests restrain her. Hanna follows Ludovic to a billboard where she is shocked to see Ludo in the picture, running away with Pam, the protagonist of a program she used to watch. When she tries to follow her, she falls through the ground and awakens at home. She and Ludovic's father assure Ludo that she may wear skirts from now on. In turn, Ludo assures her mother that she never really intended to run away with Pam. Hanna, happy to see her, accepts Ludo's identity and says that regardless what she believes to be, she is still her child. ===== The film tells the story of the past of the character Johannes, and his relationships with his cruel father, his mother, and his father's mistress with whom Johannes falls in love. ===== None of the boys playing for the South Park Cows, the town's Little League Baseball team, enjoy the sport at all. They find baseball boring and play only because of their parents' enthusiasm for the sport. When they win their final game, they are at first overjoyed, believing the season is over and they have the rest of the summer to enjoy - only until they discover, to their horror, that since they finished first in their division, they will have to continue playing in the post-season playoffs. During a 'celebration' meal, the team discusses plans to lose on purpose while making it look like they are trying. However, South Park realize that the other teams also want out, and have actually trained to lose games. The South Park Cows end up winning again and again against opponents whose efforts at throwing games are more successful, and they eventually get to the state championship game. To their horror, they realize that if they win, their season will start again on the national circuit, meaning they will have to play baseball for the whole summer. Meanwhile, Stan's father Randy has taken up the hobby of being a "trash- talking dad", being generally obnoxious at every game so as to get into fights with other, equally obnoxious fathers. While training to be the best fighter he can be, Randy becomes terrified when he meets the Denver Little League team's "Bat Dad", who wears a purple Batman cowl and cape, is much bigger than him, and behaves even more obnoxiously. He decides not to attend the game in fear that he isn't good enough. Cartman tells the team that they need someone who "totally sucks ass" to join their team. Kyle says he knows just the person: his nerdy cousin Kyle Schwartz, who is terrible at all sports. Stan and the others play their game against Denver, who, like the other opponents, do not want to win either. Even drafting Kyle's cousin fails, as the other team is the best yet at intentionally losing. Just as it seems the South Park team is sure to win, Randy shows up and begins a huge fight with Bat Dad that spills onto the field. Randy continues to fight as the boys cheer him on, leaving the officials to disqualify South Park, and the team celebrates, Randy upset the boys lost and realizing he’s getting arrested, Stan thanks him for getting them disqualified, raising his confidence. ===== ===== Paola and Paulina are twins who were separated at birth. Paulina is a good-hearted and honest woman who lives in poverty and is engaged to a simple man, Osvaldo (who's seeing another woman). Paola, on the other hand, is a rich, frivolous and evil woman who has many lovers, including her brother-in- law, Willy. She is married to Carlos Daniel Bracho, a wealthy man. When the twins cross paths by chance, Paola attempts to convince Paulina into taking her place at the Brachos' house, so she can take a year-long vacation with her new lover, Alessandro. At first, Paulina refuses because she can't leave her deathly ill mother; but she's later blackmailed and threatened with jail after Paola puts her bracelet in Paulina's purse and accuses her of theft. Abandoned by her fiancé Osvaldo who leaves her to be with his mistress and left with nothing after the death of her mother, Paulina submits to Paola's plan. She is, however, unaware of the destruction the Bracho household was under (thanks to Paola) and decides to work throughout the year righting all wrongs. Paulina (posing as Paola) strives to convince everyone that she has "changed" and become a "new person". During the year, Paulina falls in love with Carlos Daniel. She cures Piedad from alcoholism, saves the Bracho factory from financial ruin, and cuts ties with all of Paola's lovers. No matter how hard she tries, she can't make peace with Estefania (Carlos Daniel's sister) because the real Paola had an affair with Willy, Estefania's husband. Nonetheless she continues to try to make amends. Paulina, being the honorable and decent woman that she is, refuses to be intimate with Carlos Daniel, telling him that she needs a year due to her "illness". Carlos Daniel, unaware she is not really Paola, resents her and falls back into the arms of Gema, Paola's frenemy, who's always trying to seduce Carlos Daniel, encouraged by Estefania. Meanwhile, the real Paola is in Monaco partying with Alessandro. One night after a party, Paola, scared because she had previously dreamt this would happen, gets in a car crash with Alessandro in the passenger seat. They end up in a hospital in Monaco, where she spends months and recovers after multiple surgeries, although her lover Alessandro ends up paralyzed and is bound to a wheelchair. Paola, no longer interested in him, plans her return to Mexico to take back her place as the real Paola Bracho. Paola's plan is discovered and Paulina escapes from Mexico, but Carlos Daniel's son, Carlitos, tries to find Paulina, who he thinks is his real mother. With a broken foot, he falls from a hill, hits his head on a rock, and loses his memory. An old lady finds him and cures him. Paola returns and restarts wreaking havoc: she finds out that Carlitos and Paulina are missing. Eventually, Paulina hears about Carlitos and returns to the Bracho House. Paola goes to travel the world with her famous lover Douglas Maldonado, so Paulina pretends to be Paola again because Carlos Daniel's grandmother Piedad doesn't want Paulina to go to jail. Paulina tells the whole family that Carlos Daniel hated Paulina at first, but after finding Carlitos, they both share their secret love for each other. Gema and Willy contact the Police. Willy beats Estefania up and she is hospitalized. Estefania doesn't turn Paulina to the authorities, after Paulina donates blood to her and her baby. Estefania later reconciles with Paulina. On the same day, Paola eventually returns, pretending to be paralyzed and trying to take her place back. The next day, Paulina is arrested. While in prison, Paulina and Carlos Daniel discover a mysterious letter by Paulina's mother, written before she died. In the letter, it is explained that Paola and Paulina are twins, but were separated at birth. Paola is caught standing on her feet, putting on make-up, by her nurse Elvira. Paola tells her she will give her money to keep her mouth shut. When Paola finds out that Paulina is her twin, she gets furious. Many men come forward to help hire a lawyer for Paulina so she can be free. Later, Paulina is cleared of all charges. Paola decides to go to the Bracho house with Elvira. Paulina takes Carlitos to her hotel to avoid Paola, so Paola stays in a wheelchair to prove that she is disabled. Returning to her old ways, Paola inflicts damage on the family and on Paulina. Later, the whole Bracho family is horrified to see Paola walk. Elvira tells the whole family the truth about Paola never being paralyzed. Paola overhears this, so she and Willy set out to get revenge on Paulina, Carlos Daniel and Paulina's lawyer because she was set free. They also plot to kill Elvira for being a traitor. Paola takes Elvira away to kill her but, while in the car travelling at a high speed, Paola reveals to Elvira that she overheard her snitching and she is going to die because of it. Elvira tries to stop the car but they lose control whilst speeding up and the car hits a wall, rolling violently down a hill, where it explodes. Carlos Daniel arrives to the Bracho house. Farmers discover the wreckage of the car and Elvira's corpse. Paola however is found alive in a critical state. Everyone later finds out about Paola's car accident. Paola is transferred to a Central Hospital. There, she tells everyone the truth about her plan with Willy. The police arrests Willy and he's sentenced to 20 years in prison. Paola is forgiven by her sister and her husband, and dies. Paulina is finally free to marry Carlos Daniel, and peace is finally restored at the Bracho house. ===== Inspector General Overanxius arrives in the fortified Roman camp of Compendium on a mission from Julius Caesar to lead the local garrison against the village of indomitable Gauls. Centurion Lotuseatus warns him the Gauls are dangerous, but the attack goes ahead, only to be soundly repelled. Undeterred, Overanxius erects a stockade around the village to prevent the inhabitants from spreading their rebellious ideas through Gaul. Asterix bets that he and Obelix will escape the village and go on a tour of Gaul, collecting regional culinary specialties for a banquet upon their return. Overanxius promises to raise the stockade if they succeed. Asterix maps out a route, while Obelix fetches a large bag to hold their shopping. The two break through the stockade, while the other villagers create a diversion by attacking the barricade on another front. Overanxius has a rider despatched to alert the entire occupation army to be on the lookout for the pair. Rotomagus (Rouen): Asterix and Obelix make their way to the Normandy region, where a Roman patrol recognizes them. They flee and escape via a wealthy Roman couple's yacht down the Seine, while the patrol is stymied by the unhelpfully vague responses of local residents. Lutetia (Paris): Upon arrival, Asterix and Obelix negotiate the traffic jams and buy a ham from a pork butcher shop, where from this point on, Dogmatix (unnamed until the next adventure) follows the duo through Gaul. Fearing detection by a Roman patrol, they purchase a gleaming used chariot and handsome horse from a dishonest salesman to make their escape. They soon discover the horse is slow and was only painted black, while the chariot loses its lustre and a wheel. The duo gets back on track by knocking out the driver of a Roman breakdown chariot and stealing his vehicle. Camaracum (Cambrai): The Gauls stop in a humbug shop to buy boiled sweets, but are spotted by a Roman patrol, which they beat up, trashing the shop in the process. Unfazed by the damage, the shopkeeper says Gauls are aware of the bet and then demonstrates his solidarity by knocking out the patrol leader. Back on the road, Asterix and Obelix get past another patrol by posing as breakdown men, towing a legionary, Spongefingus, in his damaged chariot, only to then cast him aside on the road. Rheims (Reims): Asterix and Obelix abandon the breakdown chariot and buy some wines. They are found by Spongefingus, who has recovered from his "accident," but Asterix knocks him down by using a cork exploding from an amphora. Divodurum (Metz): Leaving Rheims, the pair detours into a forest, where the scent of roast boar leads them to the house of Unpatriotix, who feeds and then betrays them. Roman soldiers come to the house but capture only Asterix, as Obelix is out hunting boar. When Obelix discovers the ruse, he knocks out a legionary to get imprisoned too and rescues Asterix. After beating up the Romans at the prison, Asterix declares it is too late to buy any of Divodurum's specialties and decides to buy some in Lugdunum. As they leave, the Gauls commandeer a Roman postal cart. Lugdunum (Lyon): The two Gauls abandon the postal cart and, after crashing through a Roman blockade, meet Jellibabix, head of the resistance movement. He pretends to betray the Gauls to Prefect Poisonous Fungus, but lures the Romans into a maze of back alleys, where the legionaries become hopelessly lost (the prefect's plan to leave behind a trail of pebbles to find his way out backfires when a legionary picks up the pebbles). Jellibabix gives the duo a parcel of sausages and meatballs, and arranges a chariot for them. Nicae (Nice): En route to Nicae, Asterix and Obelix become stuck in holiday traffic bound for the Gaulish Riviera and stop at an inn for lunch. In Nicae, they buy salad and are once again spotted by a Roman patrol. They escape by sea and commandeer a vacationing Lutetian's rowboat. Massilia (Marseille): The Gauls stop at Cesar Drinklikafix's inn where, aside from having goat's milk and boar, they buy fish stew. Again, the pair makes a premature departure when a boy warns of approaching Romans, but Drinklikafix and his friends stall the soldiers by blocking the road with a game of pétanque. Tolosa (Toulouse): En route to Tolosa, Asterix and Obelix stop for the night, unaware they are in a Roman camp. Next morning, they beat up the Romans, but then surrender after learning the centurion intended to take them to Tolosa by cart. The Gauls are chained up, but repeatedly break their chains, much to the blacksmith's dismay. Out on the road, the centurion rides on ahead to bring over the prefect, but in his absence, Asterix and Obelix beat up the Romans again, make off with the cart, and buy sausages in Tolosa. Aginum (Agen): The Romans announce a 50,000 sestertii reward for information leading to the arrest of Asterix and Obelix. An unscrupulous innkeeper, Uptotrix, invites the two Gauls to his inn, where he gives them a bag of prunes and serves them drugged boar. Suspecting betrayal, Asterix orders Uptotrix to taste the boar, which causes him to fall unconscious, although Obelix is unaffected despite eating the rest of the boar. The pair leaves the cart in Aginum and takes the horses, one of which collapses under the combined weight of Obelix and the shopping bag. Burdigala (Bordeaux): En route, the Gauls rest for the night by a roadside, where their bag is stolen by two Roman highwaymen, Villanus and Unscrupulus. The next morning, Asterix and Obelix pursue the thieves, who are caught by a Roman patrol and mistaken them for the Gauls. In the town square of Burdigala, General Motus shows the "Gaulish outlaws" to the public, only to realize he has the wrong men when Asterix and Obelix arrive to reclaim their bag. The public attacks General Motus and his men while the heroes regain their bag and buy oysters and white wine. Gesocribatum (Le Conquet): Before leaving Burdigala, Asterix and Obelix spy a ship offloading menhirs and meet Captain Seniorservix, who is honored to let them aboard as Obelix helps unload the menhirs before the ship's departure. At sea, the ship runs into the recurring pirates, whose own ship is sunk by the Gauls. On arrival in Gesocribatum, Seniorservix smuggles the Gauls ashore in sacks. Asterix and Obelix get out when a Roman patrol is passing by, but they beat up the Romans and escape. Eventually, Asterix and Obelix reach the stockade outside their village and, after beating up the Romans yet again, give them a message to tell Overanxius they have won their side of the bet. That night, Asterix shows the food and wine to Overanxius and Lotuseatus, before demonstrating the village's specialty, 'the uppercut', which knocks out Overanxius. Moments before the punch, Dogmatix barks for the first time, making Obelix notice him. Dogmatix is given a bone and the villagers enjoy their banquet. ===== In a high-school game of "Killer" (in which a student must shoot another with a squirt gun), Matt Arnold has to "kill" classmate Jenny Herk, and decides to sneak up on her at home. By coincidence, hitmen are also there to assassinate Arthur Herk, who has secretly embezzled money from his company, Penultra Corp. When the fake assassination attempt crosses paths with the real one, police officers Monica Romero and Walter Kramitz are called out to the resulting disturbance. During the chaos of the assassination attempts, Matt's friend, Andrew, called Eliot Arnold, Matt's father. Upon arriving to pick up Matt from the Herks', Eliot immediately feels a mutual attraction to Anne Herk, Jenny's mother, as Matt and Jenny begin to feel attracted to each other as well. The Herks' housemaid, Nina, meanwhile, falls in love with a young homeless man named Puggy, who lives in a tree on their property, after she runs from the shootings and he saves her from the hitmen. Realizing that he is the intended victim, Arthur visits arms dealers to buy a rocket but is sold a suitcase nuclear bomb because the dealer claims to be out of rockets and doesn't tell him that it is a nuclear weapon. Escaped convicts Snake and Eddie, who were previously kicked out of the bar for disorderly conduct, hold up the bar and kidnap Arthur and Puggy (who is an employee there) and take the suitcase, not knowing its contents. Meanwhile, Matt tries to "kill" Jenny in a mall parking lot, but a security guard thinks that Matt's gun is real and opens fire on them. Matt and Jenny run away and eventually return to the Herk house, followed by officers Monica and Walter, who stumble across the confusion. Eliot is called over once again. The convicts force Arthur to return to his home, where they capture everyone and tie them up. Taking Puggy and kidnapping Jenny, they leave (with the suitcase) for the Airport. Nina, who was hiding in her room, frees everyone except for Monica and Arthur (who were handcuffed to an entertainment system). Shortly after, the house is visited by two FBI agents who are tracking the bomb. They free Monica and have her lead them to the airport (leaving Arthur, as he was poisoned by a hallucinogenic toad, causing him to think that his dog is possessed by Martha Stewart). The criminals pass through security with Puggy and Jenny, where the bomb is inadvertently triggered and its 45-minute timer begins; Puggy manages to escape in the confusion of boarding the plane. The FBI agents tell everyone that unless the bomb is retrieved soon, the plane must be shot down. Puggy leads the group to the criminals' plane, which Eliot sneaks onto. Meanwhile, the two hitmen get out of the traffic jam (caused by Snake and Eddie) and reach the airport. They bump into Officer Romero, and Special Agents Greer and Seitz, knocking the hitmen's Remington sniper rifle out of their golf bag in the process. Romero grabs the rifle, removes its bolt (rendering it useless), and returns it. Eliot, having sneaked onto the plane, attacks the criminals by knocking Eddie out with a fire extinguisher and blasting the extinguisher at Snake. On hearing the case is a bomb, Eliot hurls it out of the still open rear door, only for Snake to leap after it. In a memorable feat of dumb luck, Snake manages to cling onto the door's steps. Despite Eliot's insistence that the case is a bomb, Snake opens fire on him which prompts Eliot to pull the emergency lever which decouples the door. Snake plunges into the ocean with a defiant smile, still clinging to the bomb, which explodes safely in the water. Eliot is congratulated by the FBI, promised he will receive presidential cowboy boots and a hat, and told the events that took place are strictly top secret. The last scene reveals what happens to the main characters: after chasing down a plane, subduing two criminals, and saving Miami from a nuclear disaster, Eliot finally won Matt's respect. Anne and Eliot get married a week after Anne gets divorced from Arthur. Walter, after a forced strip search by the airport guards, becomes a male stripper and marries. The two hitmen manage to escape Miami after a series of very weird events. They claim their Miami job was the lowest point in their careers. They were surrounded by the fans of Florida Gators on their plane home (which was a constant joke in the film). Eddie goes back to jail in a prison outside of Jacksonville, but becomes friends with another dimwitted inmate who shares the same affinity for crude jokes as Eddie does. Arthur is last seen still handcuffed and tormented by his dog. ===== Twenty- eight-year-old Jessica Stein is an attractive, Jewish, neurotic copy editor at a New York City newspaper. Her brother Dan has just gotten engaged, her best friend Joan is about to start a family, and her mother Judy is worried that Jessica will end up alone. Having endured a lot of awful blind dates searching for Mr. Right, Jessica's interest is piqued by a personal ad that includes her favorite quote about relationships by Rilke. Jessica discovers it is in the "Women Seeking Women" section of the newspaper. The ad was placed by Helen Cooper, who works at an art gallery. Dissatisfied with unfulfilling sex with men, Helen is looking to try something different and decides to experiment with dating women at the encouragement of her gay friends. Jessica replies to the ad, but she becomes apprehensive when she meets Helen, then apologizes and exits. Helen chases after her and persuades her to stay for one drink. The two discover they get along well and have a lot in common; they have dinner. Helen challenges Jessica's assumptions about what will make her happy and passionately kisses her goodnight. Jessica and Helen start dating and awkwardly making out on Helen's sofa afterwards. The usually uptight Jessica gradually becomes more happy, confident, and carefree; this is noticed at her workplace and attracts interest from her boss, Josh. Jessica evasively says that she has not found a boyfriend. Helen, meanwhile, is falling in love with Jessica and grows frustrated that their relationship is not moving faster. Judy invites Jessica and Helen to dinner at their holiday house, where she tries to set them each up with a computer executive and Josh, respectively. A bad thunderstorm causes Helen to sleep over in Jessica's old bed, and Jessica and she have sex for the first time. The two of them are happy together, but Jessica stays closeted about her new lesbian relationship, refusing to bring Helen as her date to Dan's wedding for fear of what others will think. Devastated, Helen says she cannot accept being treated as a shameful secret, and tearfully breaks off their relationship. As Dan's wedding approaches, Jessica sinks into a deep depression and goes to see Judy, who tells her that she is a perfectionist who always quits things if they are not perfect, even if they make her happy. Judy takes a deep breath and says that Jessica should not let this ruin her chances at happiness with Helen, who seems like "a lovely girl". Realizing her mother has accepted her bisexuality, Jessica breaks down into tears of joy. Jessica apologizes to Helen and invites her to be her date for Dan's wedding. Helen is a hit at the event and warmly welcomed into the family. Josh, meanwhile, has realized that he has been in love with Jessica for some time, and bares his feelings to her after the party. Jessica awkwardly but firmly explains that she is in a relationship with Helen and departs with her, leaving Josh speechless. A few months later, Jessica and Helen are living together in Helen's apartment, where their sexual relationship begins to fade. Helen realizes that Jessica views her as a best friend and roommate more than a lover, and says that she needs more than Jessica is able to give. A bad fight ensues; Jessica implores Helen to accept their relationship as-is, but Helen remains steadfast to her need for a partner who satisfies her sexually, and the two split for good. Several months later, Helen is happily living with another woman. Jessica is a more calm and content version of her former self, having taken the positive things she learned from her time with Helen and applied them to her own life. She puts up fliers seeking a new roommate in a bookstore, missing the flirtatious interest of the pretty store owner. She spots Josh among the bookshelves, whom she has not seen since she left the paper to focus on her painting. They have a friendly catching-up, and she tells him that Helen dumped her, which was tough, but ultimately made her a better person. She gives Josh a flyer with her email on it. Later, Jessica meets up with Helen—the two women now solidly friends—and joyfully tells her that she is going on a date with Josh. ===== At the Bronze, Oz and his band Dingoes Ate My Baby play a set, while Buffy and Willow hang out. Willow remarks to Buffy that she has been spending a lot of time with Parker, however Buffy does not want to smother him, so keeps a safe distance and watches as he plays pool. However, Parker approaches Buffy and asks to walk her home, so the pair leave. After the band have finished playing, Oz, Willow and Devon begin to put the equipment in the van out the back. As Willow waits for the others to return, Harmony approaches her. At first Harmony appears friendly towards Willow, but ultimately reveals herself to be a vampire and bites Willow. Oz saves Willow by brandishing a cross, forcing Harmony to flee, but she also threatens them with an attack from her boyfriend. Willow and Oz then proceed to Buffy's dorm and warn her of Harmony. Harmony returns underground and Spike is revealed to be her boyfriend, undertaking a search for an unknown item by digging underneath the city. Harmony persistently annoys Spike to take her to a party, to which he reluctantly agrees to do so the following night. The next day, Xander is helping to arrange Giles' books when Anya makes a surprise visit, questioning a confused Xander about their relationship. That night, Buffy and Parker go on a date to party and run into Spike and Harmony who are carrying a nearly drained party-goer. Spike and Harmony escape, but Buffy catches up with them. Spike proves reluctant to give information to Buffy, but Harmony, absent-mindedly, tells Buffy Drusilla left Spike for a fungus demon and that the pair are in town to find the Gem of Amara. Spike becomes enraged and forces Harmony to leave. Buffy phones Giles and tells him of the vampires' plans, much to Giles surprise as he believes the Gem to be fictional. Buffy returns to the party and after spending more time with Parker decides to sleep with him. Meanwhile, Anya arrives at Xander's home and they have sex, while Harmony seduces Spike into bed. The following morning, Anya tells Xander she is over him, but his lack of a response angers her and she leaves. Harmony continues to irritate Spike and he too leaves to continue work on finding the Gem. Buffy awakes in Parker's dorm and is happy to hear that he will phone her later that day. As Buffy arrives back at her dorm she finds Willow and Giles researching the Gem that turns out to be in a hidden crypt in Sunnydale. Soon after, Spike and Harmony discover the crypt. Harmony begins to try on the jewels while prattling on, enraging Spike who stakes her - however she is impervious to harm. Realising that she is wearing the Gem, Spike forces it off her and leaves the crypt. Meanwhile, while searching for information at Giles' house, Xander turns on the news, which is reporting on a giant sinkhole caused by the erosion of dirt beneath it. They come to the conclusion that Spike's underground digging caused it. Buffy tracks down Parker, but she finds him putting the same moves he used on her on another girl. She realizes that the sex they had was meaningless to him and thinks it's her fault. Willow, Oz and Giles arrive at the crypt and find an upset Harmony who refuses to help them locate and stop Spike, still in love with him. At the same time, Spike, protected by the Gem, attacks Buffy in broad daylight and the pair fight. Xander attempts to help Buffy but is of little help. During the fight, Spike insults Buffy. She manages to remove the Gem from Spike and he is forced to flee into the sewers. Later, the gang meet at Giles' place where Buffy decides she wants to give the ring to Angel. Oz offers to take it to him when he visits L.A. for a gig. Buffy then leaves Giles and walks around the campus upset by the events with Parker. Anya and Harmony also wander alone - all three women heartbroken. The concept of the "Gem of Amara" echoes the Sanskrit classic known as the Amarakosha or "Immortal Treasure," composed by the scholar Amarasimha who was counted as one of the Navaratnas or "Nine Gems" of the court of the emperor Vikramaditya. ===== Jake "Tiger" Sharp (Michael Sopkiw) is a former policeman who seeks revenge after his wife is murdered. After killing the murderer, Sharp is sentenced to seven years in prison. Upon release Jake is given an SPAS-12 Shotgun by his old friend Jerry in order to wreak vengeance upon the crooked attorney responsible for sending him away. However, Jake instead at the last minute decides to return to his secluded cabin in the Appalachian wilderness and bury his gun in the floorboards. Matters become complicated when a group of poachers run afoul of him and kill his baby deer. Jake goes to the Chinese herbal medicinist's office that the hunters have been selling to and smashes up the place. Jake's estranged daughter Connie then joins him with Jerry and her boyfriend, but all of them are killed off when the hunters decide to get revenge for scaring away the herbal medicinist. Jake manages to escape back to his cabin and dig up his gun for one last battle with those who would break the law. ===== While enjoying a picnic, Sarah Collins (Catherine Miles) and her boyfriend are surprised by a gang of juvenile hunters. They rape her and kill him, but just before they are about to kill her she escapes and runs to her parents' house. The gang members shoot Sarah in front of her father, a wealthy Vietnam Vet (Richard Harrison) named Mark. The boys wound him seriously and leave. A few months later, after his health has returned, Mark manages to find the murderers and kills each of them. He also keeps on walking the streets at night, looking for criminals in action to execute until his wife Yvette (Ann Jackson) convinces him to stop. However, he has been observed by the henchmen of Bill (Mike Monty), an enigmatic businessman desiring to crush the local drug syndicate. Bill gives orders to kidnap Yvette and forces Mark to continue his vigilante work. Mark eventually escapes and physically confronts Bill. After killing most of his henchmen, Mark is thrown to the ground and is about to be shot by Bill, but he pulls out a tiny rocket launcher from a special rig up his sleeve and fires it at Bill. The film ends with a freeze frame of the explosion and text informing the audience that “mark collins, aged 45, gave himself up to the authorities after the incident. he is currently serving a life sentence.” ===== A woman's body is shown in lantana bushes in a suburban garden. Leon, a policeman, and Jane have sex in a motel. They part, and Leon and his wife, Sonja, attend Latin dance classes that the recently separated Jane is also taking. Leon does not enjoy the classes. He savagely beats a drug dealer during an arrest. He has emotional issues but refuses to confront or admit to them, while Sonja sees a therapist, Valerie, who has published a book on her daughter's recent murder. She and her husband, John, barely speak; he refers to their marriage as surviving on their grief. Valerie feels threatened by another patient, Patrick, who is having an affair with a married man, forcing her to confront her marital issues. Jane purposely encounters Leon outside his station, and they have sex despite his reservations. Nik is upset at the relationship because he is friends with her estranged husband, Pete, who wants to return home. Jane pairs with Sonja in the next salsa class, angering Leon, who ends their arrangement, upsetting Jane. She invites Nik for coffee at Paula's behest, with whom she is friendly, and offers him money as they are struggling. Paula now starts disliking Jane. Valerie, coming home late, crashes. Stranded, she calls John, unsuccessfully. She hails a vehicle but never makes it home. Leon is the investigating detective and searches her office. Surprised at seeing his wife's details, he takes a recording of their sessions, from which he learns that Sonja would not consider an affair a betrayal, but would if Leon didn't tell her. Leon arrives home late, but Sonja is awake. He asks her about her therapy. They discuss their relationship, and he says he just ended an affair but still loves her. Sonja is upset and feels betrayed. Leon sleeps on the couch. In the morning, Sonja says that he will be lucky if she returns home that night. Leon goes to John's house as he is the main suspect in his wife's disappearance. Leon starts discussing love, marriage and affairs, but lies to John when asked if he ever had an affair. Leon goes to Jane's house after she calls the police. Jane, late one night, saw Nik arrive home and throw something in the bushes. Later, she finds a woman's shoe there. Leon and Paula arrive and declare the shoe is Valerie's. The police arrest Nik and he leaves his children with Jane. Police summon Paula for questioning. Neither Nik nor Paula knows that Jane called the police. Although Paula dislikes Jane, she thanks her for minding their children. The police interrogate Nik, but he refuses to answer questions about Valerie, repeatedly asking for Paula. Afterwards, Nik relaxes and talks with Leon and Paula. Valerie had car trouble and hailed Nik. He agreed to take her home but she panicked when he took a shortcut and jumped out, leaving her shoe. Paula goes to Jane's house for her children, where she tells her that Nik is innocent. Jane asks how she knows, and Paula says he told her. Jane asks if she can spend more time with the kids, but Paula forbids it after seeing how Jane went into her house and tidied it. Leon, Paula, Nik, and John go to where Valerie jumped out of the truck. They find her body, as she had fallen down a ravine. Leon listens to the rest of the therapy tape, where his wife says that she still loved him, and he cries. Leon returns home and sees his wife outside. Jane salsa dances alone, drinking and smoking, and her husband leaves her. Patrick is pained to see his lover spending time with his wife and kids. Nik and Paula are spending time with their kids. The movie ends with Sonja and Leon dancing seductively. Leon, who found dancing with his wife difficult, now looks into Sonja's eyes and dances, just as she wanted. Sonja struggles to initially return Leon's gaze but does as the movie ends. ===== The novel is narrated by Arthur Kipps, the young lawyer who formerly worked for Mr. Bentley. One Christmas Eve he is at home with his wife Esme and four stepchildren, who are sharing ghost stories. When he is asked to tell a story, he becomes irritated and leaves the room, and decides to write of his horrific experiences several years in the past in the hopes that doing so will exorcise them from his memory. Many years earlier, whilst still a junior solicitor for Bentley, Kipps is summoned to Crythin Gifford, a small market town on the north east coast of England, to attend the funeral of Mrs. Alice Drablow and settle her estate. Kipps is reluctant to leave his fiancée, Stella, but eager to get away from the dreary London fog. The late Mrs. Drablow was an elderly and reclusive widow who lived alone in the desolate and secluded Eel Marsh House. The house is situated on Nine Lives Causeway. At high tide, it is completely cut off from the mainland, surrounded only by marshes and sea frets. Kipps soon realizes that there is more to Alice Drablow than he originally thought. At the funeral, he sees a woman dressed in black and with a pale face and dark eyes, whom a group of children are silently watching. While sorting through Mrs. Drablow's papers at Eel Marsh House over the course of several days, he endures an increasingly terrifying sequence of unexplained noises, chilling events and appearances by the Woman in Black. In one of these instances, he hears the sound of a horse and carriage in distress, closely followed by the screams of a young child and his maid, coming from the direction of the marshes. Most of the people in Crythin Gifford are reluctant to reveal information about Mrs. Drablow and the mysterious woman in black. Any attempt by Kipps to find out the truth causes pained and fearful reactions. From various sources, he learns that Mrs. Drablow's sister, Jennet Humfrye, gave birth to a child, Nathaniel. Because she was unmarried, she was forced to give the child to her sister. Mrs. Drablow and her husband adopted the boy, and insisted that he should never know that Jennet was his mother. The child's screams that Kipps heard were those of Nathaniel's ghost. Jennet went away for a year. When realising she could not be parted for long from her son, she made an agreement to stay at Eel Marsh House with him as long as she never revealed her true identity to him. She secretly planned to abscond from the house with her son. One day, a pony and trap carrying the boy across the causeway became lost and sank into the marshes, killing all aboard, while Jennet looked on helplessly from the window. After Jennet died, she returned to haunt Eel Marsh House and the town of Crythin Gifford, as the malevolent Woman in Black. According to local tales, a sighting of the Woman in Black presaged the death of a child. After some time (but still years before the beginning of the story), Kipps returns to London, marries Stella, has a child of his own, and tries to put the events at Crythin Gifford behind him. At a fair, while his wife and child are enjoying a pony and trap ride, Kipps sees the Woman in Black. She steps out in front of the horse and startles it, causing it to bolt and wreck the carriage against a tree, killing the child instantly and critically injuring Stella, who dies ten months later. Kipps finishes his reminiscence with the words, "They have asked for my story. I have told it. Enough." ===== Alfie Zimmer, a traveling salesman peddling gourmet frozen foods, pulls into a Motel 6 in Nebraska for the night. He settles in and pulls out a revolver, ready to commit suicide because he can't "go on living the way he had been living." Alfie has a hobby of recording strange bathroom graffiti which he has discovered on his many long, lonely travels. He starts noting down scrawls on the walls that attracted his attention, gradually becoming fascinated with them. During his solitary travels, he has come to regard these "voices on the walls" as his friends; something to think about during the long drive, something precious and important, something that "spoke" to him. Alfie decides that "a shot in the mouth is easier than any living change", but every time he puts the gun in his mouth, he worries that leaving the notebook filled with bizarre ramblings behind will make him seem insane to whoever finds his body. Alfie wants to write a book about the graffiti, even coming up with a great title, but knows "the telling would hurt". While standing in the freezing cold of the winter night, sobbing to himself, Alfie decides on a plan: if the lights of a farmhouse behind the motel reappear through the snow before he counts to 60, he will write the book. If not, he will toss the notebook into the snow, then go inside and shoot himself. The story closes with Alfie standing near the field outside the motel, starting to count, thus leaving the ending ambiguous. ===== The events of the story take place 5 years after Zone of the Enders: 2167 Idolo, the events of which are referred to as the "Deimos Affair". The first twelve episodes take place before the events of the first game (Zone of the Enders), while the rest of the series takes place after. The story centers around a space cargo transporter named James Links, his family, and their adventures in the Zone of the Enders universe. The events of the story are set in motion when James is sent a mysterious Orbital Frame called Dolores (a.k.a. ISIS) with instructions to deliver it to Earth and not to let anyone capture it. During the series, James attempts to reconnect with his adult children, Leon and Noel, as well as search for his long-lost (and reportedly dead) wife Rachel. The intelligent, well-mannered and well-meaning, but somewhat awkward and naive Dolores accompanies him as many enemies attempt to stop him, manipulate him, or capture Dolores. ===== Midvale College student Merlin Jones (Tommy Kirk), who is always involved with mind experiments, designs a helmet that connects to an electroencephalographic tape that records mental activity. He is brought before Judge Holmsby (Leon Ames) for wearing the helmet while driving and his license is suspended. Merlin returns to the lab and discovers accidentally that his new invention enables him to read minds. Judge Holmsby visits the diner where Merlin works part-time, and Merlin, through his newly found powers, learns that the judge is planning a crime. After informing the police, he is disregarded as a crackpot. Merlin and Jennifer (Annette Funicello), his girlfriend, break into Judge Holmsby's house looking for something to prove Holmsby's criminal intent but are arrested by the police. Holmsby then confesses that he is the crime book author "Lex Fortis", and asks that this identity be kept confidential. Merlin's next experiment uses hypnotism. After hypnotizing Stanley, Midvale's lab chimp, into standing up for himself against Norman (Norm Grabowski), the bully student in charge of caring for Stanley, Merlin gets into a fight with Norman, and is brought before Judge Holmsby again. Intrigued by Merlin's experiments, the judge asks for Merlin's help in constructing a mystery plot for his next book. Working on the premise that no honest person can be made to do anything they wouldn't do otherwise – especially commit a crime – Merlin hypnotizes Holmsby and instructs him to kidnap Stanley. Shocked when the judge actually commits the crime, Merlin and Jennifer return the chimp, but are charged for the theft themselves. The judge sentences Merlin to jail, completely unaware of his own role in the crime. Livid at the injustice, Jennifer persuades Holmsby of his own guilt, and the good judge admits that there might be a little dishonesty in everybody. ===== Rheinhardt, a cynical drifter, gets a job as an announcer for a conservative talk radio station, WUSA in New Orleans. Rheinhardt is content to parrot WUSA's reactionary editorial stance on the air, even if he does not agree with it. Rheinhardt finds his cynical detachment challenged by a woman he meets in a bar, Geraldine, and by Rainey, a neighbor and troubled idealist who becomes aware of WUSA's sinister, hidden purpose. And when events start spinning out of control, even Rheinhardt finds he must take a stand. Bingamon, the station's owner, is sponsoring a white-supremacist hate rally that draws a protest from black militants. Rainey attempts to assassinate Bingamon, but after he misses and accidentally wounds someone else, Rainey is attacked by the crowd and beaten to death. In the chaos, drugs end up in the possession of Geraldine, who is arrested by the police and later hangs herself in the jail cell. A disillusioned Reinhardt packs his bags and leaves town. ===== In an alleyway of the UK city of Manchester, Johnny Fletcher rapes a woman. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/aug/15/mikeleigh He then steals a car and flees for Dalston, a "scrawny, unpretentious area" in the east of London. He seeks refuge at the home of his former Manchester girlfriend Louise. Louise is not happy to see her ex. She works as a file clerk and shares a rental house with two flatmates, Sophie, a young unemployed woman, and primary tenant Sandra, a nurse who's away on holiday. Johnny immediately seduces Sophie, but soon tires of her and walks around Central London. During his walk, Johnny expounds his world-view at length to anyone who will listen, whether Archie, a young Scottish man yelling "Maggie!" at the top of his voice he comes across in Brewer Street, or Brian, a security guard planning for his future amidst acres of empty space, whom Johnny marks down as having, "the most tedious job in England".Coveney, Michael (1996). The World According to Mike Leigh, pp.19, 21, 25, 27, 29, 32-34, 65-67. HarperCollins, New York. . After pursuing and then rejecting a drunken woman after noticing a black skull and crossbones tattoo on her shoulder, Johnny is tossed out of a sublet by a young cafe worker he's followed home. He hitches a ride with a man who's hanging posters around town. The poster man, exasperated by Johnny's non-stop haranguing, kicks him several times, driving off with Johnny's duffel bag containing his clothes and books. Johnny wanders the streets and, with no provocation, is severely beaten by thugs. He manages to return to Louise's home, where he encounters Sophie and their landlord Jeremy (aka Sebastian). Jeremy has let himself in. Sophie is desperate to get Jeremy out of the house after having been raped by him. She and Louise try to keep Johnny quiet but Jeremy awakens to find Johnny, injured and having a fit. Sandra returns from her trip to Zimbabwe and tends to Johnny's injuries. Louise rids the house of Jeremy. She and Johnny have a reconciliation. Feeling desolate and rejected, Sophie flees the house with her few possessions. Louise leaves for work, promising to return and go back to Manchester with Johnny. But Johnny steals cash that Sebastian had left in the house and hobbles out into the streets. ===== Dr Steven Phillip lives in a Victorian mansion by the English Coast with three chimpanzees whom he has been doing research on to investigate the “link” between man and ape. Jane Chase is invited to his house during summer vacation as an assistant, and upon arriving, she gets greeted at the door by a chimp named Link, dressed in a butler's uniform. Philips disappears, but Jane thinks he left for London. She decides to stay with the chimps. Over time the chimps become more violent. They begin to take over the house and to get involved in inter-tribal squabbles, leading to a confrontation with Jane.. ===== In the jianghu (martial artists' community), there is a highly-coveted martial arts manual known as the "Bixie Swordplay Manual". The manual is an heirloom of the Lin family, who run the Fuwei Escort Agency, a private security service, in Fuzhou. Yu Canghai, the leader of the Qingcheng Sect, leads his followers to massacre the Lins and attempts to seize the manual but does not find it. Lin Pingzhi, the sole survivor of the Lin family, is saved by Yue Buqun, the leader of the Mount Hua Sect, which is a member of the orthodox Five Mountains Sword Sects Alliance. Yue Buqun accepts Lin Pingzhi as an apprentice and trains him in swordplay. The novel's protagonist is Yue Buqun's most senior apprentice, Linghu Chong, an orphaned, happy-go- lucky but honourable swordsman who has a penchant for alcoholic drinks and fine cuisine. He befriends the notorious bandit Tian Boguang and saves Yilin, a nun from the (North) Mount Heng Sect, from Tian's lecherous advances. In the meantime, Liu Zhengfeng of the (South) Mount Heng Sect announces his decision to leave the jianghu and invites his fellow martial artists to witness his retirement ceremony. The event turns into a bloodbath when Zuo Lengshan, the chief of the Mount Song Sect, and the other sword sects accuse Liu Zhengfeng of being unfaithful to their alliance by befriending Qu Yang, an elder of the "evil" Sun Moon Holy Cult. Liu Zhengfeng and Qu Yang are cornered by Zuo Lengshan and his men and eventually commit suicide. Before dying, Liu Zhengfeng and Qu Yang give Linghu Chong the score of Xiaoao Jianghu, a musical piece they composed together. Lin Pingzhi's entrance into the Mount Hua Sect causes Linghu Chong to lose his romantic feelings for Yue Lingshan, Yue Buqun's daughter, because she starts falling in love with Lin Pingzhi. Linghu Chong's association with unorthodox jianghu figures leads him into trouble; Yue Buqun punishes him by making him stay alone for a year in a secluded area on Mount Hua to reflect on his "misdeeds". He discovers carvings of swordplay techniques in a cave, practises them, and unknowingly familiarises himself with not only the skills of the other four sword sects, but also the counter- moves. He encounters Feng Qingyang, an elderly Mount Hua Sect swordsman, who teaches him the powerful skill "Nine Swords of Dugu". The self-proclaimed righteous Five Mountains Sword Sects Alliance, though seemingly united, is constantly troubled by politicking among its members. Linghu Chong gets entangled in the internal conflict and ends up seriously injured while using his newly mastered skill to save his Mount Hua Sect fellows from attacks by Mount Song Sect members in disguise. Before long, the other sword sects accuse Linghu Chong of stealing the "Bixie Swordplay Manual", while Yue Buqun becomes suspicious of his apprentice and jealous of his sudden leap in swordplay prowess. Linghu Chong meets the "Six Immortals of the Peach Valley", who attempt to cure his wounds in their weird fashion, but they fail and aggravate his injuries instead. He follows Yue Buqun and the others to Luoyang, where he encounters Ren Yingying of the Sun Moon Holy Cult and several jianghu lowlifes, who are friendly towards him and try to heal him. By then, Yue Buqun has grown tired of Linghu Chong's frequent associations with jianghu lowlifes so he abandons him. Linghu Chong helps Ren Yingying after she is assaulted by enemies of the Sun Moon Holy Cult. She brings him to Shaolin Monastery to recuperate from his injuries. He learns from Fangzheng, the Shaolin abbot, that Yue Buqun has publicly announced that he has expelled Linghu Chong from the Mount Hua Sect. Linghu Chong sinks into despair as he is now an outcast of the orthodox side of the jianghu. After leaving Shaolin, he meets a stranger, Xiang Wentian, whom he saves from dozens of enemies. Xiang Wentian becomes sworn brothers with Linghu Chong and brings him to a manor in Hangzhou, where they find Ren Woxing (Ren Yingying's father), the former leader of the Sun Moon Holy Cult who was ousted from power by his deputy, Dongfang Bubai. Ren Woxing breaks out of captivity by knocking out Linghu Chong and using him as a decoy. While trapped inside the dungeon, Linghu Chong discovers carvings of Ren Woxing's infamous "Cosmic Absorbing Power" and learns the skill by chance. Ren Woxing returns to save Linghu Chong later and tries to persuade him to join the Sun Moon Holy Cult by offering him Ren Yingying's hand in marriage. Linghu Chong declines to join, but still helps Ren Woxing defeat Dongfang Bubai and regain control of the cult. Linghu Chong becomes the new head of the (North) Mount Heng Sect, whose members are all nuns, after he unsuccessfully tries to save its leaders from masked assassins. He attends a special assembly of the Five Mountains Sword Sects Alliance called for by its chief, Zuo Lengshan. Zuo Lengshan attempts to coerce the other four sects into completely submitting to his leadership. However, he is defeated and blinded by Yue Buqun, who uses the Bixie Swordplay against him. Yue Buqun becomes the new leader of the alliance. After leaving the assembly, Linghu Chong and Ren Yingying see Lin Pingzhi brutally slaying members of the Qingcheng Sect to avenge his family, and overhear a conversation between him and his wife, Yue Lingshan. Lin Pingzhi reveals that both he and Yue Buqun have mastered the Bixie Swordplay, which is unorthodox in practice because they need to castrate themselves to fulfil the prerequisite for learning it. Linghu Chong also learns that Yue Buqun, his respectable former master, is actually a villainous hypocrite who plotted an elaborate scheme against Lin Pingzhi to seize the swordplay manual in the hope of dominating the jianghu. Yue Buqun's wife and daughter die because of their respective husbands. Yue Buqun schemes to kill Lin Pingzhi, who knows his secret and seeks to silence him. Linghu Chong, despite his reluctance to be enemies with his former master, ultimately chooses to stop him in order to foil his machinations for the sake of the innocent. The finale climaxes with the members of the Five Mountains Sword Sects Alliance being trapped in the cave on Mount Hua owing to Yue Buqun's treachery. The sword sects slaughter each other out of paranoia and distrust, ultimately leads to the alliance's dissolution. Linghu Chong paralyses Lin Pingzhi while Yue Buqun is killed by Yilin when fighting Linghu Chong during the frenzy. After the collapse of the sword sects alliance, Ren Woxing plans an attack on the scattered and fragmented orthodox sects to unite the jianghu under the control of his "evil" Sun Moon Holy Cult. He tries to force Linghu Chong to join his side, but dies at a crucial moment from a stroke triggered by his own megalomania. Ren Yingying becomes the new leader of the Sun Moon Holy Cult and successfully negotiates a truce between the orthodox and "evil" sides of the jianghu. Three years later, she passes the leadership to Xiang Wentian and marries Linghu Chong. Disillusioned by all the strife caused by power struggles, Linghu Chong and Ren Yingying retire from the jianghu and live happily ever after. ===== Two students – Falk and Lind – are staying at the country house of Mrs. Halm, romancing her two daughters Anna and Svanhild. Lind has ambitions to be a missionary, Falk a great poet. Falk criticises bourgeois society in his verse and insists that we live in the passionate moment. Lind’s proposal of marriage to Anna is accepted, but Svanhild rejects the chance to become Falk’s muse, as poetry is merely writing, and he can do that on his own and without really risking himself for his beliefs. Falk is liberated by his words and decides to put ideas into action. When Lind is persuaded by Anna’s friends not to leave as a missionary but stay in a cosy existence looking after his wife, Falk denounces the lot of them – saying that their marriages have nothing to do with love. Society is outraged and does not wish to be reminded of the split between ideal and reality. Falk is ostracized but Svanhild admires his courage. They plan to run off together and live the ideal. The pastor Strawman and the clerk Styver attempt to persuade Falk from his course but the demands of respectability and security cannot assuage him. Finally, the rich businessman Guldstad asks whether their relationship can survive the waning of the first flush of love. Falk and Svanhild admit that it cannot and Svanhild accepts Guldstad’s proposal of a safe, financially secure marriage rather than sully the experience of her love for Falk by seeing it die. Falk leaves to write songs which celebrate an untainted love and Svanhild sits gloomily amongst the world of convention – a housewife who once had passion and now lives on its memory. Illustration to Love's Comedy. Tyrihans No. 22. Friday 31 May 1895. ===== The plot is conveyed through mail or notes sent between various characters. The book is "progressively lipogrammatic"—as the story proceeds, more and more letters of the alphabet are excluded from the characters' writing. As letters disappear, the novel becomes more and more phonetically or creatively spelled, and requires more effort to interpret. The novel is set on the fictitious island of Nollop, off the coast of South Carolina, which is home to Nevin Nollop, the supposed creator of the well- known pangram, "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." This sentence is preserved on a memorial statue to its creator on the island and is taken very seriously by the government of the island. Throughout the book, tiles containing the letters fall from the inscription beneath the statue, and as each one does, the island's government bans the contained letter's use from written or spoken communication. A penalty system is enforced for using the forbidden characters, with public censure for a first offence, lashing or stocks (violator's choice) upon a second offence and banishment from the island nation upon the third. By the end of the novel, most of the island's inhabitants have either been banished or have left of their own accord. The island's high council becomes more and more nonsensical as time progresses and the alphabet diminishes, promoting Nollop to a divine status. Uncompromising in their enforcement of Nollop's "divine will", they offer only one hope to the frustrated islanders: to disprove Nollop's omniscience by finding a pangram of 32 letters (in contrast to Nollop's 35). With this goal in mind "Enterprise 32" is started, a project involving many of the novel's main characters. With but five characters left (L, M, N, O, and P), the elusive phrase is eventually discovered by Ella in one of her father's earlier letters: "Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs," which has only 32 letters. The council accepts this and restores the right to all 26 letters to the populace. ===== ===== The book tells the story of a woman who returns to her hometown in Canada to find her missing father. Accompanied by her lover, Joe, and a married couple, Anna and David, the unnamed protagonist meets her past in her childhood house, recalling events and feelings, while trying to find clues to her father's mysterious disappearance. Little by little, the past overtakes her and drives her into the realm of wildness and madness. ===== In New York City in the early 1980s, a black gay philosophy graduate student, John Marr, is researching a dissertation on Timothy Hasler, a Korean-American philosopher and academic stabbed to death under unexplained circumstances outside a gay bar in 1973. As details emerge, Marr finds his lifestyle converging with that of Hasler, and he becomes increasingly involved in intense sexual encounters with homeless men, despite his growing awareness of the risks of HIV. In the course of unravelling the mystery of Hasler's death, Marr joins with a homeless man from West Virginia, who goes by the street name "Leaky." Scenes based on letters Delany actually wrote (see: 1984: Selected Letters) take place in a gay bar in New York, though the basic incident is fictional. ===== In early 1960, Frank Morris (Clint Eastwood), a prisoner with an exceptional I.Q. who has absconded from other facilities, arrives at the maximum security prison on Alcatraz Island. Soon after arriving, he is summoned to the office of the warden (Patrick McGoohan), who curtly informs him that Alcatraz is unique within the U.S. prison system for its exceedingly high level of security and that no inmate has ever successfully escaped. During the conversation, the warden fails to notice Morris steal one of the nail clippers on the desk. Over the next several days, Morris makes acquaintances with a few inmates, including the eccentric Litmus (Frank Ronzio), who is fond of desserts, English (Paul Benjamin), a black inmate serving two life sentences for killing two white men in self-defense, and the elderly Doc (Roberts Blossom), who paints portraits and once grew chrysanthemums at Alcatraz. Morris also makes an enemy of a rapist called Wolf (Bruce M. Fischer), who tries to harass him in the showers and later attacks him in the prison yard with a knife. Both men are imprisoned in isolation in the hole. Morris is released while Wolf stays. When the warden discovers that Doc has painted an ungainly caricature of him, as well as other policemen on the island itself, he permanently removes Doc's painting privileges. In response, a depressed Doc hacks off his own fingers with a hatchet from the prison workshop and is led away. Later, Morris encounters bank robber brothers John and Clarence Anglin (Fred Ward and Jack Thibeau), who are his old friends from another prison sentence, and he makes the acquaintance of prisoner Charley Butts (Larry Hankin). Morris notices that the concrete around the grille in his cell is weak and can be chipped away, which evolves into an escape plan. Over the next few months, Morris, the Anglins, and Butts dig through the walls of their cells with spoons (which have been soldered into makeshift shovels), make papier-mâché dummies to act as decoys, and construct a raft out of raincoats. Later, during mealtime, Morris places a chrysanthemum at the table in honor of Doc, but the warden stops by and crushes it, causing a provoked and angry Litmus to suffer a heart attack. Later, the warden requests a shakedown of Morris's cell and finds nothing unusual. However, he issues orders for Morris to be relocated to a different cell as soon as possible. Wolf has been released from solitary confinement and prepares to attack Morris again, but English is able to intercept him, with English implying that his gang will beat up Wolf. That night, the inmates decide to leave. Morris, the Anglins and Butts plan to meet in the passageway and escape. Butts loses his nerve and fails to rendezvous with them. He later changes his mind but is too late and returns to his cell where he sulks over his missed opportunity. Carrying the flotation gear, Morris and the Anglins access the roof and avoid the searchlights. From there, they scramble down the side of the building into the prison yard, climb over a barbed-wire fence, and make their way to the shoreline of the island, where they inflate the raft. The three men depart from Alcatraz, partially submerged in the water, clinging to the raft and using their legs as the primary propelling force. The following morning, the escape is discovered and a massive manhunt ensues. Shreds of raincoat material, including personal effects of the men are found floating in the bay. While searching on Angel Island, the warden stubbornly insists that the men's personal effects were important, and the men would have drowned before leaving them behind. However, another guard has his doubts, suggesting that the convicts got rid of them on the pretense that they drowned. The warden is informed by his aide that he has been summoned to go to Washington to face his superiors, with the prospect of being forced to accept early retirement for having failed to prevent the breakout. On a rock, the warden finds a chrysanthemum and is told by his aide that none grow on Angel Island. The film closes with an inserted text narrative telling that the fugitives were never found, and that Alcatraz was closed less than a year later. ===== Devil May Cry 2 begins with Lucia and Dante separately entering a museum where an important item called the Medaglia is stored. After defeating a group of demons in the museum, Lucia invites Dante to follow her to the Dumary Island, where he is introduced to Matier, her mother. Matier explains that she once fought alongside Dante's father, Sparda, to defend the island against demons. She asks Dante to help fight Arius, an international businessman who is using demonic power in an effort to conquer the world.Matier: Son of Sparda... we must ask this favor, of you... You see, there's a man who's transformed our land into a demon's paradise; his name is Arius. And although he is the president, of an international public corporation... he uses the demon power. Please, deal with Arius and his master for us. (Devil May Cry 2) Capcom, 2003 Dante flips a coin in answer, and decides to help when the coin lands on heads.(After flipping a coin and noticing the result is heads.) Dante: ...Looks like it's your lucky day. (Devil May Cry 2) Capcom, 2003 After Dante leaves, Matier and Lucia discuss the Arcana, the items required for Arius to raise the demon Argosax. Lucia eventually confronts Arius, who reveals that she was his creation.Arius: You are my creation. Lucia: Liar! Matier is my mother. Arius' secretary removes her mask, revealing the fact her face is identical to Lucia's. Arius: She merely found you when you were about to be disposed of, and then raised you as a soldier. Is that what you consider to be a mother? (Devil May Cry 2) Capcom, 2003 When she moves to strike him, he uses his magic to blast her away. Shortly afterward, Dante meets up with Lucia, who gives him the last of the Arcana before leaving.Lucia: But... actually... I do not deserve this power... Lucia: Bring this to Matier for me... please... I... I've got something that I need to take care of... (Devil May Cry 2) Capcom, 2003 Dante then encounters Matier and tries to pass the Arcana to her. Matier, in turn, asks Dante to take the Arcana to save Lucia, who has gone to fight Arius again.Matier: There is one more thing I need to ask of you, son of Sparda. My daughter went to face Arius all by herself... Please, take these, and save Lucia. (Devil May Cry 2) Capcom, 2003 Dante flips the coin again to decide if he will help; it lands on heads, and he departs to aid Lucia.Dante: ...If it's Heads. The coin lands, heads face up. Dante: ...Your lucky streak continues, granny. (Devil May Cry 2) Capcom, 2003 Meanwhile, Lucia enters the Uroboros tower and attacks Arius, who captures her. Dante arrives and trades the Arcana for Lucia, then attacks Arius. To escape, Arius forces Dante to decide between saving Lucia or killing him.Arius: You cannot win... someone is holding you back... Lucia: Ugh, forget about me! Kill Arius! Dante: Don't worry. I've got you... (Devil May Cry 2) Capcom, 2003 Lucia, worried about the ritual and conflicted about herself, wonders how they will stop Arius. Dante waves her off, stating he will find a way.Lucia: Why did you save me? I was created... by him... Dante: Every hero has a weakness. Lucia: But, the ritual was activated because of me... (Devil May Cry 2) Capcom, 2003 Dante leaves Lucia to think as he departs to defeat Arius. Matier arrives a short time later, sets Lucia's mind at ease, and persuades her to rejoin the fight against Arius.Lucia: Mother... Matier: Yes, it is true that we are not tied by blood. But our ties are bound by history and experience, which is much deeper than blood. Now go; everything I know, I have passed on to you. You are my daughter... Lucia: Thank you... mother... (Devil May Cry 2) Capcom, 2003 Dante arrives at the tower to find Arius in the middle of his immortality-inducing ritual. However, Dante is not worried as he switched one of the Arcana with a false coin.Arius: *laughing* Now, I'll absorb his power. I will become an all-powerful immortal! Arius: Wh...what?! Wh-what's going on?! Dante Is there a problem? Arius: You!! (Devil May Cry 2) Capcom, 2003 Another fight ensues, in which Dante finishes Arius off with his pistols. Outside, Lucia confronts Dante and demands that he kill her because she fears she will become a demon herself.Lucia: I was created by Arius! I could become a monster and attack the humans at any time! Now, kill me! It's your job to hunt devils... (Devil May Cry 2) Capcom, 2003 Before the issue can be resolved, a large stream of energy strikes the tower and a portal to the demon world is opened. Dante and Lucia argue over who will enter and close it from the inside; Dante offers to leave the issue up to fate. He flips the coin and it once again lands on heads, leaving Dante to enter the portal to deal with the partially summoned Argosax, after leaving the coin with Lucia.Lucia: But...! Dante: Let's leave it to fate. Heads, I go; Tails, you go. He flips the coin and it lands as heads again Dante:See ya around. Lucia: Don't you want to hear the story about Sparda from... Matier? Dante: I know... He did the same thing... Hold on to my coin, Lucia. (Devil May Cry 2) Capcom, 2003 After Dante departs, Arius returns to life bearing demonic power.Lucia: Arius?! Lucia: It seems I have to finish him off myself. (Devil May Cry 2) Capcom, 2003 While Lucia fights Arius, he finds himself injured and attempts to distract her, a tactic which fails, and Lucia goes on to defeat him.Arius: You are not human! You are just a monster... a monster that I created! Lucia: Dante told me... Devils never cry! (Devil May Cry 2) Capcom, 2003 Within the portal, Dante fights and defeats Argosax. Finding the portal closed behind him, Dante instead drives further into the demon realm on a motorcycle. In the aftermath of the battle, Matier attempts to reassure Lucia about Dante's fate, insisting that Sparda returned from a similar trip. Lucia examines the coin Dante left with her and discovers that both sides are identical.Matier: You must not worry, my dear; I am sure that he will return. Everything is just as it was with Sparda. Lucia: Oh my...! Matier: What is it, my dear? Lucia: Both sides are Heads! He tricked me! That macho... (Devil May Cry 2) Capcom, 2003 Sometime later, in Dante's shop, Lucia muses about Dante. Outside the sound of a motorcycle echoes, and Lucia leaves to investigate. The player is not shown if Dante has returned. ===== The film tells the story of Captain Hugh "Bulldog" Drummond (John Howard), a British officer who, while on a drive with his friend Algy Longworth (Reginald Denny) and valet Tenny (E.E. Clive), is the first to discover a mysterious suitcase that is parachuted from an aircraft above, minutes before the plane crashes. The case is found to contain the highly explosive chemical hexanite, the plans for which have been stolen. Despite the urging of his fiancee Phyllis Claverling, Drummond is dragged into the mystery surrounding the whole affair, traveling by both train and ship to recover the formula. ===== Sons of Fortune talks about twin brothers who got parted in a cinematic consequence and grown up without knowing the existence of each other. In late 1940s in Hartford, Connecticut a set of twins who are separated at birth by a millionaire couple's nurse, after the millionaire couple's child - born the same day - dies of cot death in the hospital and she secretly switches Peter for the dead Fletcher Davenport. Nat Cartwright goes to home with his parents, a school teacher and an insurance salesman. But his twin brother is to begin days as Fletcher Andrew Davenport (according to chapter 2), the only son of a multi millionaire and his society wife. During the years that follow, the two brothers grow up unaware of each other’s existence. Even when Nat and Fletcher fall in love with same girl, Diane, they still don’t meet but continue on their separate paths, owing to the efforts taken by the multi-millionaire's nurse. Both complete their graduation. Nat leaves the college at the University of Connecticut to serve in the Vietnam War. He returns a war hero, having received the Medal of Honor for his actions in Vietnam, finishes school and becomes a successful currency banker. Fletcher, meanwhile, has graduated from Yale University and distinguishes himself as a criminal defense lawyer, before he is elected as a state senator for the Democratic Party. They know of each other by reputation. Cartwright marries a Korean computer whiz, Su Ling, an illegal immigrant, whom he meets in college. Fletcher marries his best friend's sister Annie, whom he falls in love with at first sight when they are in their teens. During the years, both men find themselves opposed by the machinations of the untrustworthy Ralph Elliot, who went to school with Nat, slept with his girlfriend and is his personal nemesis. Although their lives (common acquaintances and enemies, Fletcher saving the life of Nat's son during a school hostage situation) are interconnected, they never meet. However, their paths finally cross when they both decide to run for governor of Connecticut and Fletcher agrees to defend Nat on the charge of murdering his Republican primary opponent Ralph Elliot for leaking information about his wife and mother-in-law that leads to the suicide of his only child. Family members comment on similarities between the two, but no one ever connects the dots, until the end, because, after all, they are not identical twins. The truth is revealed to them when a potentially fatal car accident by Fletcher reveals that they share the same rare blood type. Nat donates his blood to save Fletcher. As Fletcher was hospitalized in the clinic where he was born, the attending doctor then finds secret documents which reveals that the obstetrician had the suspicions that the twins were switched at birth. In yet another plot twist, the twins choose to keep the blood link a secret. However, their wives guess this on the day of the election and mutually agree to keep it a secret. Knowing all this, they both still run for governor of Connecticut in 1992. On election day, after several rounds of counting the votes the result is still tied. The winner was ultimately appointed by the toss of a coin. After the toss, when both men stand to the left and right of the mayor to represent their parties, the mayor turns to his right to congratulate the new governor. Through clues in the book regarding their place alongside the mayor and who called heads, one can deduct that the winner is Fletcher. In the end, Fletcher definitely wins and becomes the governor as before the toss, Fletcher was to the left of the mayor. After the toss, the mayor picks up the coin and "turned" and then congratulated the man who was now to his right (Fletcher). Also Fletcher always said heads, so at that time too he must be the one who said heads. Jeffrey Archer also confirmed in Twitter that it was Fletcher. Chapter 31 starts by saying Fletcher always liked to call heads. Several aspects of the plot, as well as specific incidents such as the toss of the coin, also occur in a previous book he wrote - First Among Equals, which is a power struggle between four politicians for the prime ministership of the UK. ===== The show focuses on Mona, a three-year-old girl with a big imagination and a tendency to repeat short words or phrases while also pronouncing them incorrectly. Each episode begins with Mona's mother dropping her daughter off at Nana's house and ends with her picking Mona up. Mona, Nana, and Nana's pet dog Russell spend the day exploring, learning, and visiting Nana's next-door neighbour Mr. Wooka. ===== The story opens in Reno, Nevada, where Helen Brent (Claire Trevor) is leaving the courthouse after getting a divorce. To celebrate her new-found freedom, that evening she goes to a casino and at the craps table she makes eye contact with a man who, though she does not know him yet, is Sam Wilde (Lawrence Tierney). Helen soon sees at the casino Laury Palmer (Isabel Jewell), a young woman who lives next to the boardinghouse where Helen has been staying while awaiting her divorce. Laury is also Sam's girlfriend, but she is on a date with another man, Danny (Tony Barrett). When Sam sees his girlfriend with Danny, he is obviously furious about someone "cutting in on him", although he does not confront her and her male companion. Instead, the insanely jealous Sam goes immediately to Laury’s house, where he waits in her kitchen to exact his revenge when she and her date return. After the couple arrives at the house, Sam murders Danny and then Laury. Later, as Helen is approaching her boardinghouse, she finds Laury's dog wandering outside near the street. Helen takes the dog back to Laury's home and discovers the two corpses. Helen starts to call the police but decides instead not to get involved since she is planning to leave Reno the next day and travel by train to San Francisco. Meanwhile, Sam's friend Marty (Elisha Cook Jr.) tells him to get out of town, while Marty will stay behind and monitor the murder investigation. When Helen arrives at the train station, Sam is there too, and he follows her onto a Pullman car. A porter tells them there is no more room on that part of the train, but Sam ignores him and they go to the club car even though it is closed for the night. Helen, who views herself as "rotten inside", is instantly attracted to Sam's self-confidence and aggressive manner, but she is engaged to marry a wealthy boyfriend, Fred (Phillip Terry), in San Francisco. Sam wants to call on her there. Later, when he arrives at Helen's impressive residence unexpectedly and meets Fred as well as Helen's very rich foster sister, Georgia Staples (Audrey Long), who actually owns the home. Sam soon shifts his attention to Georgia and, after a whirlwind romance, marries her for her money. Helen sees this clearly, but neither this, nor Helen's engagement, nor Sam's realization that Helen has learned the truth about the murders, is an impediment to their having an affair. Meanwhile, back in Reno, Mrs Kraft, the owner of the boarding house where Helen lived, has hired a mercenary, verse-quoting detective, Albert Arnett (Walter Slezak), to find out who killed Laury. The detective notices Marty attending Laury's funeral and otherwise acting suspiciously, and follows him to San Francisco. Marty attends Sam's wedding; Arnett invites himself into the kitchen, where he begins asking the staff questions about Sam. Helen speaks to Arnett, who will not reveal who hired him but suggests that Sam is responsible for the Reno murders. On the phone, Sam overhears Helen making a call to Arnett and begins to suspect she is "against him." Arnett and Helen discuss her paying him to keep quiet Sam's involvement in the murders; when she gets home, Sam confronts her. She tells him about the detective and insists she believes nothing of the accusations. Marty is there during this conversation, so he learns who hired Arnett. Marty meets with Mrs Kraft and convinces her to meet him in an isolated area that night, where he will reveal to her information regarding Laury's murder. He intends to murder the woman, as he and Sam have apparently decided this is the best course of action. Before he leaves to carry out this plan, Marty calls on Helen in her room to suggest that she should end her affair with Sam. Sam sees Marty coming out of Helen's room; later, as Marty is attempting to murder Mrs Kraft, Sam shows up. He believes Marty is trying to cut in on his action with Helen, and kills him. For a while, Fred has been troubled by Helen's increasingly cold demeanour, "especially since Sam came into this house." Despite Helen's pleas, Fred calls off their engagement. Arnett makes one last attempt to blackmail Helen and, upon her refusal, informs her that the police will be there in an hour. Helen confesses all to Georgia. When Sam arrives, she tries to manipulate him into killing Georgia, but the police arrive. Georgia remarks that it was Helen who called them, so Sam turns his murderous rage on her. He fatally shoots her before he is slain by police. ===== Bank teller Vince Grayson (DeForest Kelley) dreams that he stabs a man in an octagonal room of mirrors and locks the body in a closet. When he wakes up, he discovers marks on his throat, a strange key and a button in his pocket, and blood on his cuff. Cliff Herlihy (Paul Kelly), his police officer brother-in-law, tries to convince him it was just a dream. A few days later, while trying to find cover from the rain, the pair finds themselves taking shelter in the strange house from Vince's dream. They discover that the police found two bodies in the house, one in the mirrored room and one run over in the driveway. Mrs. Belknap, who was run over by a car, gave the police a description matching Vince before she died. At first Vince is hopeful that he is innocent because he does not know how to drive, but he recognizes the victims from his dream. Overcome with remorse, he attempts suicide, but is rescued by Cliff. The detective uncovers clues that point to an evil hypnotist (Robert Emmett Keane) manipulating Vince. They realize that the hypnotist is actually Mr. Belknap in disguise and try to trap him by pretending that Vince wants hush money. Belknap puts Vince under hypnosis and tries to get him to drown himself. Cliff rescues him from the lake and Mr. Belknap is killed in a car accident as he is trying to evade the police. It is implied that Vince will be acquitted of all charges since he killed the man in the mirrored room in self-defense. ===== Walter "Tex" Warner (Wendell Corey), a seasoned country and western bandleader past his prime, and his manager and love interest, Glenda Markle (Lizabeth Scott), work for the campaign of Texas gubernatorial candidate Jim Tallman. During a campaign stop in the town of Delville, Deke Rivers (Elvis Presley) and a workmate deliver an order of beer. While they are unloading, the workmate talks to Glenda about Deke's singing ability, which Glenda jumps on to revive the sagging interest in the event by using local talent. She convinces Deke to sing a song with the backing of Tex's Rough Ridin' Ramblers. Seeing the positive reception by the female audience, Glenda tries to convince Deke to join the Tex Warner Show. Driving in Deke's hotrod, she tells him about his potential. Not willing to leave his first steady job in a year, he rejects the offer, but Glenda asks him to think about it. Upon returning to town, Glenda calls the Highway Beverage Company, after which she and Tex quit the Tallman campaign to return to their own roadshow. The following morning, as the group is leaving town, Deke accepts Glenda's offer, after being fired by his employer because of a false complaint to the drinks company by Glenda regarding a fictitious late delivery. Glenda just happens to have prepared a contract, which grants her half of his income. With Tex headlining, they start touring throughout Texas, along two other acts: Susan "Susie" Jessup (Dolores Hart) and a singing trio. As Deke's popularity grows, Glenda devises publicity stunts to leverage it. At one show, she pays two aged woman to criticize him. When they start to argue with young fans, Glenda has a press photographer document the incident. As the tour progresses, Deke and Susan become interested in one another. After playing small venues, the group is hired to play in a large Amarillo theater on a four-day run. Convinced that it is his ticket to regain fame, Tex accepts Glenda's suggestion to share the bill with Deke, after which she calls reporters of The Dallas Chronicle to write a story on Deke. Later that night, Deke is provoked at a restaurant by the boyfriend of one of his fans, who wants to hear him sing a song. After singing to a tune from the jukebox, he starts a fight with him. He is later exonerated by the police. 225px After the end of the four day engagement, Deke's management is offered a one-man show in Freegate, Texas, outside of Dallas. Due to the terms of the contract, Tex fires Susan and the singing trio, leaving only Deke in the show. Before he has to begin his new tour, Deke drives Susan to her family's farm. Meanwhile, in another publicity move, Glenda convinces Tex to buy an Imperial against his life insurance for Deke, inventing a story to tell Deke that it was a gift from the widow of an oil magnate. Back on the farm, Deke and Susan talk, where she tells him about being fired, after which they are about to kiss, when they are interrupted by her parents, who ask him to sing the song he promised. After Deke sings "Loving You", a surprised Susan remarks that she never heard him sing that way; Deke admits that he never felt that way before. Glenda arrives at the farm with the Imperial, and urges him to leave with her for Freegate to do the show. On their way back, Deke confesses to Glenda that his real surname is Tompkins. Deciding to disclose his past, they drive to Allen City, to the Woodbine cemetery, where he shows her the Tomb of Deke Rivers. He explains that when the orphanage he lived in burned down eleven years earlier, he decided to bury his past, and took Rivers' name. Meanwhile, in Freegate, the concert is cancelled by the Mayor's office, after they received complaints from parents about Deke's music. Glenda arranges a studio telecast of a concert from Freegate in order to gain publicity; this enables her to convince the town board to allow him to perform. Deke, unhappy, is considering leaving the entertainment business. When Glenda finds out, she talks him into performing, after which they kiss. 225px On the day of the telecast, Deke is shocked after learning that Tex was married to (and later divorced from) Glenda. Disillusioned, he drives off before the show. When Glenda finds out about it from Tex, she goes after Deke, finding him after he was run off the road by crossing cattle. Glenda confesses everything to him: getting him fired and lying about the Imperial, after which she tears up their contract, before convincing him to return for the broadcast. While the concert is delayed, fans are filmed by local newscasters defending Deke's music. Eventually, an upset Susan arrives to reveal that Deke will not appear on the show. However, Deke does appear shortly after, declaring that he had "something very important to say to somebody", and starts the show by singing "Loving You". As the song ends, Susan goes onstage with him, after which they meet Tex and Glenda backstage. Deke offers to let them both manage him, as he is offered a recording contract. Tex and Glenda reconcile; meanwhile, Deke and Susan kiss. ===== Casey Stuart, is a tomboy who’s the running back of her school's 7th-grade football team. Since her mother died, she has been avoiding her old friends and arguing with a boy on her team. Wanting to bring her mother back to life, Casey finds a book of magic with a section on resurrecting the dead at a local book store. A successful resurrection will become permanent unless it’s undone before sunset on the fourth day after it begins. However, since the book was expensive, she left all the money she had on the shelf in a glass compartment which is where the book was. Following the book's instructions, Casey collects artifacts from her mother's life, including strands of hair in her hairbrush. However, the resurrection is unwittingly sabotaged when Drew Mitchell, a woman who works with and is romantically interested in Casey's father Ben, gives Casey an Eve doll. Eve is a plastic doll in the form of a beautiful young woman, manufactured by Marathon Toys. She has many accessories, including outfits appropriate to challenging careers such as law enforcement, medicine and outer space, and lives in Sunnyvale, "in the middle of America". As Casey is preparing to resurrect her mother, Drew stops by to give her the doll for her birthday and uses the hairbrush to brush the doll's hair. With strands from the doll remaining on the brush as Casey utters the incantation, the magic acts on the doll rather than Casey's mother, and Casey wakes up the next morning to find Eve in bed with her in full-size human form. Casey is upset by this, but Eve is excited about being human. Over the next few days, Eve buys clothes at the local shopping mall, uses her police training to stop a truck that almost runs Casey over, smells and eats for the first time, tries to do secretarial work, sings her theme song, and almost sets the Stuarts' kitchen on fire. She also helps Casey cope with the loss of her mother. Meanwhile, Casey discovers that she needs the second volume of the magic book to reverse Eve's spell. During this time, tension builds between Casey and her father, who has been missing her football games while trying to secure a promotion in his law firm. The tension is further increased by Ben's attraction to Eve, which Casey resents as a betrayal of her mother. Eve helps people turn into a better version of themselves. As the film proceeds, Casey and Eve gradually become friends. Eve displays insight and sensitivity in talking with Casey about her mother, and she helps Casey with her self-confidence. In exchange, Casey gives Eve tips on how to be a popular doll and a good role model. By the time the magic book arrives at the local bookstore, Casey has decided she likes Eve, so she doesn't buy it. Unfortunately, Eve has been getting homesick. Discouraged by her difficulties in being human and worried about being discontinued by Marathon, Eve decides to undo the spell herself. After buying the book and saying good-bye to Ben at Casey's championship game, she goes to Sunnyvale, a specially decorated room at Marathon headquarters, and recites the incantation. When Casey and Ben arrive, she tearfully bids them farewell and turns back into a doll. Sometime later, with the lessons learned from her experiences in the human world, she becomes a popular toy again. Casey resumes her old friendships, Ben is promoted at work and Drew takes him to lunch. The film ends with the cast dances to Eve's theme song. ===== Described as "a liberal adaptation of Mrs. Shelley's famous story", the film's plot description in a 1910 issue of the studio's trade periodical Edison Kinetogram provides considerable detail about the company's screen adaptation: ===== The sisters obtain magical powers by drinking tea made from the 'High T-Plant'. They are incapable of brewing it properly, requiring an assistant (T-shirt) to do it for them. In return, T-Bag shares her magical powers with T-shirt (Thomas Shirt), played by John Hasler. He started as a small child and grew until he towered above Hale by the series end in 1992. T-shirt is presented as T-Bag's constant companion, part harassed surrogate son, part household servant. T-Bag and T-shirt's magical powers mostly consist of conjuring objects out of thin air when needed, sending objects elsewhere and teleporting across time and space. T-Bag triggers her teleport ability by clicking her fingers. T-shirt finds finger clicking too difficult and blinks instead. Although T-shirt was T-Bag's assistant, he did not share in her evil ways, and though sometimes he appeared to be faithfully serving T-Bag, he was overall a hero, not a villain, and would ultimately side with the child heroine of the story. Each season (apart from the last) followed a similar format, T-Bag (after reuniting with T-shirt, either through grovelling or putting him under her power) would attempt to increase her power and there would only be one thing that could stop her. The components that made the item work would be scattered across time and space, and the girl of the series was required to travel and collect them all before T-Bag could get her hands on any of them. Debbie Carter, played by Jennie Stallwood, was the heroine of the first three seasons. Diana Barrand took over for the fourth as child television presenter Holly Anna Jones. Kellie Bright, who later appeared in The Upper Hand, The Archers and EastEnders, played Sally Simpkins in series five and six, plus a Christmas special. In T-Bag and the Rings of Olympus, the heroine is the Goddess Athena's handmaiden, Polyzena, or Polly, played by Natalie Wood. In T-Bag and the Sunstones of Montezuma, archaeologist's daughter, heroine Penny Hunt was played by Evelyn Sweeney. Typically, each episode also features two non- regular cast members to enliven the story. Each episode has a different setting in which a magical item is hidden. These are often historical settings or settings from folklore or literature, such as ancient Egypt, ancient Rome, Renaissance Italy and Elizabethan England, Tom Sawyer's American South, Robin Hood's Sherwood Forest or a French Foreign Legion station in North Africa which owes something to Beau Geste. Historical figures such as Napoleon, Leonardo da Vinci or Queen Elizabeth I make guest appearances. Each episode would usually contain two guests stars (an exception to this was Wonders in Letterland, as Jim Norton appeared in each episode playing a different role), with an anchor character who appeared in the first and last episode to send the girl on her quest. Towards the end of each series, T-Bag and T-shirt would inevitably have a huge argument and she would take his magic from him (except in Turn on to T-Bag, which turned out to be her downfall) before kicking him out. He would then team up with the girl, and the final episode would usually show T-Bag stealing the collected items back and being within striking distance of victory only to be thwarted at the last second and apparently destroyed, although this was usually temporary. Tallulah Bag (Estensen) was finally destroyed for good in the last episode of T-Bag and the Revenge of the T-Set and replaced by her sister Tabatha Bag. Although their roles as the villain remained the same, with T-shirt still by her side, the two characters were quite different. Whereas Tallulah would attempt to keep calm and composed often in attempts to impress people, Tabatha was prone to being over-dramatic and lost her temper. The departure of Tallulah and arrival of Tabatha also caused a role reversal in regards to T-shirt, as he became more competent and level-headed against her silliness and tendency to rush into situations (to the point that, in Pearls of Wisdom he was able to successfully deliver one of the titular pearls to T-Bag on two separate occasions only for her to immediately lose it both times - not that it stopped her inevitably blaming him for her failure). One common trait was that although both Tallulah and Tabatha spent most of the series as comic relief, both would become very menacing when needed (usually in the last episode). The final series, Take Off With T-Bag, broke the mould the previous series had set. This time T-Bag was the protagonist and travelled in her spaceship with both T-shirt (who was willingly working for her now) and a new character named Tow Ling Shirt who was T-shirt's Chinese cousin. She spent the series collecting golden envelopes which were leading to her birthday surprise. In the final episode of the series, she found that she had been on a wild goose chase while Granny Bag set up a surprise party for her during the distraction. T-Bag, in a rare show of heart, declared that the greatest gift of all was friendship just before she had her birthday cake splattered all over her. ===== U.S. Army Specialist 5 (SP5) Tulsa McLean (Elvis Presley) is a tank crewman with a singing career. Serving with the 3rd Armored "Spearhead" Division in West Germany, McLean dreams of running his own nightclub when he leaves the army, but such dreams don't come cheap. Tulsa and his buddies have formed a band and perform in various German "Gasthauses", night clubs, and on an Armed Forces stage. In one bar, he even discovers the record "Blue Suede Shoes" sung by someone named Elvis Presley on a jukebox. To raise money, Tulsa places a bet with his friend Dynamite (Edson Stroll) that he can spend the night with a club dancer named Lili (Juliet Prowse), who is rumored to be hard to get since she turned down one other G.I. operator, Turk (Jeremy Slate). Dynamite and Turk have vied for women before when the two were stationed in Hawaii. When Dynamite gets transferred to Alaska, Tulsa is brought in to take his place. He is not looking forward to it, but must go through with it. Tulsa uses his Southern charm and calls Lili "ma'am." She at first sees Tulsa as another Occupation Duty GI. Then after a day on the Rhine, Lili begins to fall for him. Tulsa's friend Cookie, meanwhile, falls in love with Lili's roommate, Tina (Letícia Román) from Italy. In the end, Rick's and Marla's baby son Tiger helps Tulsa win the bet for the outfit—and Lili's heart. ===== Set in Port Talbot and Swansea, the Lewis "twins" of the title are not twins but brothers. They live with their parents and sister Adie in a caravan on a mobile home site. Constantly mocking their sister's employment at a local massage parlour, they spend most of their time joking around, taking drugs and stealing cars. Their father "Fatty Lewis", falls from a ladder while doing roofing work for Bryn Cartwright, a wealthy, prominent local businessman and small-time gangster. Laying blame, the twins attempt to demand workers' compensation for the accident. Bryn claims it was a cash arrangement with no legal representation and refuses the request for compensation. The twins take this personally and seek revenge by gatecrashing and ruining a local karaoke competition in which Bryn's daughter, beautiful Bonny is singing, by appearing from back stage and urinating on her during the performance in the Barons nightclub in Swansea. Bryn vows to get even and acquires the help of his associates Greyo and Terry (two corrupt police detectives), to assist him getting revenge on the twins. After several efforts to disrupt their way of life, Bryn appears to succeed by having one of the detectives to assist him in beating up the twins down a back street. As retaliation continues, the feud spirals out of control, progressing with the twins breaking into Bryn's property and beheading the Cartwrights' pet poodle. Terry Walsh responds by setting fire to the Lewis' dog's kennel with their pet inside. However, an adjacent gas bottle explodes, destroying the Lewises' mobile home and killing the twins' family. Clearly upset, the twins make arrangements with the local male voice choir and steal their father's hearse at his funeral. Terry meanwhile, much to Greyo's distress, accuses Fatty's co- workers Dai and Chip of destroying the caravan by placing items from the scene of the crime in their builder's van. The twins soon come down from the hills where they have been hiding out and go after Bryn, breaking into his house again and tying him up with washing line rigged to his own electric garage door. The twins ask to borrow Bryn's boat to which he agrees, with the hope of the twins letting him go unhurt. The twins disappear leaving Bryn tied up and at the brink of asphyxiation in his own garage. Upon arrival of Lucy later that evening, she attempts to use the electric gate remote from outside while returning home, causing the garage door to lift and subsequently cause the hanging of her husband Bryn. By looking under the door and noticing the hanging, Lucy hysterically runs through the house and finds their daughter floating on a lilo in their indoor swimming pool listening to music through headphones, blissfully unaware of what had gone on. The twins consider their job done and grant their father's wish of having a burial at sea with the assistance of Bryn's boat, with the coffin respectfully draped in the Welsh flag. It is a poignant moment as the local choir (formed from a number of real-life local male voice choirs) sing the Welsh language song Myfanwy at the end of Mumbles Pier. Meanwhile, Terry Walsh, terrified and pleading, has been gagged and bound to the coffin, and lowered into the sea just off the pier head of Mumbles Swansea. The coffin floats for a while before the twins make a bet to how long the coffin would stay afloat, seemingly brushing aside the emotion of their father's funeral at sea. The coffin sinks and a few tears are shed by the twins. The twins then question each other on how far the boat would travel and imply that they would be heading to Morocco. The boat is last seen heading out to sea, driven by the twins to a haunting choir still singing on Mumbles Pier. ===== Wendell "Sonny" Lawson (Reynolds), an unscrupulous real- estate promoter, learns that he has a fatal blood disease and decides to commit suicide rather than endure a slow, painful death. He then takes the time to meet with several friends and family members for one last time, while hiding the fact that he plans to end his own life. After a suicide attempt, Sonny ends up in a mental institution, where he very quickly befriends fellow patient, Marlon Borunki (DeLuise), a deranged schizophrenic murderer, and enlists Borunki’s help with his suicide. ===== In the land of Condon, the deranged Queen Victoria seals the country in behind a huge wall and establishes a "Monarchy of Terror." The intellectuals and sexually liberated are persecuted and murdered. Some of them form an underground movement, the Cult of Perv, led by the Demon Nanny who dies giving birth to Pervirella, who grows at an amazing rate into a beautiful young woman. Whenever her magic necklace is removed, Pervirella becomes a raging nymphomaniac and - hunted by every interested group in Condon - teams up with special agent Amicus Reilly. ===== Glenn Tyler (Elvis Presley) gets into a fight with and badly injures his drunken brother. A court releases him on probation into the care of his uncle in a small town, appointing Irene Sperry (Hope Lange) to give him psychological counselling. Marked as a trouble-maker, he is falsely suspected of various misdemeanors including an affair with Irene. Eventually shown to be innocent, he leaves to go to college and become a writer. ===== Pete and Joey drive their 1960 Chevrolet Impala from their home on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia to Toronto with the hope of meeting up with their relatives in the city who might be able to help them find jobs; but their relatives hide from what they see as the pair's uncouth behaviour and the two are set adrift in the city. The men find jobs at a local ginger-ale bottler for $80 per week, a job with tough working conditions that doesn't pay much better than what they could have had back home. They fill their days smoking, drinking beer, and hitting on young women along Toronto's busy Yonge Street strip. They soon turn their good fortune into residency in a small apartment, which they decorate with centrefolds from men's magazines and movie posters. Both men start romances; Joey decides to get married when his girlfriend, Betty (Jayne Eastwood), becomes pregnant. He pursues a credit-driven lifestyle undreamt of back home with his wife, buying a new colour television, stereo, and furniture on an installment plan. Disaster strikes when Pete and Joey get laid off at the end of the summer and the trio are forced to move to a smaller, less-comfortable apartment. Pete and Joey find new jobs washing cars and resetting pins in a bowling alley but at much smaller wages than what they received at the bottling factory. Tensions mount at the crowded living situation and the lack of money begins to wear on them, and Betty tells Joey she will soon need to stop working at her waitressing job because of her pregnancy. Pete accuses Joey of not making enough money to support his share of the costs, and Betty resents Pete for making the accusation. Unable to find steady work and with bills to pay and Joey and Betty's baby on the way, they resort to stealing food from a local supermarket. The caper results in a grocery clerk being assaulted by the pair when he tries to prevent the robbery. Pete and Joey return to their apartment in the morning to find Betty gone and their possessions on the street, after the police came in search of them and their landlord evicted them as troublemakers. Broke, homeless, wanted by the police for theft and assault, and with Betty staying with her aunt and uncle, the pair decide to pawn the rented colour TV set for money in order to make it out to Western Canada. Pete convinces Joey that husbands leave their wives "all the time" and Joey agrees to leave Betty and her unborn child in Toronto, as she will slow them down. The film concludes much as it began, with Pete and Joey driving west in search of greener pastures. ===== In 1947 New Mexico, a radio operator receives a bizarre signal, coming from Roswell. He decides to investigate the signal's origin and goes out to follow it, never to be seen again. Present day and the same signal is received from the South Pole and then retransmitted from the Falkland Islands to the United States. A satellite image captures an unknown object sitting on the Antarctic snow. Cryptologist Julian Rome (James Spader), a teacher at the University of California, Berkeley, is invited to investigate the mystery. He is sent to an Antarctic research base, which includes a huge greenhouse of genetically modified plants being studied by the scientists. They find what appears to be an alien vehicle frozen in a huge block of ice. The unknown object is shaped like a shell or pod and is emitting the mysterious encrypted signal. Once it is freed of the ice, Julian discovers that it has a powerful static electric charge on its surface and painfully shocks anyone who touches it. Julian tries to decrypt the signal (which soon proves to be: "Do not open!"), while another team works to open the alien shell. They succeed in cutting off the lid, which allows a viscous alien liquid to pour out. An alien also escapes and at the same time an airborne virus sealed in the shell kills four members of the scientific team by melting them from within. The virus also kills all the plants, making them wilt and turn brown. The virus has an unusually high speed of transmission and extreme virulence. It kills anyone within a few minutes of exposure. The government is aware of the alien virus and the global risk that it poses. They ask a Russian nuclear submarine to fire a nuclear missile at the base before the threat can spread. As the submarine nears its firing position, Julian manages to communicate with the alien, before it is unfortunately killed by one of the survivors. Julian realizes that if any of the survivors leave the base alive, the lethal alien virus will cause a pandemic destroying all life on earth. Just a few seconds before the missile hits, he and three others, Shelly, Kate, and Dr. Gierach, are rescued from the base by an alien spacecraft (which had homed in on the same signal Julian was studying). In the aftermath, the government mounts a cover-up campaign by claiming that an experimental nuclear reactor at the base went into melt-down, destroying all of the facilities and killing everyone. The film ends with the alien spacecraft, still carrying the human survivors, leaving the solar system. ===== ===== The film opens with a narration by Hal Brandston, (Mark Webber) explaining how a snowflake is formed. The film changes to his father, a news reporter, Tom Brandston, (Chevy Chase) giving the weather report before walking away backstage, annoyed with his job, before seeing another reporter, Chad Symmonz, (John Schneider) who tries to be better than Tom, giving a false report on a forecast; this makes Tom resent him even further. The film then changes to Hal, trying to get noticed by Claire Bonner (Emmanuelle Chriqui), a girl that he really likes. After he slips and falls in a swimming pool, Hal notices Claire's anklet, with a whale insignia, at the bottom. He swims over and grabs it, wanting to return it to her, but he expresses that he is too shy to talk to her. The film then changes focus to a group of elementary school students, led by Hal's sister, Natalie (Zena Grey), who wants to have a snow day. She hits her school's principal, Principal Weaver, with a snowball. (This becomes a running gag, quite literally, where he gets hit with numerous snowballs by unseen kids and gets no help from onlookers). When Natalie wishes for it to snow that night, Tom notices a huge snow storm that will happen overnight, proving Chad's forecast wrong. Waking up the next morning, Natalie notices snow all over town, and all the kids cheer, after their school is announced to be closed for a snow day (much to Principal Weaver's dismay). Right before she goes outside, Natalie notices a mean snowplow driver, who the kids call "Snowplow Man" (Chris Elliott), plowing the streets. Meanwhile, Hal tries to win the heart of Claire, while still trying to return her anklet, with the help of his best friend, Lane Leonard (Schuyler Fisk), who secretly harbors feelings for him. Back at the Brandston home, Hal and Natalie's workaholic mother, Laura Brandston (Jean Smart), are stuck at home with Hal's mischievous younger brother, Randy, who is bored to death and wants to go play in the snow. Natalie and her friends, Wayne (Josh Peck) and Chet (Jade Yorker), build an igloo, but it is quickly destroyed by the Snowplow Man, who gets revenge on them for hitting him with a snowball. They eventually come up with a plan to take over the plow and move all the snow back in the streets so they could have a second snow day. They use Wayne as bait by pouring ketchup on him and having him pretending to be dead. As the Snowplow Man checks out the scene, Natalie and Chet steal his bird, Trudy, so Snowplow Man kidnaps Wayne, wanting an exchange for his bird. After he refuses to give them an extra snow day, but still returning Wayne and the bird, Natalie decides that extreme measures need to be taken. After trying to talk to Claire many times, even going to her house, only to see that everyone found out about her break-up with her mean and ill-tempered boyfriend, Chuck Wheeler (David Paetkau), Hal decides to see how things end up between them. He and Claire share a look after she and Chuck ride away on Chuck's snowmobile. Hal decides to try another way of getting her attention - by going to the skating rink, and Lane lures the boring DJ announcer (Iggy Pop) into the bathroom. Hal takes advantage of the stereo system and talks to Claire, in front of everyone, and Chuck, who views Hal as a target for his "House Of Pain". Later, Hal tries again to get Claire's attention by making a whale-shaped figure in the snow with a shovel (only to learn she likes zebras). Chuck finds him though, while following Claire, and tries to attack Hal, but he reveals he is not afraid of him. Hal runs and jumps on Chuck's snowmobile, riding away into the woods, with Chuck and his followers gaining on him. But Chuck is quickly outsmarted and lands in a kid's snowman. Elsewhere, Tom is reports at a snow sledding hill and at an ice- sculpting contest. After noticing a statue of Chad, which infuriates him so much, he tries to take the sculpting kid's ice pick, intending on destroying the statue. But when it falls, Chad begins humiliating Tom, so Tom tries asking Chad where snow comes from. Chad, trying to save himself, slowly ends up revealing that he is a fraud. The crowd calls him a loser, and he leaves for good, after the crowd cheers Tom's name, bringing his career back up. That night, Natalie and Chet reveal that they gathered all the kids in town to confront the Snowplow Man, as he makes his way to the last snow covered street. They all tie him up, and he insults them after they laugh at him. They leave him tied up, as everyone goes to cover the roads. Knowing he is defeated, the Snowplow Man accepts his fate, and calls to his bird. Later, Hal soon realizes he loves Lane instead of Claire; he is even encouraged by Claire to go after her. After one last stand to Chuck, and almost being beaten senseless, Natalie plows right into Chuck, who gets covered in snow, unable to get out, and rescuing Hal in the process. Hal finally admits to Lane that he loves her and they share a kiss. Natalie is happy that her and her friends finally got a second snow day, and they drive the plow away. Laura takes the day off from work to look after Randy, even playing in the snow with him. Having found new paths in their lives, the Brandstons, Lane, and Claire are finally happy. When Principal Weaver gets home, thinking he is safe, the kids (who somehow got into his house), hit him with a lot of snowballs as he cries in defeat and the film ends. ===== Nero, who is a young demon hunter who lives on the isolated island of Fortuna, is also a member of the Order of the Sword: a religious sect of knights who worship the Legendary Dark Knight Sparda as a God. Dante arrives, and murders The Order's leader, the High Priest Sanctus, in front of the entire congregation. At the same time, an army of demons invade the city, putting everyone, including Nero's love interest Kyrie, in danger. Tasked with stopping Dante by Kyrie's brother Credo, the Captain of the Holy Knights, Nero's journey leads him to discover that he is in fact a descendant of Sparda himself, and Dante is not his enemy. Under orders from Sanctus, Agnus, has been siphoning the power of the long lost Devil Arm Yamato, the sword of Dante's brother Vergil, to create a demonic army, and imbue high-ranking members of the Order with demonic power. To Agnus' shock, the shattered Yamato restores itself in Nero's presence, and flies to Nero's aid. With The Order's plans revealed, Agnus flees to inform the newly resurrected Sanctus. As Nero sets his sights on The Order, he discovers to his dismay that Credo is part of the conspiracy, until he ends up being deceived as well when they witness Kyrie being kidnapped by a newly revived Sanctus. He intends to use a creature known as Savior to defeat the demon army he's created, as a means of strengthening the people's worship of Sparda. With the Sparda Sword already in his possession, and needing the blood of a descendant of Sparda along with the Yamato, Sanctus captures Nero to power The Savior's core. Dante arrives, with Trish, who was revealed to be a spy within The Order, and makes a promise to the dying Credo to save Nero and Kyrie. Splitting up, Trish evacuates Fortuna's human residents, while Dante destroys all the Hell Gates scattered over Fortuna, and defeats Agnus, reclaiming the Yamato sword for the last time. Confronting the Savior in a sky battle above Fortuna, Dante drives the Yamato through The Savior's chest, where Nero recovers it inside, freeing himself and Kyrie, and defeating Sanctus. Nero is able to make peace with the power it has given him to protect those he cares about. Before Dante leaves, he decides to entrust Nero with the Yamato, and Kyrie and Nero share their first kiss in the ruins of Fortuna. Back at Dante's office, Lady arrives. As previously revealed in the game, it was Lady who sent Dante and Trish to Fortuna in the first place as The Order had begun butting in on some of her jobs, which was why Trish immediately went undercover to expose The Order's true colours. ===== The tale of Elemental Gelade is set in the world of Guardia where beings called Edel Raids co-exist with humans. Edel Raids (the first word of which is pronounced EL-Dell) have the ability to fuse with a human and become a living weapon. The story focuses on the adventures of a young sky pirate named Coud Van Giruet, an Edel Raid named Reverie Metherlance or Ren as she prefers to be called, and three guardians of an Edel Raid protection organization called Arc Aile named Cisqua, Rowen, and Kuea. Reverie Metherlance is set on journeying to the legendary land of gold called Edel Garden, but it turns out that she is a powerful and rare Edel Raid called the shichikouhouji which leads to many villains attempting to kidnap her for themselves. ===== The Kingdom of the Sun, Fuajarl was ruthlessly invaded by the Garden of Eden. They came seeking the King's Edel Raid, rumored to be one of the Seven Glittering Jewels (or Shichiko-hoji). Sensing their intent, the King hid his daughter with his Edel Raid and fought against the invasion but was defeated in battle. The desert kingdom is now blanketed in a sheet of white snow after the battle. Escaping capture, the Crown Princess Acheaburca Fuajarl XIV reacted with Jeen, the King's Edel Raid, and along with Puffe, the Kingdom's only mechanic, fled Fuajarl in an ancient tank. They are on a journey to restore the Kingdom and exact vengeance on the Garden of Eden. However just like the first elemental gelade, it is uncertain why Edel Garden is a warring nation for a place that has the name of a beautiful Eden or Utopia. ===== The player plays a wizard on a magic carpet flying over water, mountains and other terrain while destroying monsters and rival wizards (which are controlled by the computer) and collecting "mana" which is gathered by hot air balloons and stored in the player's own castle. The story is told in a cutscene that depicts the pages of a book being flipped. According to this back story, mana was discovered and though it initially had beneficial uses, the quest for it made the lands barren. Worse, many corrupt wizards began turning to mana for their own nefarious purposes, eventually leading to war between them. The battling wizards began using more destructive spells and summoning deadly monsters, the latter of which often turned against them. One wizard hoped to end everything with an all-powerful spell but instead only left the worlds shattered. Only his apprentice survived and his goal is to restore the worlds to equilibrium. ===== The story picks up about a month after the previous film and follows the further adventures of filmmaker Carl Denham, now implicated in numerous lawsuits following the destruction in New York City by Kong. Denham leaves the city aboard the Venture with Captain Englehorn, who knows he too will be similarly prosecuted if he stays, but their efforts to make money shipping cargo around Asia are not very successful. After arriving in the Dutch port of Dakang, Denham and Englehorn attend a show of performing monkeys, which ends with a song ("Runaway Blues"), sung by a young woman, Hilda Petersen, whom Denham is immediately attracted to. That night, Mr. Peterson, Hilda's father, who runs the monkey show, stays up drinking with a Norwegian skipper, Nils Helstrom, who had lost his ship under questionable circumstances. The two men argue and then fight, but during the struggle, Petersen is killed, and his tent burns down. Distraught, Hilda releases all the monkeys from their cages. Soon after, Denham and Englehorn meet Helstrom, who was the man who had sold to Denham the map to Kong's Island, and Helstrom convinces them that there is a treasure on the island. So Denham and Englehorn agree to go back to the island to find the treasure. Later, Denham meets Hilda while she is trying to recapture her monkeys and tries to cheer her up. Despite her pleas, for her safety Denham refuses to take her with him when he leaves Dakang. However, shortly after the ship leaves out to sea, Hilda is found having stowed away on board. Helstrom talks Hilda into silence, then incites a mutiny on board the Venture, but the sailors want no more captains and force him, Denham, Englehorn, Hilda, and Charlie the cook away in a lifeboat. The group soon land on Skull Island and discover that the natives now blame Denham for Kong's destruction in their village, forcing them to retreat and into the interior of the island, where they split up into two groups. Denham and Hilda soon encounter a giant albino gorilla, over twice the height of a man. The giant ape is stuck in quicksand, so Denham helps him out of it and bandages the ape's injured finger, establishing a trust with the ape. Denham tells Hilda that he believes the ape is Kong's son, and names him "Little Kong". Later, Englehorn, Charlie, and Helstrom are attacked by a Styracosaurus which chases them into a cave. Denham and Hilda are attacked by a giant cave bear, but "Little Kong" fights it and forces it away. Helstrom had actually made up his treasure-story to get a free ride away from Dakang, but with the ape's help, Denham and Hilda find a real treasure- a huge jewel on the head of a seemingly abandoned giant stone idol, which he takes for safe-keeping. "Little Kong", Denham, and Hilda are attacked by a Nothosaurus, a small Brontosaur-like dinosaur, but "Little Kong" fights and kills it. A storm ensues and Helstrom tries to escape in the lifeboat, but is killed by a giant sea serpent. Englehorn, Hilda and Charlie quickly retrieve and board the lifeboat, but a violent earthquake and hurricane strikes the island, and it begins to sink into the ocean. The water soon surrounds Denham and "Little Kong" atop a tall mound, and as the ape's foot gets stuck in the cracking mound, he sacrifices himself to save Denham by holding him above the water. The group in the boat reach Denham just in time, as the ape's hand, with Denham's bandage still on his finger, sinks below. The film ends with Denham and Hilda on the deck of a rescue ship, contemplating the tragic fate of Kong's son, and of their future together, but Denham shows Hilda the jewel he salvaged, assuring her that it will provide financial security for all of them. ===== Obscure scholar Roland Michell, researching in the London Library, discovers handwritten drafts of a letter by the eminent Victorian poet Randolph Henry Ash, which lead him to suspect that the married Ash had a hitherto unknown romance. He secretly takes away the documents – a highly unprofessional act for a scholar – and begins to investigate. The trail leads him to Christabel LaMotte, a minor poet and contemporary of Ash, and to Dr. Maud Bailey, an established modern LaMotte scholar and distant relative of LaMotte. Protective of LaMotte, Bailey is drawn into helping Michell with the unfolding mystery. The two scholars find more letters and evidence of a love affair between the poets (with evidence of a holiday together during which – they suspect – the relationship may have been consummated); they become obsessed with discovering the truth. At the same time, their own personal romantic lives – neither of which is satisfactory – develop, and they become entwined in an echo of Ash and LaMotte. The stories of the two couples are told in parallel, and include letters and poetry by the poets. The revelation of an affair between Ash and LaMotte would make headlines and reputations in academia because of the prominence of the poets, and colleagues of Roland and Maud become competitors in the race to discover the truth, for all manner of motives. Ash's marriage is revealed to have been unconsummated, although he loved and remained devoted to his wife. He and LaMotte had a short, passionate affair; it led to the suicide of LaMotte's companion (and possibly lover), Blanche Glover, and the secret birth of LaMotte's illegitimate daughter during a year spent in Brittany. LaMotte left the girl with her sister to be raised and passed off as her own. Ash was never informed that he and LaMotte had a child. As the Great Storm of 1987 strikes England, the interested modern characters come together at Ash's grave, where they intend to exhume documents buried with Ash by his wife, which they believe hold the final key to the mystery. They also uncover a lock of hair. Reading the documents, Maud Bailey learns that rather than being related to LaMotte's sister, as she has always believed, she is directly descended from LaMotte and Ash's illegitimate daughter. Maud is thus heir to the correspondence by the poets. Now that the original letters are in her possession, Roland Michell escapes the potential dire consequences of having stolen the original drafts from the library. He sees an academic career open up before him. Bailey, who has spent her adult life emotionally untouchable, sees possible future happiness with Michell. In an epilogue, Ash has an encounter with his daughter Maia in the countryside. Maia talks with Ash for a brief time. Ash makes her a crown of flowers, and asks for a lock of her hair. This lock of hair is the one buried with Ash which was discovered by the scholars, who believed it to be LaMotte’s. Thus it is revealed that both the modern and historical characters (and hence the reader), have, for the latter half of the book, misunderstood the significance of one of Ash's key mementoes. Ash asks the girl to give LaMotte a message that he has moved on from their relationship and is happy. After he walks away, Maia returns home, breaks the crown of flowers while playing, and forgets to pass the message on to LaMotte. ===== When the Simpson family is at the Costington's department store, Bart uses the wedding gift registry as a prank to register himself and his bride, "Lotta Cooties", for wedding presents. Bart invites many people to his so-called "wedding" and plans to take all the unused gifts back for store credit, but he is stopped by Chief Wiggum, who arrests Bart and rejects his bribe of the wedding presents. Bart is sentenced to six months of juvenile detention by Judge Constance Harm. At the detention center, Bart is afraid he will be buried alive in the sandpit or photographed being punched while going down a slide. He soon notices that the girls' Juvie is on the other side of a chain-link fence. Bart attempts to schmooze with these girls, only to have them attack and immobilize him. One of the girls, Gina Vendetti, uses a knife to destroy Bart's uniform, threatening to castrate him next time he comes near their fence. Bart's problems continue when two weeks before his release he is partnered with Gina for the dance by the warden. When they are dancing, Gina escapes with Bart using a rope, finding themselves on a window ledge. Due to the fact that they are handcuffed together, Gina is forced to bring a reluctant Bart along before the window can be closed, though he only comes after she kisses him. Slowly, they gain each other's trust. On the lam, the duo look for a blacksmith who can remove their cuffs. They are freed, but after it happens, Gina is alone and forlorn. She starts crying and admits to Bart that she has no family. When he sympathises with her, she angrily tackles him until the police come and arrest them (and a bear that Cletus correctly predicted would attack Wiggum). Feeling terrible for causing Bart's sentence to be extended, Gina confesses that she was behind the escape, clearing Bart of further charges. In the end, the Simpsons and the warden step in to help Gina feel better for being without family, offering a Mexican food feast in her cell. ===== The story is set in the Midwestern United States during the late 19th century. Jacob Witting, a widowed farmer who is still saddened by the death of his wife during childbirth several years before, finds that the task of taking care of his farm and two children, Anna and Caleb, is too difficult to handle alone. He writes an ad in the newspaper for a mail-order bride. Sarah Wheaton, from Maine, answers his ad and travels out to become his wife. While Anna is initially apprehensive about Sarah as she still has memories of her late mother, Caleb is excited and deeply hopes that Sarah will stay. When she arrives conditionally for one month, Anna notices that Sarah is lonely and misses the sea. Stubborn and persistent, she gradually wins over Jacob with her insistence on learning and helping out with farm tasks. The Wittings become attached to Sarah, though Caleb constantly worries that their home is not enough for her and that she misses the sea. When Sarah goes to town by wagon on her own, Anna tries to reassure Caleb that Sarah will return, while secretly fearing that she will not. They are overjoyed when Sarah returns by nightfall. Admitting that she misses the sea, Sarah says that she would miss them more if she left. Anna reveals that Jacob and Sarah married soon afterward. ===== Homer takes Bart and Lisa to a movie and he has to bring Ned Flanders' children with him, because Ned has taken the senior citizens for ice cream to celebrate Jasper's birthday. However, at the Googolplex Theatre, every kid-friendly movie is sold out, and Rod and Todd will not let Homer see a raunchy comedy called Teenage Sex Wager since it is one of many movies condemned by a Christian publication called "What Would Jesus View?". After listening to Lenny mention he had a small part in the horror movie The Re-Deadening as a gardener, Homer takes the kids to see the movie. The movie is very scary, causing it to scare Bart and Lisa at home, who think they hear noises from the attic. But when they look in the attic, their fears scare them away. When Bart and Lisa ask Homer and Marge to look in the attic, they discover Artie Ziff living there. Artie explains that he was living in the attic because his Internet business, Ziffcorp, crashed in the dot-com bubble, and he lost all his money after spending it on many extravagant items which then got repossessed, including the repo vans. He chose to live with the Simpsons, claiming that Marge was the closest thing he ever had to true love - although Marge quickly points out that she and Artie only had one date where he almost raped her on their high school prom night. Artie promises that he will not hit on Marge if he stays with them, which Marge objects to, but Homer, Bart, and Lisa do not. While living with the family, Artie connects with Lisa by reading her The Corrections. He then tries to buy ice cream for Bart and Milhouse, but when his credit card gets cut up, he unsuccessfully attempts to hang himself. Homer gets Artie down and takes him to Moe's. Marge sees on the news that the SEC is looking for Artie, who is playing poker with Homer and his friends. Homer wins 98% of Ziffcorp's outstanding stock. The SEC sweeps in to arrest Artie, but Homer says he owns 230 million shares of Ziffcorp, making him the majority stockholder. To protect himself, Artie has Homer take the blame. Homer is taken into SEC custody, placed on trial and ultimately sentenced to ten years in prison. Blaming Artie for this and angered by his self-centeredness, Marge kicks Artie out of the house and tells him she never wants to see him ever again. Visiting Moe's Tavern, Artie encounters Patty and Selma, and Selma takes Artie to her apartment after he mentions putting Homer in prison. As they spend the night together, Artie makes a plan to turn over his corporate books in order to admit he is the real crook. He turns himself in, and Homer is released from prison. The family takes one last look at their "Uncle Artie," who is using a squirt bottle to put out the prisoners' cigarettes, much to their anger. ===== The unnamed protagonist of the story goes into the middle of the Arabian Peninsula to seek out and enter a lost city. After hearing a clanging seemingly coming from deep inside the earth, the protagonist inspects mysterious carvings and ruins until nightfall. The next day, the narrator discovers a cliff riddled with low-ceilinged buildings, unfit for human use. While he attends to his suddenly nervous camel, the narrator discovers a somewhat larger temple, with altars, painted murals, and a small staircase going down. After he descends, his torch dies, and he crawls on his hands and knees until he enters a hallway with small wooden coffins containing bizarre reptiles inside of them lining the walls. The narrator notices a large amount of light coming from an unknown source. After crawling to it on his hands and knees, he sees a large brass door with a descent into a misty portal. He then hears moaning coming from the coffin passage, and feels a strong wind coming from the passage, trying to pull him down. Against all odds, he resists, and sees what appear to be reptiles with a body shaped like a cross between a crocodile and a seal with a strange head common to neither, involving a protruding forehead, horns, lack of a nose, and an alligator-like jaw crawling behind the lit portal. The wind dies down after the last of it flows down into the light, when suddenly the door closes behind him, leaving him in the dark. ===== While wind- surfing near the seaside community of Port Harbor, a young man is killed by a giant great white shark. Horror author Peter Benton and professional shark hunter Ron Hamer realize the truth, but ambitious mayor William Wells refuses to accept that a shark threat exists, fearing that a cancelled wind-surfing regatta would derail his campaign to become state governor. Wells has shark nets installed, but the sounds of teenagers splashing in the surf leads the shark to rip through the nets. The next day, the shark plows through the wind surfers, knocking them off their boards, before targeting the mayor's aide and eating him. Wells can no longer hide the truth and Benton and Hamer head out to sea, planning to feed the shark dynamite and cause it to explode. However, the shark traps them in a cave and the men have to use their dynamite just to escape. Meanwhile, Benton's daughter Jenny and some of her friends head out on a yacht, armed with some steak and a shotgun, intending to shoot the shark. Instead, its powerful bites on the bait knock Jenny into the water. Her friends pull her back onboard, but the shark bites off one of her legs in the process. Mayor Wells's son was one of the friends she went out with and Benton blames him for her injury. Determined to do something right, Wells sets out in a helicopter armed with a steak, apparently intending to hoist the shark into the air and suffocate it, but the shark is too powerful; when it bites into the steak dangling from a winch, it shakes the copter and knocks Wells into the sea. The shark then bites him in half before lunging into the helicopter, dragging it into the sea. Benton and Hamer go back out to blow up the shark. After an argument, Benton agrees to allow Hamer to be the one to go down with the dynamite strapped into a belt around his waist. Thinking the shark might be hiding in the downed helicopter, Hamer investigates it. The shark sneaks up on him and attacks and, despite Benton's attempts to save him, Hamer becomes wrapped up in a line and is towed to his death by the shark. Meanwhile, a shark hunter chains some spare ribs to the side of a dock. The hunter, a TV news cameraman and some spectators go stand on the dock when the shark takes the ribs, towing the dock out into the ocean. Suddenly, the shark begins to attack the dock, knocking the people into the water and eating the shark hunter and TV cameraman. Benton arrives and rescues the other people but gets trapped on the dock when the shark arrives to drag it further out to sea. Hamer's corpse floats by and Benton feeds it to the shark. Realizing he has the detonator in his hand, Benton leaps into the ocean and flips the switch, detonating the dynamite and blowing the shark's head off. Back on shore, Benton is approached by TV reporter Bob Martin for comment. Benton then punches Martin, gets in a car and drives away. ===== 16-year-old high-school gymnast Maron Kusakabe is visited by the angel Finn Fish, who gives her a task. God's power is scattered across the Earth, and if He does not gather enough by the turn of the millennium, He will die. To block Him, The Devil had sent out agents to gather His power, which is the beauty in human hearts, in the form of chess pieces. With Finn's assistance, Maron transforms into the reincarnation of Jeanne D'Arc in order to hunt Demons hidden within works of art. When Maron seals a Demon, the artwork disappears, and to the outside world it is as if she has stolen it, and she becomes a kaitō ("phantom thief"). Maron's best friend is Miyako, the daughter of a police detective in charge of Jeanne's case. As the series progresses, Maron and Miyako fall in love with new classmate Chiaki, who wants to stop Maron collecting the chess pieces, for he knew that Finn Fish is the Da-Tenshi (Fallen Angel), but apparently in the form of normal angel. Chiaki at first "fakes" falling in love to get closer to Maron, knowing Maron is Jeanne. Later he falls in love truthfully after realising that Maron is worth the effort, even if she does "hate" him. Maron, on the other hand, is confused and does not know what "love" means because her parents abandoned her when she was around ten years old when they were having problems getting along, so no one taught her. As a result, she does not know how to respond to Chiaki's advances. The manga relates in detail Finn Fish's background, expounding on Finn's relationships with other angels and the events that led to her becoming Maron's partner. This backstory of the angels is not shown in the anime. Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne has often drawn comparisons to Sailor Moon for the magical girl theme and similarity in appearance between Kaitou Jeanne and Sailor Moon. ===== The Doctor shows Sarah some of the TARDIS interior, and they come across the secondary console room. Activating the viewscreen, the Doctor sees a swirl of living energy in the time vortex – the Mandragora Helix, which starts to draw them in. The intelligence within the Helix psychically attacks them as the Doctor tries to pilot the TARDIS through it. The ship ends up inside the Helix, and the Doctor and Sarah duck behind the TARDIS as a fragment of glowing Helix energy flies by. They escape in the TARDIS, not knowing that the fragment has entered with them. In 15th century San Martino in Italy, a peasant revolt is violently put down by Count Federico and his men, led by Captain Rossini. In a palace, Federico's brother, the Duke of San Martino, lies dying, attended to by his son Giuliano and Giuliano's companion Marco. The Duke's death had been foretold by Hieronymous, the court astrologer, but Giuliano, a man of science, does not believe in such superstition. In fact, Hieronymous is working for Federico, and the horoscope's prediction of the Duke's death was helped along by poison. Hieronymous tells the Count that he feels his powers are growing, but all Federico wants is for the astrologer to foretell Giuliano's death next, and he will take care of the rest. The TARDIS materialises in a field near San Martino, and when the Doctor and Sarah exit, the energy fragment flies out of the TARDIS, unseen. Sarah wanders off and is kidnapped by a group of men in hooded robes. The Doctor tries to rescue her but is knocked out, and when he awakes he witnesses the energy fragment fly towards and kill a peasant. Searching for Sarah, the Doctor is confronted by the Count's men and arrested. At the court, the Doctor tries to tell Federico that the energy fragment could spell the end of the world. The Count at first thinks the Doctor is a seer, like Hieronymous, but when the astrologer quizzes the Doctor, it becomes clear that the Doctor does not believe in any of it. Federico orders the Doctor to be executed as a spy. Meanwhile, Sarah is brought before a priest and told that she is the foretold sacrifice to Demnos, the Roman god of moonlight and solstice. Back at the palace courtyard, the Doctor is led to the executioner. Before the executioner's sword lands, the Doctor unfurls his scarf and hooks it around the executioner's ankle, throwing him off balance. The Doctor escapes and finds his way into catacombs beneath the city. The guards, fearing the Brethren of Demnos who reside in those passages, stop their pursuit. Inside, Sarah is laid out on an altar. A purple- robed figure is about to stab her with when the Doctor snatches Sarah away, just as the fragment appears in the chamber, suffusing it with a red glow and providing a distraction for the two to escape. Giuliano examines the body of a guard that was killed earlier by the fragment, and while he does not know the cause of the guard's death, he dismisses ideas that it was some kind of fire demon. The Doctor and Sarah are found by palace guards. In the temple, the Helix manifests itself as a pillar of red light and tells the purple-robed figure that he will be given undreamed-of powers to carry out its will on Earth and become the planet's supreme ruler. After the Helix vanishes, the figure removes his mask, revealing the face of Hieronymous. The guards take the Doctor and Sarah to Giuliano, who shows him the dead guard's body and tells the Doctor of fears that if Federico rules San Martino, all knowledge and learning will be suppressed. Elsewhere, Federico discovers that Giuliano has invited several nobles to San Martino to celebrate his succession to the Dukedom. Angered, Federico demands Hieronymous make up a new horoscope and poison Giuliano before the next evening. The Doctor deduces that the Helix chose San Martino because the Brethren provided a ready-made power base. The 15th century was the transition between the Dark Ages and the dawn of the Renaissance – the Helix could gain control of the Earth now through a new religion. The Doctor tells Giuliano the temple must be destroyed. They go to the temple, and the Doctor enters the catacombs alone, but as he enters the main chamber the Helix attacks him psychically. Rossini informs Federico of Giuliano's trip to the temple, and the Count decides to take his guards to the temple to kill his "pagan" nephew. The guards corner Giuliano with their swords. Sarah runs into the catacombs calling for the Doctor, but is caught by the Brethren. The Helix attack stops, but the Doctor is prevented from venturing further into the temple. He leaves to find Giuliano fighting the guards and joins in. Giulianio is wounded, and suddenly, the Brethren emerge from the forest and force the guards to retreat. The Doctor and Giuliano go into the catacombs. Sarah is brought back to the astrologer's chambers where she is left gagged as the Priest and Heironymous talk. The priest is eager to sacrifice Sarah, but Hieronymous decides to use her as bait for the Doctor. Hieronymous allowed the Brethren to save Giuliano because the young prince may still have value. Sarah is brought back to the astrologer's chambers and is hypnotised to believe the Doctor is an evil sorcerer. Hieronymous gives her a poisoned needle to kill the Doctor. At the palace, the invited nobles begin to arrive, and Federico realizes he does not have much time to eliminate Giuliano, but Rossini is unable to find Giuliano in San Martino. Hieronymous warns Federico that his life is in danger. Federico scoffs, believing Hieronymous to be a fraud, but is suspicious enough to tell Rossini to banish Hieronymous from the city. In the catacombs, Giuliano and the Doctor find Sarah, who cannot remember anything after her capture by the cult. They make their way into the palace dungeons through a secret passage. The Doctor goes to confront Hieronymous, whom he has deduced is the leader of the Brethren, in his rooms. Sarah secretly follows, trying to carry out her post-hypnotic orders. When the Doctor speaks to Hieronymous, Sarah sneaks up behind him with the needle, but the Doctor snaps her out of the trance, just as the guards come for Hieronymous. The astrologer escapes, but the guards capture the Doctor, Sarah, and Giuliano. In the dungeons, Federico accuses the prisoners of being followers of Demnos. Rossini rushes in, informing the Count that members of the Brethren are gathering on the streets and moving towards the temple. The Doctor tries to convince Federico that Hieronymous is the real threat. Federico takes the Doctor with him and some guards, leaving the others as hostages. In the temple, Hieronymous summons the Helix, which begins infusing him and his followers with power. Disguised in hoods, the Doctor, Federico and the guards enter and witness the ceremony. Federico steps forward, calls Hieronymous a traitor, and rips off the golden mask, only to reveal glowing energy in place of a face. Hieronymous raises a finger, and electrical energy stabs out at the Count, reducing him to ashes. Hieronymous then fires at and kills the two guards as well, but does not seem to have seen the Doctor. The Doctor joins the circle around the Helix as Hieronymous announces that Mandragora will swallow the moon the next evening and then the Brethren will strike. The Doctor slips away unnoticed. Back in the palace dungeons, Rossini is about to kill the prisoners when the Doctor arrives and reveals that Federico is dead. The guards change their allegiance to Giuliano and take Rossini into custody. The Doctor observes that the Brethren are still a danger. He tells Giuliano to fortify the palace in preparation for their attack. In the meantime, the Brethren are driving people out of the city, isolating the palace. Giuliano wants to cancel the masque that will celebrate his accession, but Marco is confident they can defend the palace against the Brethren. The Doctor calculates there will be a lunar eclipse that evening – Mandragora swallowing the Moon – and when the Helix takes over, it will remove all sense of purpose from mankind. Right now, however, the Helix energy is spread thinly over all the Brethren, and it could be exhausted. He asks Giuliano for a breastplate and a length of wire. Wearing the breastplate under his coat, if he has guessed right about the nature of Helix energy, he could drain it off. Hieronymous knows of a secret way into the palace, and he intends to infiltrate his men under cover of the masque. The Doctor makes his way into the temple and grounds the altar with wire. Hieronymous addresses the Doctor as "Time Lord", and says that Earth has to be possessed; if mankind's ambition is not checked, it will eventually spread into the Galaxy and the powers of Mandragora will not allow a rival within their domain. Hieronymous fires a bolt of energy into the Doctor's chest, knocking him back painfully, but the Doctor survives. At the masque, the Brethren make their appearance, and the masqueraders run about in panic as they fire into the crowd. Hieronymous then appears and tells the Brethren to take the others into the temple for the final sacrifice. The Moon goes into eclipse, and the Brethren place their hands on the altar as a ball of Helix energy descends. However, it consumes the Brethren, expanding and then fading away. "Hieronymous" removes his mask – it was the Doctor, imitating the cult leader's voice. The Doctor explains it as a case of "energy squared", putting the Mandragora Helix back where it came from. The Doctor and Sarah make their goodbyes to Giuliano. Just before they leave in the TARDIS, Doctor tells Sarah that while Giuliano will not have any more trouble with Mandragora, humanity will. The constellation will be in position at about the end of the 20th century. ===== In 1966, a wealthy industrialist named Phillip Colbert has moved from Chicago to Sparta, Mississippi, to build a factory there. Late one night, police officer Sam Wood discovers Colbert's murdered body lying in the street. Chief Gillespie leads the investigation. A doctor estimates that Colbert had been dead for a few hours. At the train station, Wood finds a black man, Virgil Tibbs, and arrests him. Gillespie accuses Tibbs of the murder, and is embarrassed to learn Tibbs is a police officer from Philadelphia. Gillespie phones Tibbs's chief, who informs Gillespie that Tibbs is a top homicide detective and recommends that he should assist the investigation. The idea does not appeal to either Gillespie or Tibbs, but for reasons of their own they reluctantly agree. Tibbs examines Colbert's body and concludes the murder happened earlier than the doctor had estimated, that the killer was right-handed, and that the victim had been killed elsewhere and then moved to where the body was found. Gillespie arrests another suspect, who protests his innocence. The police are planning to beat him into confessing, but Tibbs reveals he is left-handed and has an alibi backed up by witnesses. Colbert's widow is frustrated by the ineptitude of the police and impressed by Tibbs. She threatens to halt construction of the factory unless Tibbs leads the investigation, and the town's leading citizens are forced to go along with her wish. The two policemen begin to respect each other as they are forced to work together. Tibbs initially suspects plantation owner Endicott, a genteel racist and one of the most powerful individuals in town, who publicly opposed the new factory. When Tibbs interrogates Endicott, Endicott slaps him in the face and Tibbs slaps him back. Endicott sends a gang of thugs after Tibbs. Gillespie rescues Tibbs and tells him to leave town for his safety, but Tibbs is convinced he can solve the case. Tibbs asks Wood to re-trace his car patrol route on the night of the murder, and Gillespie joins them. Tibbs reveals that Wood has changed the route of his patrol. Gillespie discovers that Wood made a sizable deposit into his bank account the day after the murder. He starts to suspect Wood and arrests him, despite Tibbs's protests. Purdy, a hostile local, brings his 16-year-old sister Delores to the police station and files charges against Wood for getting her pregnant. Tibbs insists on being present when Delores is questioned. Purdy is offended that a black man was present at his sister's questioning, and gathers a mob to attack Tibbs. Meanwhile, Tibbs tells Gillespie that the murder was committed at the site of the planned factory, which clears Wood of the murder charge, because he couldn't have driven both his and Colbert's cars back into town. Tibbs adds that he knows why Wood changed his route: at night Delores likes to display her naked body to whoever is outside, and Wood, who watches her while on duty, did not want Tibbs to see a white woman in the nude. Tibbs visits a backstreet abortionist, who under pressure reveals that she is about to perform an abortion on Delores. Delores arrives, sees Tibbs, and runs away. Tibbs follows her and comes face to face with her armed boyfriend, Ralph, a cook from a local roadside diner. At that moment Purdy's mob arrives on the scene and holds Tibbs at gunpoint. Tibbs shouts at Purdy to check Delores' purse, that it contains money Ralph gave her for an abortion, which he got when he robbed and killed Colbert. Purdy grabs the purse and looks inside, and realizes Tibbs is right. Purdy confronts Ralph for getting his sister pregnant, and a startled Ralph shoots Purdy dead. Tibbs grabs Ralph's gun, and just then Gillespie arrives on the scene. Ralph is arrested and confesses to Colbert's murder: he had gone to ask Colbert for a job at the new factory, but ended up attacking him and taking his money. "That's all. I didn't mean to kill him," are the final words of Ralph's taped confession. The final scene shows Tibbs boarding a train bound for Philadelphia, as Gillespie, having carried his suitcase, respectfully bids him farewell. ===== In 1923, World War I veteran Patrick Galloway receives an urgent letter from his friend Jeremiah Covenant. Covenant, well aware of Galloway's reputation for dealing with occult matters, is in failing health and raves about a curse that has destroyed his entire family. Galloway travels to the Covenant estate on the coast of Ireland to visit his friend, who relates an outlandish tale of supernatural terrors. Jeremiah Covenant is the eldest of five children, his siblings being, from eldest to youngest, twins Bethany and Aaron, Ambrose, and Lizbeth. As children, the Covenants found a strange occult book in their father's library and performed a ritual found within at an ancient set of standing stones located on an island on their family's extensive estate. This seemingly childish game, however, brought the wrath of evil forces upon the family. After reaching adulthood, the Covenants fell one by one into madness and then death, eventually leaving Jeremiah as the only survivor. The power of the curse, however, has reanimated his fallen siblings as monsters of pure evil; they have been haunting Jeremiah and he fears that he will soon follow where they have gone. Galloway decides to honour his friend's wishes by trying to stop whatever was set in motion long ago at the ancient stones where the ritual was performed. Through the Covenants' journals and Galloway's own memories, the player learns more about the nature of the curse and the creature behind it: the Undying King, a powerful demonic presence threatening to destroy the reality we inhabit. He also receives a vision of a group of priests burying a Celtic king alive as part of a ritual in ancient times. While attempting to prevent the Undying King from entering our world, Patrick must face off against the four undead Covenant siblings as well as Count Otto Keisinger, an evil rival who simply wants to gain power from the demonic forces. As Patrick begins to unravel the mysteries of the Covenant family, he finds himself travelling throughout both time and space, traversing both the ancient past and other dimensions entirely. During his journey to the past, he arrives in a monastery where the only weapon that can permanently kill the Covenant siblings is located, namely the Scythe of the Celts. However, due to the presence of the Scythe in the monastery, all of the monks have fallen under its influence, turning them from benevolent worshippers of faith into murderous psychopaths. After retrieving the Scythe, Patrick first disposes of Lizbeth in the Covenant family catacombs. Having tossed her head of the cliff, he arrives back at the mansion in time to speak with Jeremiah, but Ambrose interrupts their meeting. Demanding the Gel'ziabar Stone that Patrick carries in exchange for Jeremiah's life, Ambrose still beheads his sibling after he has gotten it, turning himself into a hulking ogre-like monster. Patrick manages to kill Ambrose in revenge. His next step is then to go after Keisinger, and after a taxing battle Patrick manages to defeat his rival. Keisinger's death liberates the inhabitants of the magical dimension of Oneiros that Keisinger had enslaved to his will. Next, he searches for the body of Aaron, whose intangible, but dangerous ghost is haunting the estate and has been annoying and impeding Patrick on several occasions. He discovers it in a private torture chamber where Bethany had secretly imprisoned and horrifically tortured her hated brother to death, and destroys his undead form. Patrick finally confronts the last of the evil Covenant siblings, Bethany, after she traps him in the magical primeval dimension Eternal Autumn, only to find himself suddenly returned to the island where it had all begun all those years ago, and finds himself facing an unexpected enemy - Jeremiah himself. Rather than being a passive, remorseful observer of the tragic events, Jeremiah had in fact been just as corrupted as his siblings, having died and been resurrected during the war, and had just been using his old friend to get rid of his more powerful siblings so he could take Patrick's Gel'ziabar Stone and use it to siphon the power of the Undying King into himself, allowing Jeremiah to remake the world as he saw fit. Furious at his friend's treachery, Patrick beheads Jeremiah, but this proves to be a mistake, as with the last Covenant slain, the seal is broken, and the Undying King is released. The ground bursts open, releasing the mummified remains of the Celtic warrior who had been used to seal away the Undying King by the original druids, and the warrior quickly crumbles to dust. Then, the King itself, a hideous, insectoid monstrosity, finally breaches the walls to our reality. After a long, difficult battle, Patrick is able to destroy the King, but as he leaves the island in a daze, a man he recognizes (and who he says cannot possibly be there) steals his Gel'ziabar Stone and claims that he isn't done with Patrick yet. A sequel hook is added by a mention that after researching the brotherhood of monks, Patrick learns that they had monasteries at similar sites all over the world, and he realizes that this is just one of many coming trials. ===== The Brigadier finds the Eighth Doctor a patient of a medical institute. Meanwhile, Charley has lost her memory and is working in the Hell Fire Club under the direction of Francis Dashwood the Third, where a demonic creature called Marchosias has been summoned by the local dignitaries of Malebolgia. Are these demons real, or can the disturbed Doctor reclaim his wits and learn the truth? ===== The Empire has returned to power, using ancient technology to genetically engineer dragon-like bio-engineered weapons called dragonmares. A young girl, Orta, has lived all her life in a tower in a valley, imprisoned by the nomadic Seekers, who fear she is a harbinger of doom. One night, the Empire attacks the valley with its dragonmares, destroying much of the city. Before the dragonmares can harm Orta, a mysterious dragon appears and eliminates them. Orta flees the valley on the dragon. Evren, a general in the Imperial Army and leader of the dragonmare squadron, pursues her. She is saved by Abadd, a renegade imperial drone. He flies away and Orta asks the dragon to follow him. In her search, Orta meets Mobo, a friendly but reckless member of the wormriders. Mobo leads Orta through a river valley and a sea of ash to the wormrider village. The imperial fleet attacks the village and Evren's squadron engages Orta, but she and the dragon defeat them. Evren's dragonmare self-destructs and Orta and the dragon fall from the sky. The wounded dragon carries Orta on foot across a snowy land until its torn wings regenerate. They fend of an attack from a flying predator, but Orta feels remorse when she sees it has children. Abadd reappears and kills the family with a laser volley. He claims to have information about Orta's birth. They descend into the ruins of a tower and access the ancient information network known as Sestren. Orta finds a message recorded by her mother, Azel, saying that she formed using DNA she recovered from a human in Sestren. Abadd explains that he has learnt the secret of drone reproduction and intends to use Orta's body to replicate himself infinitely and conquer the world. Orta defeats Abadd's avatar and discovers that he is heading for the Cradle, an ancient monolithic artifact above the imperial city. She orders Sestren that she be transported there. Orta and the dragon find themselves in an imperial research facility. After they destroy several experiments, including dragonmare embryos, the facility collapses. They destroy an imperial defense unit and the Emperor dies within the explosion. The Cradle breaks free, destroying several Imperial ships and sending the dragonmares berserk. The wormriders, led by Mobo, attack the imperial fleet at the city, leaving Orta to fly towards the Cradle. After destroying the last of the dragonmares and the Cradle's shell, a cocoon-like object emerges from the Cradle's core. The cocoon erupts into Abadd's enormous dragon, which Orta and the dragon defeat. The dragon, severely wounded, flies to the ground and dies. The war over, Orta walks towards a mountain range with a baby dragon. ===== It stars five creatures called Hoobs (Hubba Hubba, Iver, Groove, Tula, and Roma) from the fictional Hoobland, and their interactions with earth and the human race. In each episode, they try to find the answer to a question to be put in the great Hoobopaedia created by Hubba Hubba, back in Hoobland, in hopes of learning all there is to know. Hubba Hubba remains in Hoobland to await the report from the other Hoobs, Iver, Groove, and Tula live in the Hoobmobile, and Roma travels to all parts of the world. The five creatures are puppets, but the show also includes some animated sequences as well as live motion of human children who explain concepts to the Hoobs. ===== The great warrior Achilles has been killed in battle. As the man who now can be considered the greatest Greek warrior, Ajax feels he should be given Achilles’ armor, but the two kings, Agamemnon and Menelaus, award it instead to Odysseus. Ajax becomes furious about this and decides to kill them. However, Athena steps in and deludes Ajax into instead killing the spoil of the Greek army, which includes cattle as well as the herdsman. Suddenly Ajax comes to his senses and realizes what he has done. Overwhelmed by shame, he decides to commit suicide. His concubine, Tecmessa, pleads for him not to leave her and their child, Eurysaces, unprotected. Ajax then gives his son his shield, and leaves the house saying that he is going out to purify himself and to bury the sword given to him by Hector. Teucer, Ajax’s brother, arrives. Teucer has learned from the prophet, Calchas, that Ajax should not be allowed to leave his tent until the end of the day or he will die. Tecmessa and soldiers then try to find Ajax, but they are too late. Ajax has indeed buried his sword - by impaling himself upon it. Before his suicide, Ajax calls for vengeance against the sons of Atreus (Menelaus and Agamemnon) and the whole Greek army. Tecmessa is the first one to discover Ajax’s body. Teucer then arrives and orders that Ajax’s son be brought to him so that he will be safe from foes. Menelaus appears and orders the body not to be moved. The last part of the play is taken up with an angry dispute regarding what to do with Ajax’s body. The two kings, Agamemnon and Menelaus, want to leave the body unburied for scavengers to ravage, while Ajax’s half-brother Teucer wants to bury it. Odysseus arrives and persuades Agamemnon and Menelaus to allow Ajax a proper funeral. Odysseus points out that even one's enemies deserve respect in death. The play ends with Teucer making arrangements for the burial. ===== On Kent Brockman's Channel Six "Oops Patrol" segment, he displays a humorous headline ("Mayor Unveils Erection to Cheering Crowd"), noticed and submitted by Marge, for which she receives a free T-shirt and other perks from the town. An envious Homer attempts to find his own funny headline so he too can win a T-shirt. Homer spends the following night with newspapers plastered over his bedroom wall, exhausting himself in his search. He finds an article entitled "World's Biggest Pizza". The first letters of each line spell out an invitation for Homer to meet someone at Fourth Street Overpass at midnight. He wakes Bart so they can both go. When they reach the overpass, the mystery person reveals herself to be Mona Simpson, Homer's mother. At the Overpass Diner, Mona explains that the government is still hunting her because of her crime of sabotaging Mr. Burns' germ warfare lab. Her nostalgia aroused by a macaroni pencil case Homer had made for her when he was five, her liberal links at the Springfield Shopper published the story of the giant pizza to lure Homer. Chief Wiggum, Lou, and Eddie arrive at the diner, and Lou recognizes Mona. Waitress Hora lets Homer, Mona, and Bart escape through the back after they increase her tip. After they drive off, Homer rams into the police station, where Mona is arrested and put on trial. Homer is put on the stand and, after a long clueless pause, gives a heartfelt request that they do not take his mother away from him again. The jury, deeply moved, acquit Mona, much to Burns' fury. Mona catches up on Homer's missed childhood; bathing him, watching him in the school play, knitting for him, teaching him how to ride a bike, and seeing a reenactment of the birth of Bart (of which only Homer is adamant must go ahead). To make Mona more welcome, Homer steals a whole room from Ned Flanders's house so she can have her own private bedroom. Burns renames his Germ Warfare Laboratory the "Grandma Simpson Peace Museum and Kid- teractive Learnatorium" to a crowd of cheering onlookers. Burns asks Mona to be the first to sign the museum's guest book. As she signs, prodded by Burns, says she signed under false names while at national parks, which is a federal offense. Federal agents jump out and arrest her. Lisa tells Homer she disagrees with what the government did with Mona, and unintentionally gives Homer the idea to break Mona out of prison. The next day, Homer and Bart trick the bus which is transferring female convicts to prison into pulling over by changing a sign overhead to display a warning of a snowstorm ahead. As the drivers get off to put chains on the tires, Homer steals the bus and liberates the convicts as the police give chase. Not wanting Homer to be imprisoned and leave his children like she did, Mona tases him and pushes him out of the bus onto an abandoned bed. Homer watches as the bus flies off a cliff into a lake, where it explodes and is covered by a rockslide. The Simpsons hold a funeral for Mona and pay their respects, but the coffin (filled with last week's garbage) suddenly slides away and into a forest. Later at night, Homer pores over newspaper headlines and finds an article in which the first letter of each row spells out "IMOK" over the front and back side of the page. Taking this to be another message from his mother that she is still alive, he goes to sleep. However, he overlooks an article about a giant taco, in which Mona encoded a long message that explains she escaped from the bus before it crashed and hitched a ride out of town. ===== Nine years after the events of the second game, Max Payne (James McCaffrey) has retired from the NYPD and spends his days nursing his alcoholism and addiction to painkillers. After an incident in a bar in Hoboken, New Jersey forces him to leave New York, Max takes up an offer from Raul Passos (Julian Dean), whom he met during the incident, to become a private security contractor in South America. Max finds himself working for the Branco family, whose members include: Rodrigo Branco (Frank Rodriguez), a wealthy real-estate mogul; Fabiana Branco (Benedita Pereira), Rodrigo's trophy wife; Giovanna (Shirley Rumierk), Fabiana's sister; Victor Branco (Robert Montano), a local politician; and Marcelo Branco (Dillon Porter), a hard-partying socialite. Operating in São Paulo a few months later, Max thwarts a kidnapping attempt on the Brancos by the Comando Sombra, a favela street gang, during a private party. A week later, the gang manage to kidnap Fabiana at nightclub while Max is overseeing her protection alongside Marcelo and Giovanna. Instructed to pay $3 million for her release, Rodrigo allows Max and Passos to handle the exchange at a local football stadium. However, the meeting between them and Comando Sombra is ambushed by the Crachá Preto, an outlaw paramilitary unit, which steals the money. Although the pair learn where Comando Sombra took Fabiana, their attempt to rescue her is thwarted by the gang's leader Serrano (Babs Olusanmokun). Meeting with the Branco men at Rodrigo's office, alongside Armando Becker (Ubirajara de Castro), head of special police unit Unidade de Forças Especiais (UFE), Victor recommends the police handle Fabiana's recovery. Shortly after Victor, Becker, Marcelo and Passos leave, Crachá Preto attack the office in order to kill Max. While he survives, Rodrigo is assassinated in the chaos. Blaming himself for the situation, Max swears off alcohol, shaves his head, and proceeds to seek out Serrano and Fabianna within the Nova Esperança favela, based on information from a dying Crachá Preto operative. During his search of the favela, Max runs into Detective Wilson Da Silva (Stephen Girasuolo), who offers assistance in exchange for help in investigating Crachá Preto, who he suspects have ties to Victor and the UFE. Max eventually reaches Serrano's hideout, only to witness Comando Sombra murder Fabiana. As the UFE raid the favela, Max finds himself forced to rescue Marcelo and Giovanna, whom he encountered in the hideout before they were taken away. During his search for the pair, he finds the UFE to be corrupt upon witnessing them selling prisoners to Crachá Preto. Moments after the exchange, Max finds Marcelo being executed by the paramilitaries, forcing him to rescue Giovanna. After a shootout at a bus station while trying to hide from Crachá Preto, Passos arrives to help, but flees with Giovanna, who is pregnant with his child. Angered at being abandoned, Max is picked up by Da Silva, and learns that Passos works for Victor. Questioned about an attack on Marcelo's private yacht in the Panama Canal a few weeks earlier, Max recalls that Marcelo and Passos tried to drive away with cargo that the attackers sought to steal. Da Silva reveals the cargo was money that Victor needed laundered in Panama, and that Max was recruited to be the fall guy for his illegal activities. At Da Silva's request, Max investigates a rundown hotel used by Crachá Preto: he soon discovers it to be the base for a black market organ theft ring that the UFE supplied with their prisoners, and decides to destroy it. After releasing a number of detainees, including Serrano – captured in the UFE raid – Max uses the paramilitaries' supply of explosives to rig the building for demolition. Before the paramilitaries' leader can kill him, Passos arrives to rescue him before the hotel is demolished. Although angered at Passos' involvement in Victor's affairs, Max forgives him for coming back for him, and allows him to leave the city with Giovanna. To expose the involvement of Victor, Becker and the UFE with the organ thefts, Da Silva persuades Max to get arrested at the UFE's headquarters in order to search it for incriminating evidence. His search culminates in him learning that Victor arranged for Rodrigo's murder to acquire his wealth, and that the sales of stolen organs were to fund his campaign in the upcoming mayoral elections. After a confrontation with Victor and Becker leads to them escaping, Max pursues them to the airport, leading to an intense fight with the UFE. Max eventually catches up to both, mortally maiming Becker in a shootout, before being aided by Da Silva in disabling Victor's private jet. While Max leaves him to be arrested by Da Silva and regular police units, he opts to break Victor's leg to make him suffer. A week later in Bahia, Max overhears news in a bar that the UFE was disbanded, while Victor died in prison. Choosing to move on with his life, Max takes a walk along the beach as the sun sets. ===== The Demolished Man is a science fiction police procedural set in a future where telepathy is common, although much of its effectiveness is derived from one individual having greater telepathic skill than another. In the 24th century, telepaths--called Espers or "peepers"--are integrated into all levels of society. They are classed according to their abilities. All Espers can telepathically communicate amongst themselves and the more powerful Espers can overwhelm their juniors. Telepathic ability is innate and inheritable but can remain latent and undetected in untrained persons. Once recognized, natural aptitude can be developed through instruction and exercise. There is a guild to improve Espers' telepathic skills, to set and enforce ethical conduct guidelines, and to increase the Esper population through intermarriage. Some latent telepaths are undiscovered, or are aware of their abilities but refuse to submit to Guild rule. Some are ostracized as punishment for breaking the rules. One character in the story suffers this fate for ten years, leaving him desperate for even vicarious contact with other telepaths. ===== Howie Blitzer is deeply affected by the death of his mother in a car accident on the Long Island Expressway. His situation is exacerbated by his acrimonious relationship with his distant father Marty, who brought a trophy girlfriend into the house less than a month after his wife's death. Howie's only solace is the company of his best friend Gary, a juvenile delinquent and hustler. Although Gary is attracted to Howie, Howie is unsure of his own sexuality. They have two other friends their age, one of whom has an incestuous relationship with his sister. The four boys routinely break into neighborhood houses. One night, they break into the house of "Big John" Harrigan during his birthday party. Gary knows his way around the house; it is later revealed that Big John is one of his steady clients. Big John interrupts them, and they narrowly escape with a pair of rare and valuable Russian pistols. John later confronts Gary over the burglary and Gary names Howie as his accomplice. Pretending to be a friend of Howie's mother, John introduces himself and invites Howie back to his house. Once there, he confronts Howie about the burglary, demanding the return of the guns. Howie can retrieve only one of them from Gary's room, so John demands $1000 for the other; Howie can only offer to work off the debt. Putting on a pornographic video, John hints that Howie can repay him with sex. Howie hastily leaves, but after returning home, masturbates to a fantasy involving John and the girl in the video. Gary steals money from Howie's father and disappears to Los Angeles, leaving Howie alone. John and Howie begin a tenuous friendship in which John becomes a kind of father figure to him. There is no sexual activity, but there is talk of sex. Howie realizes that he wields a degree of sexual power over John, something John is aware of. Howie stays over at John's house, temporarily displacing John's 19-year-old lover Scott, who warns Howie not to take John from him. Howie discovers a stash of child pornography in the house, including photos of a younger Gary as a blond 11-year-old boy. Howie's father happens to see him skipping school and losing his temper, he hits the boy. Later that day, he is arrested for dangerous practices in his construction business, and when Howie returns home to find him missing, he believes his father has abandoned him. He goes to John, approaching him in his bedroom wearing just his underpants, expecting they will have sex. But John explains to Howie what happened with his father, and the boy breaks down and cries. John leaves Howie to sleep by himself. The next morning, John is all charm, fixing Howie breakfast and taking him to see his father in jail. Howie's father apologizes for hitting him and promises to spend more time with him once he is out of prison. Howie is unconvinced, and merely tells his father never to hit him again. After dropping Howie off, John returns to the local rest area where young hustlers connect with johns and sits in his car. Scott, devastated by John's abandonment, drives by and shoots him dead. In the final scene, Howie contemplates the expressway, vowing he would not let it get him. ===== Homer attempts to claim a motorboat from a "police raffle" that turns out to be a sting operation. While returning home, the family passes a new mall being built on an area where a number of fossils were found. Lisa protests and the management allows Springfield Elementary to conduct an archaeological survey. During the excavations, Lisa finds a human skeleton with wings. Springfield's residents are convinced it is the remains of an angel, and Homer cashes in by moving the skeleton into the family's garage, charging visitors to see it. Lisa remains skeptical and asks scientist Dr. Stephen Jay Gould to test a sample of the skeleton. When Dr. Gould appears at the Simpson house the next day to tell Lisa that the tests were inconclusive, Lisa goes on television to compare the belief in angels to the belief in fictional things, such as leprechauns. In response, Springfield's religious zealots go on a rampage to destroy all scientific institutions. Appalled with the violence, Lisa goes into the garage to destroy the skeleton, but finds that it has disappeared. The mob soon converges on the Simpson household and Lisa is arrested and put on trial for destroying the skeleton. Before the trial even begins, the skeleton is seen outside the courtroom. Everyone rushes to it to see a foreboding message added to the skeleton warning that "The End" will come at sundown. Sunset approaches and the citizens gather around the skeleton, but nothing happens. As Lisa reprimands them, a booming voice from the skeleton silences her and announces "The End... of high prices!" The skeleton is then hoisted over to the entrance of the new Heavenly Hills Mall. Lisa realizes the whole event was a publicity stunt for the mall, and criticizes management for taking advantage of peoples' beliefs. She attempts to boycott them, but the bargain-loving public shrugs off the exploitation and goes shopping, while Dr. Gould confesses that he never actually tested the sample. Marge observes that while it was talking, Lisa believed the angel was real. She denies this, but admits she was frightened and thanks her mother for her support. ===== The poem revolves around the central figure, an ambitious and foolish horse (or ass), called Fauvel. The horse's name itself is rife with symbolism. "Fauvel" comes from the color of its coat, which is "muddy beige" (or fallow-colored) and symbolic of Vanity. The name breaks down to fau-vel, or "false veil", and is furthermore an acronym F-A-V-V-E-L taken from the head letters of these vices: Flattery, Avarice, Vileness, Variability (Fickleness), Envy, and Laxity (Flaterie, Avarice, Vilanie, Varieté, Envie, Lascheté). The first book is a rebuke against the clergy and society, tainted by Sin and corruption. Fauvel though he is a horse no longer resides in a stable, but is set up in a grand house (the royal palace in fact) by the grace of Dame Fortune, the goddess of Fate. He changes his residence to suit his needs, and has a custom manger and hayrack built. In his garderobe (toilet) he has those from the religious order stroking him to make sure "no dung can remain on him." Church and secular leaders far and wide make pilgrimages to see him, and bow to him in servitude. These potentates condescend to brush and clean Fauvel from his tonsured head to tail. These fawning groomers are said to "curry" () Fauvel in the original phrasing of the work, and this is where the English expression "curry favour" has originated, corrupted from the earlier form "curry fauvel." Fauvel travels to Macrocosmos and asks Dame Fortune for her hand in marriage. She denies him, but in her stead she proposes he wed Lady Vainglory. Fauvel agrees, and the wedding takes place, with such guests present as Flirtation, Adultery, Carnal Lust, and Venus, in a technique similar to that of the Morality plays of the 15th and 16th centuries. Finally, Dame Fortune reveals that Fauvel's role in the world is to give birth to more iniquitous rulers like himself, and to be a harbinger of the Antichrist. ===== Tomb of the Lizard King is a three-part adventure involving a wilderness trek, a battle against brigands, and a foray into the tomb of the Lizard King. Brigands have disrupted the southern trade routes, and the merchants are demanding that the Count of Eor put an end to the attacks. The Count put out the call for brave adventurers to put a stop to the raids and discover the power behind the attacks. Tomb of the Lizard King opens with a journey through the wilderness before the characters are led to the tomb of the Lizard King. ===== Philo Beddoe is a truck driver living in the San Fernando Valley. He lives in a small house, with an orangutan named Clyde, behind that of his brother, Orville Boggs, and his mother. Philo makes money on the side as a bare-knuckle fighter; he is often compared to a legendary fighter named Tank Murdock. One night Philo becomes smitten with Lynn Halsey-Taylor, an aspiring country music singer he meets at the Palomino Club, a local honky-tonk. His relationship with her seems to be going well until one day she and her camper disappear from the trailer park. Believing that he is falling for her, Philo decides to set off for Lynn's home in Denver, Colorado. Along the way, he has a run-in with a motorcycle gang called the Black Widows, who incur Philo's wrath after two gang members insult him and Clyde at a traffic light. Philo chases them down and takes their bikes (which he repaints, repairs, and resells), and every attempt they make to get even results in disaster. Philo also incurs the wrath of an LAPD cop named Putnam, with whom he gets into a fight at the Palomino. Both the officer and the Widows learn of Philo's trip to Colorado and head off to find him. Orville and Clyde accompany Philo to Denver, and on the way, they meet a woman named Echo who becomes Orville's girlfriend. They earn money along the way by booking fights for Philo. After a fight in a slaughterhouse, the man holding the money tries to stiff Philo. Echo fires two shots from a .38, dead center into a side of beef. She lets the crowd know she knows how to shoot, saying, "The second shot was to let you know the first was no accident." The man hands over the money. Knowing that Philo has come to look for her, Lynn helps the Black Widows lure him into a trap. Philo sees Lynn and attempts to talk to her, but finds himself surrounded by the Black Widows. He manages to fight most of them until Orville intervenes. Using a garbage truck with a dumpster hoist, he dumps all the motorcycles into the back of the truck. The Widows charge the garbage truck, but Orville gets away. Philo, Echo, and Orville then escape. Philo finally finds Lynn and she reveals her true nature to him. Hurt by her callousness, Philo says that he is the only one dumb enough to want to take her further than her bed. Lynn erupts in a fit of rage, striking him repeatedly until she collapses in tears. Orville learns that Tank Murdock, based in the area, is ready to retire after one more fight. Orville makes the arrangements, and Philo faces his elderly nemesis. During the fight, the crowd, initially pro-Murdock, begins to insult him, with some murmurs that Philo is going to be the next Murdock. Philo lets his guard down, intentionally giving Murdock a clear shot, knocking Philo down for the count. Murdock, having regained the crowd's esteem, is allowed to retire undefeated. Clyde, Orville and Echo head home the next day. ===== Fictional television station WIDB-TV (channel 8) experiences problems with its late-night airing of science-fiction classic Amazon Women on the Moon, a 1950s B movie in which Queen Lara (Sybil Danning) and Captain Nelson (Steve Forrest) battle exploding volcanoes and man-eating spiders on the Moon. Waiting for the film to resume, an unseen viewer begins channel surfing—simulated by bursts of white noise—through late night cable, with the various segments and sketches of the film representing the programming found on different channels. The viewer intermittently returns to channel 8, where Amazon Women continues airing before faltering once more. These segments feature: * Arsenio Hall as a man who nearly kills himself in a series of mishaps around his apartment; * Monique Gabrielle as a model who goes about her daily routine in Laguna, California, completely naked; * Lou Jacobi as a man named Murray, zapped into the television, wandering throughout sketches looking for his wife; * Michelle Pfeiffer and Peter Horton as a young couple having trouble with eccentric doctor Griffin Dunne delivering and then concealing their newborn baby; * Joe Pantoliano as the presenter of a commercial recommending stapling carpet to a bald head as a hair loss prevention measure; * David Alan Grier and B.B. King in a public-service appeal for "blacks without soul" featuring "Don 'No Soul' Simmons"; * Rosanna Arquette as a young woman on a blind date, employing unusual methods of investigation to reveal the qualifications of Steve Guttenberg; * Henry Silva as the host of a show entitled Bullshit or Not?, clearly intended as a spoof of Ripley's Believe It or Not! with Jack Palance and In Search of...; * Archie Hahn as a man who dies after a critical mauling of his life (by Roger Barkley and Al Lohman, mimicking Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert), then is roasted at his funeral by a variety of people, including Steve Allen, Henny Youngman, and even his own wife; * William Marshall as the leader of the Video Pirates, who hijack an MCA Home Video ship, uncover a vast amount of videotapes and laserdiscs, and promptly begin illegally bootlegging the media; * Ed Begley Jr., as the son of the Invisible Man, having trouble with his formula; * Angel Tompkins as a president's First Lady who is also a former hooker; * Matt Adler as a sexually frustrated teenager trying to purchase a pack of condoms, with unexpected results; * Marc McClure renting a personalized date video that spills over into real life; * "Reckless Youth" — an epilogue at the end of the credits, with Carrie Fisher and Paul Bartel in a black-and-white ephemeral film warning about the spread of "social diseases" in the style of Reefer Madness. ===== A long time ago, the small kingdom of Vittoria (ビトール Bythol in the PSP version's Japanese localization, Berimya in the SNES version's English localization) was built around a lofty tower, which pierced the sky. The people of the city, guarded by a mighty Dragon, lived in peace and abundance. However, King Bistalle (Berebus), the ruler of Vittoria, desired to expand his kingdom and ordered the scholars to research the Tower. Soon he was brought a tome written in an ancient language. As they were deciphering the tome, some scholars feared that they might be laying their hands on the forbidden knowledge of the ancients. The tome reads, "The Great Guardian of Vittoria, the Dragon, and the Essence of Power lies in the top of the Tower; the one who possesses the Essence will possess all." Undaunted by these otherwise ominous words, Vittoria decided to make this Essence of Power his own. He secretly organized an army which soon attacked the Tower and overwhelmed the Dragon. But as Bistalle grasped at the Essence of Power, the Dragon gave up its own life to destroy it. The Essence, losing control, transformed the King into a hideous monster and sank the entire kingdom of Vittoria, including the great tower, under the ground. All people on the surface forgot about Vittoria and the Tower in its center, and a thousand years passed. One day, a swordsman named Ares (アレス＝トラーノス Ares Toraernos / Varik) is pursued by his nemesis, the sorceress Dela Delon (ドーラ・ドロン, transliterated as Dora Doran in The Dark Revenant to match the katakana and renamed Alexis in the English SNES version) who seeks revenge for his slaying of her master. When Dela catches up with Ares and attacks, her magic causes the ground beneath them collapsed and both fall into the cursed Ruins of Vittoria. The player assumes the role of Ares and must escape from the dangerous ruin, with the vengeful Dela constantly in pursuit of him. She is also interested in escaping the maze herself and the two meet repeatedly. Whether or not Ares helps her in peril during the certain late events of the game, the ending changes slightly. ===== The player assumes control of a cop named Don Marshall in Chicago, Illinois, who is at a donut shop for a break. While sipping the last drop of coffee, he gets a call from his dispatcher. They realize that a major crime organization has invaded town, and they need his help on the double. He is one of the two survivors of the elite group of officers. The rest have ended up in the hospital or killed. Once the call ended, he decided to check out the bank. From that point on, he is going to experience the toughest job that he would have during his years in the police force. He has been assigned and agrees to help stop a growing crime wave that puts the city's security in serious jeopardy, along with a helper (a second player can join in). ===== Stuart Smalley (Al Franken), the disciple of the 12-step program, is challenged by life's injustices. He loses his public-access cable television show, must beg his manipulative overbearing boss for his job back, rehabilitate his alcoholic father and drug abusing brother (Vincent D'Onofrio), and support his overweight mother (Shirley Knight) and sister (Lesley Boone) in their lack of ability in handling their relationships with their husbands. Stuart is supported by his 12-step sponsors as he regresses to his negative behaviors each time he faces these challenges. ===== While carving jack-o'-lanterns in Xander's basement, the gang discusses plans for Halloween. Buffy continues to mope over her situation with Parker. They decide to go to the Alpha-Delta house for a party. The next day at school, Buffy and Oz both express their concerns for Willow and her use of magic. Buffy spots Parker and immediately runs away. Willow follows her, explaining that she should get over it and have fun at the party that night, but Buffy thinks that Giles will want her to patrol. When Buffy goes to visit Giles, she's surprised to find him embracing the Halloween spirit. He discourages her from patrolling and encourages her to go party. At the Alpha-Delta house, the members are getting ready for the party. One finds a symbol in an old book to paint on the floor. Anya goes to see Xander, wanting to know where their relationship is heading. He agrees that they're somewhat dating, inviting her to the party. Buffy, who skipped her psych class, visits the professor and asks for her assignment, but she receives a cold response. Riley, however, gives her the assignment, telling her to have fun on Halloween. Oz and Xander carry a sound system to the Alpha- Delta house, and Oz installs it while one guy paints the symbol from the book. Oz cuts his hand, spilling drops of his blood, which activates the ritual to summon Gachnar. Joyce alters one of Buffy's old costumes, Little Red Riding Hood, and talks with her about how things used to be. Buffy waits outside the house for her friends, and Xander shows up dressed as James Bond. They run into Willow, dressed as Joan of Arc, and Oz, going as God. Everything at the party starts to go awry as fears begin to become real, and the fake scary objects like plastic spiders and skeletons, become alive. The gang enters the house, but they encounter several obstacles. Later, Anya arrives at the party, dressed as a bunny, but she is unable to get inside because the entrances to the house have become sealed up. She sees a girl screaming at a window, and the window then disappears from the house. Inside, Buffy tells the gang to find a way out and get help. A skeleton attacks her from behind, but after she attacks, it becomes fake again. Buffy and Willow fight over Buffy rejecting help from her friends and pushing them away, as well as Buffy and Oz arguing with Willow about her use of witchcraft. Willow insists she can safely do a guidance spell. Meanwhile, Anya goes to Giles for help. Xander tries to talk to the gang but finds that he's become invisible to them. Willow and Oz find a staircase and head up. As they're walking, Oz begins to change into a werewolf and scratches Willow before running away from her. Xander approaches a mirror, and a head on the table behind him says that he can see him. Oz sits in a bathtub, chanting to himself that he isn't going to change. Willow conjures her spell. However, it quickly spins out of control, and she screams for help as it attacks her. Buffy, hearing Willow's cries, tries to get to her, but she falls into the basement where bodies come up from the ground and grab at her. Giles and Anya are unable to find a way inside, so Giles cuts a door using a chainsaw. While fleeing through the house, the gang ends up in the room where the mystical symbol is painted. Giles and Anya break into the room. They determine the sign on the floor to be the Mark of Gachnar, and Buffy and Giles express fear about how scary the demon looks in the illustration. Buffy destroys the symbol before Giles can tell her that doing so will bring Gachnar forth. When the demon manifests, however, it turns out to be merely a few inches in height. After a laugh at the absurdity of giving in to one's fears, Buffy squashes Gachnar by stomping on him. At Giles' place, the gang eats candy while Giles makes a discovery: the arcane footnote "Fir Meit" below the illustration of Gachnar in his book translates as "Actual Size". ===== The Wall tells the story of Pink, an alienated and embittered rock star. At this point in the narrative, Pink is now grown up and married, but he and his wife are having relationship problems because of his physical distance and nearly complete emotional "wall". Pink asks himself how he should complete its construction. ===== The novel is split into a series of short stories which follow various characters and their interactions with the Hammer's Slammers regiment. After each short story is an interlude chapter. These chapters form short essays that Drake uses to expand up the world of the Hammerverse. ===== ===== Marie is a teenage girl living a criminal life with her friends on the streets of Paris. Her mother, Élisa, suffering from poverty, abandoned by her husband and estranged from her parents, had tried to kill her when she was very young and subsequently committed suicide, while her father has never been part of her life. One day she decides to find and take revenge on her father for not helping her when she was a child. When she finds him she realises that she cannot kill her own father, at least not before he has had the chance to explain. ===== Bernard Berkman is an arrogant, once-promising novelist whose career has gone into a slow decline as he spends more time teaching and less time writing. His unfaithful wife, Joan, has recently begun publishing her own work to widespread acclaim, which only increases the growing tension between them. One day, Bernard and Joan tell their two sons, 16-year-old Walt and 12-year-old Frank, that they are separating, with Bernard renting a house on the other side of Prospect Park from their home in Park Slope, Brooklyn. As the parents set up a schedule for spending time with their children, Walt and Frank can hardly imagine that things could get more combative between their parents. They do, however, as Joan begins dating Ivan, Frank's tennis instructor, and Bernard starts sharing his new house with Lili, one of his students. Meanwhile, the two boys begin taking sides in the battle between their parents, with Frank siding with his mother and Walt lashing out at her. Along with the trouble both boys exhibit verbally with their parents, they also show internal struggles and very different ways of handling the stress of their parents' divorce. Walt's most obvious cry for help is when he performs and claims to have written "Hey You" by Pink Floyd at his school's talent show. After Walt wins first place and receives praise from his family and friends, his school realizes that he did not write the song. At this point, the school calls Bernard and Joan in to discuss Walt. They all decide that Walt should see the school psychologist. Meanwhile, Frank exhibits his own internal turmoil by repeatedly masturbating at school. He also begins to drink beer and speak in a way that emulates Ivan's mannerisms. During the meeting with the psychologist, Walt finally starts to see things more objectively, without the taint of his father's opinions. He realizes that he had been emulating Bernard's rude and arrogant behavior when he mistreats a girl he had been dating named Sophie, who breaks things off with him when she finally gets fed up with his narcissism and cruel treatment of her. The psychologist asks Walt about his memories and it becomes clear to Walt that his father was never really present, and that his mother was the one whom he remembers caring for him. His fondest memory is when his mother would take him to see the giant squid and whale exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History; the exhibit scared him as a small boy so he would look at it through his fingers whenever they went by the exhibit at the museum. After a heated argument between Bernard and Joan over custody, Bernard collapses on the street outside their home and is taken to the hospital. Bernard asks for Walt to stay by his side, but Walt now seeing his father for the vindictive and narcissistic jerk he really is instead runs to visit the squid and whale. The film ends with him standing in front of the exhibit, finally able to stare straight at it. The giant squid and whale exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History. ===== The story revolves around a mother, Yukie Kitazawa, and her two adopted daughters, Rumi and Tomoko. Yukie has a car accident while her husband is away on a business trip, and is forced to repay the other party, a young man named Taketo Nogawa, by sexual means. Taketo and his father, a powerful and corrupt business owner, blackmail and violate Yukie, Rumi and Tomoko. But Yukie's husband has been impotent for some time (due to his suppressed sexual attraction to Tomoko), and Yukie cannot help but welcome the sexual attention Taketo shows her. Taketo is portrayed as an impulsive, frustrated young man prone to occasional outbursts. Yumi, who works at Taketo's father's company, also joins in the emotional maelstrom; at times, she appears to be a loyal servant of the company and its interests, such as collecting the money owed by Yukie. At other times, she seems more concerned with the solidarity of the Kitazawa family. In the middle of it all stands Tomoko, the younger sister, a girl so innocent that she loves everyone. Tomoko does all in her power to keep the family happy and together despite their lack of genetic bonds. Ai Shimai does not strictly adhere to chronological order; it could be that the second and third parts depict separate, alternate endings. Also, some scenes are viewed through the eyes of different characters, a narrative technique that allows the advancing story to switch back and fill in where it previously left off. The series contains both heterosexual and lesbian love-making (sometimes in the same scene). Tomoko and Rumi even have sex while their mother and Yumi have sex on the bed, using a dildo. ===== Yakin Byōto 1: Ryuji Hirasaka is an unemployed, middle-aged Japanese gynaecologist, single, independent, and living on his own. One evening, he receives an email from the fictional St. Juliana Hospital, a local institution, offering him a temporary job opportunity. He contently accepts, scheduling to meet with the president the following day. That afternoon, semi-formal and with a portfolio, Ryuji commutes to the hospital. After an acquaintance with Ren Nanase, a nurse who escorts him to the president, he is frightened to discover his potential employer is a woman he had brutally raped in the past, Narumi Jinguji. In spite of the excruciating atmosphere, however, Narumi explains her wish to develop a department in the hospital that caters to the sexual interests of patients; in need of his expertise to oversee the operation. Overwhelmed with lewd excitement, Ryuji agrees. Yakin Byōto 2: A young elite doctor Souichiro Kuwabara couldn't forget his feelings towards Ren Nanase, whom he had fallen in love with back in his training days. He's been switching occupations at different hospitals one after another, to go look for her, and finally he meets her again at the Sei-Katorea General Hospital. However, her attitude was remote and sadly enough his love couldn't be fulfilled. To make things worse and more complicated, he finds a stack of photographs depicting Ren being molested. Ren had been turned into a lewd woman by Hirasaka when she was still working at St. Julianna. He was very disappointed after what he had witnessed to the point where he ends up losing his mind and going insane-(both mentally and sexually). Yakin Byōto 3: Yotsuya Jiro, an aspiring novelist was lying in front of a hospital. He was seriously injured, and when he thought he was about to die, a pink-haired nurse named Yuu Yagami, helped him. He was sent into an emergency ward, and he met a beautiful woman, Reika Mikage. She is a director of the hospital, and she asked him to become a test subject. Because he didn't have any relatives, he accepted it. Then, Yuu was supposed to take care of him. Since that day, his fate had changed a lot. Yakin Byōto Zero: This is the back story of how the genius doctor Ryuuji Hirasaka acquired his perverted pastime as a med school student. He and Narumi Jinguuji are rivals at the top of their class. One day, Narumi tells him that if he can seduce the woman she designates in the 2 weeks before graduation, she'll admit her defeat and do anything he tells her. The girls she suggests are just as beautiful and desirable as herself. Sensing his perverted perceptions transforming into a talent at her tantalizing suggestion, he readily agrees. ===== Evelyn in the church Harold Gern (Antony Carbone), a successful businessman from New York who is constantly in legal trouble, is spending a holiday in Puerto Rico with his attractive wife, Evelyn (Betsy Jones-Moreland), whom he married "between trials." They are joined by Martin Joyce (Robert Towne, billed as Edward Wain), Harold's lawyer, who has come to discuss the latest indictment. Harold invites him along on a boat trip during which all three try out some newly bought scuba diving equipment. When they resurface, they are unable to breathe without using their scuba tanks. They climb back into their boat and find Manuel, the crewman, dead, apparently of asphyxiation. Upon rowing ashore, they enter the jungle. With their air running out, they discover that the foliage gives off oxygen that they can breathe. When they go into town, they find nobody left alive and cannot contact anyone by radio. It dawns upon the three that they might be the only survivors in the area, maybe in the world. The domineering Harold takes charge. They concentrate on becoming self- sufficient, and the two men fish, as marine creatures have survived. Later, they also find living insects and baby chicks, presumably newly hatched. Harold feels that in the long run, they will have to move north to a colder climate to avoid problems with insects and food preservation and to increase their chances of meeting other survivors. Harold asserts ownership of Eve as the husband. Martin reminds him the rules have changed. Eve has never felt love from Harold and was only a possession. She finds freedom. Harold and Martin have a physical fight after Martin has slept with Eve. She tells her husband she was not raped. Harold gives Martin two hours to leave. Eve wants Martin to ask her to come with him and he does. The two leave together and Harold follows in a chase to the boat. Harold beats up and kills Martin. He holds out his hand to Eve and the two go together. ===== The novel deals with a government installation at Blind Lake, Minnesota, where scientists observe sentient life on a planet 51 light-years away, using telescopes powered by quantum computers that have advanced beyond human understanding. A sudden and unexplained facility lockdown extends into a long-term quarantine. Observation department head Marguerite Hauser tries to carry on with her work studying the alien life while taking care of her socially-challenged daughter Tess, warding off her ex-husband Ray, and deciding how she feels about houseguest and disgraced journalist Chris. ===== In the fictional country of Lugash, a mysterious thief seizes the Pink Panther diamond and leaves a white glove marked with a gold-tinted "P". With its national treasure once again missing, the Shah of Lugash requests the assistance of Inspector Clouseau (Peter Sellers) of the Sûreté, as Clouseau had recovered the diamond the last time it was stolen (in The Pink Panther). Clouseau has been demoted to beat cop by his boss, Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus (Herbert Lom), who despises him to the point of obsession, but the French government forces Dreyfus to reinstate him. Clouseau joyously receives the news and duly departs for Lugash, but not before fending off a surprise attack from his servant Cato (Burt Kwouk), who had been ordered to do so to keep the Inspector on his toes. Upon examining the crime scene in the national museum — in which, due to his habitual clumsiness, he wrecks several priceless antiquities — Clouseau concludes that the glove implicates Sir Charles Litton (Christopher Plummer), alias "the notorious Phantom," as the thief. After several catastrophic failures to stake out Litton Manor in Nice, Clouseau believes a mysterious assassin is attempting to kill him. He follows Sir Charles' wife, Lady Claudine Litton (Catherine Schell), to the Gstaad Palace hotel in Switzerland in search of clues to her husband's whereabouts, and repeatedly bungles the investigation. Meanwhile, Sir Charles is teased about the theft by his wife, and realizes he has been framed. Arriving in Lugash to clear his name, Sir Charles barely avoids being murdered and sent to the Lugash secret police by his associate known as the "Fat Man" (Eric Pohlmann), who explains that with the leading suspect dead, the secret police will no longer have an excuse to continue purging their political enemies. Escaping to his suite, Litton finds secret police Colonel Sharki (Peter Arne) waiting for him, who implies the Fat Man's understanding is correct, but reminds him the diamond must be recovered eventually. Sir Charles pretends to cooperate, but is unable to hide his reaction when he recognizes a face on the museum's security footage. He avoids another plot by the Fat Man and his duplicitous underling Pepi (Graham Stark) and escapes from Lugash, secretly pursued by Sharki, who believes Sir Charles will lead him to the diamond. In Gstaad, Clouseau, still tailing Lady Claudine, is suddenly ordered by Dreyfus over the telephone to arrest her in her hotel room. However, when Clouseau calls back to clarify the order, he is told that Dreyfus is on vacation. Sir Charles, who in the meantime has chartered a private flight out of Lugash, arrives at the hotel and is first to confront his wife. Lady Claudine admits she stole the jewel to spark excitement in their lives. Colonel Sharki shows up, but just as he prepares to kill them both, Inspector Clouseau barges in. Sir Charles explains things to Clouseau, and Sharki is about to kill the three of them. However, Dreyfus has followed Clouseau and is outside the hotel room with a rifle — Dreyfus is in fact the "mysterious assassin" who has been trying to kill Clouseau all this time — and just as Dreyfus shoots at Clouseau, the Inspector ducks to check if his fly is undone, and the shot kills Sharki instead. The other three take cover, while Dreyfus, insanely enraged by his latest failure to kill Clouseau, goes berserk until he is arrested. For once again recovering the Pink Panther, Clouseau is promoted to Chief Inspector, while Sir Charles resumes his career as a jewel thief. At a Japanese restaurant in the epilogue, Cato unexpectedly attacks Clouseau again and triggers a massive brawl, destroying the premises. Dreyfus is committed to a lunatic asylum for his actions, where he is straitjacketed inside a padded cell and vows revenge on Clouseau. ===== The inhabitants of the British village of Midwich suddenly fall unconscious, as does anyone entering the village. The military establishes a cordon around Midwich and sends in a man wearing a gas mask, but he, too, falls unconscious and is pulled back with rope. The man awakens and reports experiencing a cold sensation just before passing out. The pilot of a military reconnaissance plane is contacted and asked to investigate. When he flies below 5,000 feet, he loses consciousness and the plane crashes. A five-mile exclusion zone around the village is established for all aircraft. After approximately four hours, the villagers regain consciousness, and all are apparently unaffected. Two months later, all women and girls of child-bearing age in the affected area are discovered to be pregnant, sparking many accusations of both infidelity and extramarital sex. The accusations fade as the extraordinary nature of the pregnancies is discovered, with seven-month fetuses appearing after only five months. All the women give birth on the same day. Their children have an unusual appearance, including "arresting" eyes, odd scalp hair construction and colour (platinum blonde), and unusually narrow fingernails. As the children grow and develop at a rapid rate, it becomes clear they also have a powerful telepathic bond with one another. They can communicate with each other over great distances, and as one learns something, so do the others. Three years later, Professor Gordon Zellaby (Sanders), whose wife Anthea (Shelley) gave birth to one of the children, attends a meeting with British Intelligence to discuss the children. There he learns Midwich was not the only place affected; follow-up investigations have revealed similar phenomena in other areas of the world. At age three, the children are precocious, physically and mentally the equivalent of children four times their age. Their behaviour has become even more unusual and striking. They dress impeccably, always walk as a group, speak in an adult manner, and behave maturely, but they show no conscience or love, and demonstrate a coldness to others, causing the villagers to fear and be repulsed by them. The children begin to exhibit the power to read minds and to force people to do things against their will. There have been a number of villagers' deaths since the children were born, many of which are considered unusual, and some citizens believe the children are responsible. This is confirmed when the children are seen killing a man by making him crash his car into a wall, and again when they force his suspicious brother to shoot himself. Zellaby, whose "son" David is one of the children, is at first eager to work with them, trying to teach them while hoping to learn more about them. The children are placed in a separate building where they will learn and live. While the children continue to exert their will, Zellaby is informed that the Soviet government has fired a nuclear shell and destroyed the Russian village that was the only other location on Earth where mutant children still lived. Zellaby compares the children's resistance to reasoning with a brick wall and uses this motif as self-protection against their mind reading after the children's inhuman nature becomes clear to him. He takes a hidden time-bomb to a session with the children and tries to block their awareness of the bomb by visualizing a brick wall. David scans his mind, showing an emotion (astonishment) for the first time. The children eventually manage to break down Zellaby's mental wall and discover the truth just a moment before the bomb detonates, consuming the building in flames and killing everyone in the house, including Zellaby. ===== The story is about a nobleman named Dmitri Ivanovich Nekhlyudov, who seeks redemption for a sin committed years earlier. When he was a younger man, at his Aunts' estate, he fell in love with their ward, Katyusha (Katerina Mikhailovna Maslova), who is goddaughter to one Aunt and treated badly by the other. However, after going to the city and becoming corrupted by drink and gambling, he returns two years later to his Aunts' estate and rapes Katyusha, leaving her pregnant. She is then thrown out by his Aunt, and proceeds to face a series of unfortunate and unpleasant events, before she ends up working as a prostitute, going by her surname, Maslova. Ten years later, Nekhlyudov sits on a jury which sentences the girl, Maslova, to prison in Siberia for murder (poisoning a client who beat her, a crime of which she is innocent). The book narrates his attempts to help her practically, but focuses on his personal mental and moral struggle. He goes to visit her in prison, meets other prisoners, hears their stories, and slowly comes to realize that below his gilded aristocratic world, yet invisible to it, is a much larger world of cruelty, injustice and suffering. Story after story he hears and even sees people chained without cause, beaten without cause, immured in dungeons for life without cause, and a twelve-year-old boy sleeping in a lake of human dung from an overflowing latrine because there is no other place on the prison floor, but clinging in a vain search for love to the leg of the man next to him, until the book achieves the bizarre intensity of a horrific fever dream. He decides to give up his property and pass ownership on to his peasants, leaving them to argue over the different ways in which they can organise the estate, and he follows Katyusha into exile, planning on marrying her. On their long journey into Siberia, she falls in love with another man, and Nekhludov gives his blessing and still chooses to live as part of the penal community, seeking redemption. An illustration by Leonid Pasternak in one of the early English editions. ===== Federico Fellini recounts his youth in Rome. The film opens up with a long traffic jam to the city. Once there, scenes are shown depicting Rome during the Fascist regime in the 1930s as well as in the 1970s. A young Fellini (Gonzales) moves into a vivacious guesthouse inhabited by unusual people (including a Benito Mussolini lookalike) and run by a sick obese woman. He visits two brothels - one being dilapitated and overcrowded and the other one more stylish and luxurious - and seemingly falls in love with a prostitute working in the latter one. Other attractions in Rome are shown, including a cheap vaudeville theatre, streets, tunnels, and an ancient catacomb with frescos that get ruined by fresh air soon after the excavators discover it. The most famous scene depicts an elderly solitary noblewoman holding an extravagant liturgical fashion show for a Cardinal and other guests with priests and nuns parading in all kinds of bizarre costumes. The film eventually concludes with a group of young motorcyclists riding into the city and a melancholic shot of actress Anna Magnani, whom the film crew met in the street during shooting and who would die some months afterwards. ===== A happy, laughing Cabiria (Giulietta Masina) is standing on a river bank with her current boyfriend and live-in lover, Giorgio (Franco Fabrizi). Suddenly he pushes her into the river and steals her purse which is full of money. She cannot swim and nearly drowns, but is rescued by a group of young boys and revived at the last possible moment by helpful ordinary people who live a little further down the river. In spite of their just saving her life, she treats them with disdain and starts looking for Giorgio. Cabiria returns to her small home, but Giorgio has disappeared. She is bitter, and when her best friend and neighbor, Wanda (Franca Marzi) tries to help her get over him, Cabiria shoos her away and remains disgruntled. She continues to work as a prostitute. One night, she is outside a fancy nightclub and witnesses a fight between famous movie star, Alberto Lazzari (Amedeo Nazzari) and his girlfriend, as she dumps him. The difference between the glamorous girlfriend, in a mink coat, and the short and scruffy Cabiria are stark. The jilted Lazzari takes the starstruck Cabiria to another club and then to his house, where Cabiria is astounded by its opulence. As the two are finally becoming closer after a rather standoffish few hours, Lazzari's girlfriend returns and Cabiria is shuffled off to the bathroom, unable to make love with the movie star. Later, a church procession passes the hangout area for the town prostitutes. As her associates mock the Church, Cabiria is drawn to the procession. Just as she is about to join the procession, another john comes and she gets in his truck instead. As she heads home later that night, she sees a man giving food to the poor people living in caves near her house. She has never seen this man before, but she is impressed by his charity toward others. When she goes to church with her friends, she prays for a chance to better her life. Cabiria goes to a magic show, and the magician (Aldo Silvani) drags her up on stage and hypnotizes her. As the audience laughs, she acts out her desires to be married and live a happy life. Furious at having been taken advantage of for the audience's amusement, she leaves in a huff. Outside the theater, a man named Oscar (François Périer) is waiting to talk to her. He was in the audience, and he says he agrees with her that it was not right for everyone to laugh, but believes that fate has brought them together. They go for a drink, and at first she is cautious and suspicious, but after several meetings she falls passionately in love with him; they are to be married after only a few weeks. Cabiria is delighted and sells her home and takes out all her money from the bank. As a dowry, she offers to give Oscar 700,000 lire in cash, but he declines. However, during a walk in a wooded area, on a cliff overlooking a lake,Scenes were shot on location at Lake Bracciano near Rome. Kezich, 183 Oscar becomes distant and starts acting nervous. Cabiria realizes that just like her earlier lover, Oscar intends to push her over the cliff and steal her money. She throws her purse at his feet, sobbing in convulsions on the ground and begging for him to kill her as he takes the money and abandons her. She later picks herself up and stumbles out of the wood in tears. In the film's famous last sequence, Cabiria walks the long road back to town when she is met by a group of young people riding scooters, playing music, and dancing. They happily form an impromptu parade around her until she begins to smile through her tears. ===== The King Must Die is an adaption of the early life and adventures of the mythological Greek hero Theseus. Beginning with his childhood in the Greek city-state of Troizen, the plot follows him through his travels in Eleusis, where he becomes king; in Athens, where he becomes known as the son and heir of the king; and in Crete, where he learns the Cretan sport of bull-leaping. The novel ends with Theseus's return to Athens. ===== Tony and his sister Tia are in need of a vacation. Uncle Bené drops them off in their flying saucer at the Rose Bowl Stadium in Los Angeles, California, after which the siblings quickly become separated from each other. A man named Dr. Victor Gannon (Lee) and his assistant Letha Wedge (Davis) happen to see Tony using his powers to save Letha's nephew Sickle from certain death. Realizing that Tony has supernatural powers, Dr. Gannon drugs the boy with a tranquilizer shot and takes him back to their laboratory. There, Dr. Gannon successfully tests a new mind-control technology on him. Under its influence, Tony is completely hypnotized and does everything that his kidnappers want him to do, including stealing gold from a museum exhibit and stopping Tia from finding them. With Tony at his robotic bidding, Dr. Gannon hopes to achieve recognition within the scientific community and worldwide power, while Letha merely wants a return on her investment. A group of would-be tough boys whom Tia comes across, called the Earthquake Gang, are being chased by the Golden Goons, in which Tia then telepathically gets rid of them. The gang of boys accept her into their gang and help her look for her brother. They let her sleep in their secret hideout, where she often gets many visions of where her brother is; first at the gold museum where Tony is controlled by a chip attached to his ear. He unstacks the gold but is followed by Mr. Yokomoto, the truant officer who thinks Tony should go to school, and chases the doctor, aunt, nephew, and Tony in his minibus unsuccessfully. As a result, Mr. Yokomoto destroyed public property and ends up losing his job. Next, Tia uses her telepathy to trace Tony's hideout, but is caught by Sickle using chloroform. She telepathically asks Alfred the goat to find the Earthquake Gang. They chase the goat back to the hideout. In the meantime Tony, Letha, Sickle, and Victor drive to a plutonium plant to steal plutonium. Tia traces their location and describes it to be a "big round ball." One of the members assume the location to be another place, and Tia is upset. They come across Mr. Yokomoto, who tells them that he lost his job and the only thing that works is the radio. The news given about the plutonium plant stresses on the word "molecular flow." Tia then asks Mr. Yokomoto to drive them to the location after she magically repairs the minibus. After Victor and his gang reach the site, he shuts down the plant's cooling system. In exchange for turning it on, he requires 5 million dollars in cash. The people working at the plant make arrangements for the money as soon as possible, but Tia reaches the site in time, where she and Tony battle to turn on the cooling system. Tia manages to turn it on, but Victor commands Tony to kill his sister. In this course of time, she understands how he is been controlled and destroys the device. Tia explains what had happened to him, in which Tony makes Victor, Sickle and Letha go up to the ceiling with no way of getting down. Mr. Yokomoto drives the kids to the Rose Bowl Stadium and the Earthquake Gang come along to say bye. Tony and Tia bid farewell to the kids after they board the flying saucer and go back to Witch Mountain. ===== In 1958, two U.S. Air Force pilots and aspiring astronauts, William "Hawk" Hawkins (Tommy Lee Jones) and Frank Corvin (Clint Eastwood), are testing a modified Bell X-2https://www.impdb.org/index.php?title=Space_Cowboys#Bell_X-2 when Hawk decides to break a height record. The plane stalls and they are forced to eject, narrowly missing a Boeing B-50 Superfortress flying with navigator "Tank" Sullivan (James Garner). On the ground, Frank punches Hawk, but their fight is broken up by flight engineer Jerry O'Neill (Donald Sutherland). Their boss, Bob Gerson (James Cromwell), chastises Hawk, before taking them to a press conference, where he announces that the newly created NASA, rather than the USAF, will be conducting space flight tests. In the present day, NASA is tasked to prevent a Soviet communications satellite, IKON, from decaying out of orbit and crashing to Earth. The satellite's archaic electronics are based on those of Skylab that Frank had developed. Bob, now a project manager at NASA, requests Frank's help. Frank still despises Bob, but agrees provided he has the help of "Team Daedalus" including Hawk, Tank, and Jerry. Bob plans to have younger astronauts shadow the four, so as to replace them before launch. When the press learn of Frank's team, the Vice President convinces Bob that they must be part of the mission for publicity. The old and young teams soon work together, with the older astronauts showing off skills learned without the aid of a computer. The Space Shuttle Daedalus finds the satellite. It is not a communication satellite but in fact houses six nuclear missiles, relics from the Cold War and a violation of the Outer Space Treaty. Frank discovers that the satellite control system was stolen from Bob's files by the KGB, and that the satellite's computers will launch the missiles at predetermined targets if it falls out of orbit. NASA and the crew plan to use the payload- assist rockets to push the satellite into deep space. However, one of the younger astronauts, Ethan Glance (Loren Dean), acting under Bob's original orders, tries to put the satellite into stable orbit himself. He sets off a chain reaction: the satellite collides with the shuttle, damaging most of the shuttle's computer systems and engines, destroying the solar panels on the satellite, and sending it into a faster decaying orbit, while Ethan is knocked out and dragged along with the satellite. While Tank and Jerry tend to the other young astronaut Roger Hines (Courtney B. Vance), who suffered a concussion on the impact, Frank and Hawk space walk to the satellite in time to activate a booster rocket and slow the orbit's decay. As they see to Ethan, they realize that the only option is to have someone ride on the satellite as they fire the missiles' engines so that it escapes into deep space. Hawk, who was recently widowed and who has eight months to live from pancreatic cancer, sacrifices himself, hoping that he will be able to land on the Moon to fulfill his life's dream. Frank, Tank, and Jerry now plan to bring the shuttle down over water since landing it would be difficult, but the shuttle comes in at too fast a speed. After safely bailing out Ethan and Roger, Tank and Jerry stay with Frank regardless of the risk. Frank recalls a maneuver Hawk had used before, purposely stalling the shuttle to drop its speed quickly and allowing him to land the shuttle safely. The film ends with the Frank Sinatra song "Fly Me to the Moon", zooming in on the surface of the Moon showing that Hawk had indeed landed there before he died. ===== In the 17th century, the God of White Magic, Kalutika Maybus, neared the end of a battle against the vampire Deshwitat L. Rudbich. Kalutika killed Deshwitat's fiancée, Lilith and sealed Deshwitat in limbo. In the 21st century a band of spiritual investigators led by Sang-Ho Do, uncovers a band of demons. Engaging in combat, most of the party is quickly killed, leaving only Sang-Ho, his daughter Remi, and an exorcist, Millenear Shephield. They are about to be defeated when Remi bleeds onto a pile of dust. Her blood inadvertently breaks the seal that binds Deshwitat, releasing him. Deshwitat is too weak to fight the demons. Sang-Ho decides to sacrifice himself to Deshwitat to give him enough power to save his daughter and Millenear. After Deshwitat metamorphoses Sang-Do's body into resurrection dust, he reassures her that upon his death, her father would return to life as a human being. He enlists Millenear's help to learn light magic to defeat Kalutika, as he believes his dark magic is not powerful enough. Millenear tells him that she is unable to teach light magic herself, but she does know of a Buddhist monastery in Hong Kong that could be able to instruct him. The three arrive at the monastery only to be attacked by a swordsman and his companion. Deshwitat discovers that the swordsman is his old friend Rett Butler, who should have died over 300 years ago. His companion Beryun engages in battle with Deshwitat. Deshwitat discovers that Beryun is skilled in both light and dark magic. Millenear discovers that she is not human. Deshwitat and Beryun battle until Master Tae, who is in charge of the monastery, stops them, revealing that she had never ordered an attack on Deshwitat. He attacks Master Tae, but is soundly beaten. Tae reveals that Deshwitat is prophesied to be the key to humanity's salvation. Rett was supposed to help Deshwitat during his battle against Kalutika. He was too late to help, and tried to avenge his friend, but was severely wounded, and his men were killed. Kalutika made Rett immortal so that he could see the Armageddon. The monks are unable to instruct Deshwitat on how to learn the magic of the light. He discovers that he may be able to learn this at the Vatican. The group goes to the Vatican. Deshwitat and Millenear fight when he reduces a girl to resurrection dust, and she is beaten. It is revealed that Millenear is an unfrocked priest. Deshwitat learns that a priest wishes to meet him. He is ambushed by a large group of priests, which also include the elite special forces unit of the Catholic Church, the Order of St. Michael. He soon succumbs to his injuries and is about to be destroyed when Lilith appears to him in a vision. She reawakens his thirst for vengeance, and he devastates the party, taking one of the Order of St. Michael, a girl named Erica, hostage. Deshwitat soon reunites with everyone and confronts the Bishop, who reveals that he wanted Deshwitat murdered because he could not accept the truth that a being of darkness would be the savior. He instructs Millenear to kill Deshwitat, giving her back her standing in the church. Millenear turns on the Bishop and blasts him with white magic, causing him to shapeshift into a creature of white magic. With the Order quickly unlocking the seal, Deshwitat regains his magical power. However, even Deshwitat's full strength is not enough to stop the creature. Only by teaming up with Erica to combine their attacks is the creature destroyed. Deshwitat and the others return to Asia. It is discovered that Lilith is still alive. Deshwitat is encouraged by the fact that he managed to defeat Millenear in their fight, as it means that dark magic can defeat light magic. Master Tae tells them that Kalutika has begun his apocalypse. She introduces their newest companion, Eiji Inaba, a ninja. Deshwitat decides to test him along with Millenear and Remi. Should they land a single scratch on him within a ten-minute time limit, they can stay. None of the three can harm him, and he rejects them all. Master Tae insists that they take Eiji since he is vital to contacting the New York ninja sect. In New York, Grey, the proclaimed Lord of the Vampires, kidnaps Millenear and Belose, a New York vampire uses a bomb to destroy them. Deshwitat uses his Dark Barrier and Beryun uses her Arson's Shield to protect them from the attack. They open a box Deshwitat was given and find a vampire's sand of the dead. Remi uses her blood to revive it, and Draistail appears. Draistail offers to train Deshwitat, but Deshwitat refuses, insisting that he has to go save Millenear. Draistail traps him, saying that he is not yet ready. Meanwhile, Rett and Beryun decide to go save Millenear themselves, but are beaten by Grey. Deswhitat escapes from Draistail, and goes to aid Rett and Beryun, who are near death. He begins to battle Grey, who stops the fight, saying they will continue it at the Vampire Lord Tournament. At the tournament, Deshwitat faces off against Millenear. Millenear admits to Deshwitat that she is in love with him. He seemingly scorns her and promises to give her a quick death. Millenear uses this to her advantage by wearing him out. When it seems that Deshwitat is too tired to fight, Millenear says that she will not only kill him, but herself too. Deshwitat stops her and embraces her, telling her that in another time, he would have loved her, and that he had failed to protect her just as he failed to protect Lilith. He is able to beat her and advance to battle Grey. Draistail leads Rett, Beryun, Remi, and the Order of St. Michael into a trap that he along with Grey and the Council of 6 had set up. Grey calls the Elder vampire to let them go, and he allows Deshwitat to strike him in the chest, severely wounding him. After that, Lilith arrives and destroys the vampire race along with the five of the Council of 6. Under Kalutika's influence, she moves to kill him but he is saved by the Elder Vampire, who teleports them to safety. Deshwitat is elevated to Vampire Lord, whose role in the world is to lead the vampires against the gods. The Elder dies, leaving Deshwitat apparently the last vampire in existence. While Deshwitat trains, Rett and the others go to meet Rang. She has gained power by drinking Millenear's blood, the blood of a "god seed." She has little control over her new-found powers and Rett and his companions kill her. In Hong Kong, before reviving Millenear, Rett and the others question Master Tae about Millenear's origin. She explains to them that Millenear is indeed a "god seed" and when her human life ends, Millenear will become a god. They decide to keep this information from Millenear and revive her. The groups prepare for a battle in Tibet, which will decide the fate of the world before Deshwitat can come back. ===== In the not too distant future, a sinister scientist named Dr. Poque (Botte) creates the most powerful video game console ever assembled. Known as the 'Mega64', this device has the power to download classic and contemporary video games into the user's brain, causing them to take on a whole new reality. While and are hooked to the Mega64, the viewer sees them acting as characters in the corresponding game, interacting with ordinary people in San Diego. Another character, named Sean, is initially hired by Dr. Poque as Rocko and Derek's "e-mail delivery man" but also starts taking part in the Mega64 experiments. Two additional characters are later introduced: a puppet named Marcus (voiced by Chatfield), who is presumably working for Poque; and Horatio (Acosta), Poque's eccentric Mexican roommate. ===== The Governator featured a fictionalized Schwarzenegger who after stepping down from his role as Governor of California to become a superhero in order to fight crime. His real-life family and Brentwood home would have fictional counterparts with the home having an Arnold Cave under it as a base of operations. To assist in crime fighting, the cave would have high tech vehicles, super suits, gym and a group of sidekicks. One sidekick is his cyber security expert, Zeke Muckerberg, a teenage computer genius. The Govenator would go up against G.I.R.L.I.E. Men (Gangsters Imposters Racketeers Liars & Irredeemable Ex-cons), his recurring supervillains. A recurring character shown in the trailer is an investigative reporter, voiced by Larry King. ===== Ann Sutton, the wife of Dr. William Sutton, a successful psychoanalyst, is caught shoplifting in an upscale Los Angeles department store, and loses consciousness when apprehended. She is saved from scandal by smooth-talking hypnotist David Korvo, who persuades the store officials to put the mermaid pin she stole on her credit account, and not prosecute. Korvo pressures Ann into coming to lunch with him, and she is relieved when, instead of accepting the blackmail payment she thinks he is after, he tears up her check and the store record of her shoplifting, and promises to help her. Ann, overcome with shame surrounding her secret, begins experiencing insomnia. She attends a sophisticated party with Korvo, where she meets Theresa Randolph, a former lover of Korvo's and one of William's patients. Korvo hypnotizes Ann at the party and instructs her to sleep, which works, but she does not respond to other orders. Ann meets Korvo at the hotel where he lives for further therapy sessions, but refuses to go up to his suite and insists on talking in public in the hotel bar. Korvo distracts her and takes the martini glass with her fingerprints on it, as well as her scarf. Later that night, Ann enters a trance, takes two vinyl records from her husband's patient archives and brings them to Theresa's house, where she hides them in a closet before discovering Theresa's murdered body in the den. Ann's entry into the home sets off a silent alarm, and police arrive moments later. Before regaining full lucidity, Ann confesses to hating Theresa. The martini glass and her scarf are found in the home, and police charge her with murder, presuming she strangled Theresa out of jealousy over Korvo. Ann's husband, William, and his lawyer, Martin Avery, believe she is innocent and that Korvo framed her. William recalls that Theresa had informed him during their therapy sessions that Korvo had extorted her for $60,000. It is found, however, that Korvo has a cast-iron alibi: at the time of the murder and ever since, he has been in the hospital weak and prostrate after a gall bladder operation. The police lieutenant in charge of the case, Colton, is sure this rules him out as a suspect. When William leaves the police station, Avery and Colton persuade Ann to confess her real guilt. Instead, she only confesses is her kleptomania, stemming from her indigent childhood; when William wanted her to ignore her own riches and live on his small salary at the beginning of their marriage, he triggered Ann's childhood trauma, and she returned to her habit of shoplifting. When William hears of this, he surmises that Ann's kleptomania made her an easy target for Korvo to get her to steal Theresa's patient records from him; he also suspects that Korvo used self-hypnosis to make himself temporarily strong enough to leave his hospital bed and go strangle Theresa. William's theory accounts for Korvo's apparent spike in body temperature observed by the medical personnel on the day of Theresa's murder. William presents his theory to Colton and suggests they bring Ann to Theresa's home to find the records, but Colton dismisses him. In the hospital, a nurse casually comments to Korvo about the search for Theresa's patient records. Korvo hypnotizes himself again, sneaks out of the hospital, and drives to Theresa's house, where he retrieves the records and starts playing them: They reveal Theresa's voice implicating Korvo in her extortion. Simultaneously, after some contemplation, Colton comes to believe William's theory may be true, and he accompanies him and Ann to Theresa's house. Once there, Korvo menaces Ann with a gun, attempting to force William and Colton out of the room. As his trance begins to wear off, Korvo realizes he is bleeding to death from his surgical wound. In a moment of bravado, he tries to flee the house, but collapses and dies. Colton releases Ann into the care of her husband, and they happily embrace. ===== Katherine tells the true story of Katherine de Roet, born the daughter of a minor Flemish herald, later knight. Katherine has no obvious prospects, except that her sister is a waiting-woman to Queen Philippa, wife of King Edward III, and the fiancée of Geoffrey Chaucer, then a minor court official. By virtue of this connection, Katherine meets and marries Sir Hugh Swynford of Lincolnshire and gives birth to a daughter, Blanchette, and a son, Thomas. After Hugh's death, Katherine becomes the mistress of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, and bears him four children out of wedlock, given the surname 'Beaufort' after one of the Duke's possessions. She is also appointed official governess to the Duke's two daughters by his first wife, Blanche of Lancaster, and helps raise his son by Blanche, the future King Henry IV. The Duke and Katherine separate for a number of years, immediately following Wat Tyler's Peasants' Revolt in 1381, when the rioting peasants sacked and burnt the Duke's Savoy Palace to the ground. The novel's explanation for their separation is Katherine's shock over revelations concerning the death of her husband. However, the couple eventually reconcile and marry after the death of the Duke's second wife. The Beaufort children, now grown, are legitimised by royal and papal decrees after Katherine and the Duke are married, but their half-brother Henry inserts a proviso sometime later specifically barring them from inheriting the throne. ===== In Brazil in the year 2080, the Fifth Doctor and Turlough are confronted by an ancient werewolf. ===== The Seventh Doctor's diary has a strange entry that the painting "The Scream" by Edvard Munch is going to be destroyed in "mysterious circumstances". So he and Ace visit a colony of artists on the barren dust world of Duchamp 331 to find out more. He isn't expecting the return of one of his most personal enemies... ===== Scott Turner is a police investigator in Cypress Beach, California. Bored with the lack of serious crime with his current work, Turner is set to transfer to a much better position in Sacramento, leaving fellow investigator David Sutton to replace him. Turner shows David around in the three days left before his transfer, meeting with long time friend Amos Reed for a final time. The two investigators are then called to the discovery of $8,000 found at the local beach. That same evening, Amos is murdered by an affiliate of local seafood magnate Walter Boyett when Amos reveals his suspicions of Boyett's operations. Turner is alerted to the crime the following morning, resulting in Scott taking in Hooch, Amos' pet Dogue de Bordeaux and the only witness to his murder. Scott immediately takes Hooch to the new town veterinarian Emily Carson. Scott pleads with Emily to take in Hooch as he has no experience of handling such an animal before. However, Emily insists that Hooch will be good for Scott, who lives alone. Immediately returning home, Hooch's noisy, destructive nature clashes intensely with Scott's routine and lifestyle. Scott leaves Hooch alone one night to buy dog food, only to return to a home that has been completely ransacked by Hooch unintentionally. Furious, Scott kicks Hooch out, only for him to return later with Emily's female dog, Camille. Seeing an opportunity to jettison Hooch, Scott drives both Hooch and Camille back to the veterinary clinic, only to be caught by Emily as he leaves. Emily invites Scott inside, and the two proceed to continue painting the house that Emily earlier abandoned for the night. Scott leaves later on and, although he expresses his lack of interest in taking things further with Emily, it becomes clear that the two are starting to like each other. Scott takes Hooch to the police precinct the next day, where a wedding occurs just across the street. Hooch recognizes the wedding photographer as Amos' killer and gives chase. The murderer is able to escape from his pursuers, but Scott is able to identify the killer as Zack Gregory, a former Marine with several prior arrests who also fits the profile of Amos' killing (Scott had earlier speculated that Amos' murderer must have had special experience in killing as the stab wound performed on Amos ensured total discretion). Scott also speculates that Amos wasn't murdered in a robbery attempt, but in order for Zack to cover up an illegal operation near to where he lived. This theory matches with Amos' regular complaints to Scott about the noises he heard going on at Boyett Seafood, the company that has Zack registered as an employee. Celebrating the approval to search Boyett Seafood, Scott treats Hooch but notices his refusal to eat. Scott considers this a consequence of Amos' death, the long term owner and presumably, only companion to Hooch. Scott and Hooch start to establish a closer bond. The next day, the police search Boyett Seafood, but find no evidence of any illegal activity. With his transfer pending the following day, Scott is relieved of jurisdiction of the case, which is given to David by Police Chief Howard Hyde. Frustrated with reaching a dead end in the case, Scott meets with Emily, leading the two to spend the night together. In a eureka moment, Scott finally realizes why the earlier search of Boyett Seafood turned up nothing—instead of searching for imports, Boyett Seafood was actually exporting goods. Armed with this new lead, Scott takes Hooch back to the factory to stake-out. The following morning, David arrives upon Scott's request with the earlier recovered $8,000 from the beach. On a hunch, Scott commands Hooch to trace the scent of the money to anything he can find within the factory, ultimately returning with the exact type of bag the wad was discovered in. Scott travels to the Lazy Acres Motel, the false address at which Zack Gregory was listed as a tenant. Scott interrogates the Motel owner into revealing where Zack is, only to be held up at gunpoint by him moments later. Zack orders Scott into his car to drive away, but Scott crashes the Cadillac into a concrete barrier, propelling Zack through the windshield and pinning him down by the neck, while assistance is provided by Hooch. Scott interrogates Zack, who reveals that he killed Amos, and also reveals that Walter Boyett is in on the illegal money trade going on at his factory, but is not in charge of it, to Scott's surprise. Scott returns with Hooch to the factory, and is unexpectedly joined by Chief Hyde. Already suspicious of Zack's earlier confession, Scott confronts Hyde, believing him to be in charge of the money laundering operation at the docks, using the gigantic ice cubes to hide the cash being sent out of the country. A gunfight soon occurs between Scott on the one hand and Hyde and Boyett on the other. Hooch is able to ambush Boyett from above, although Boyett shoots Hooch in the process. Confronting Hyde, Scott is seemingly coerced by the corrupt Police Chief to frame Boyett, who is subsequently killed by Hyde. However, Hyde knows that Scott is an entirely honest police officer, and calls his bluff. A mortally wounded Hooch manages to get up, and briefly distract Hyde long enough for Scott to kill him. Scott races to Emily's clinic to tend to Hooch, who has suffered severe blood loss, and eventually dies. Later, Turner is made police chief while Sutton becomes leading investigator. Turner also marries Emily, with the couple now caring for Camille and her litter of puppies, one of whom looks and acts exactly like Hooch. ===== Jack "Deuce" Cooper (Matt LeBlanc) is a farm boy who arrives at an open tryout for the Santa Rosa Rockets minor league baseball team. He makes the team after blowing away the scouts with his 'rocket' arm as well as having a strong training camp. Deuce also befriends a chimpanzee, 'Ed,' after being told the chimp is his new roommate/teammate. After they move into their apartment, Deuce develops a relationship with his neighbor, Lydia. Also, Ed becomes very close with her daughter, Elizabeth. Deuce's game really begins to take off as well as Ed's and the team becomes a league contender. Deuce's coach, Chubb, thinks Deuce can be an MLB starter if he keeps his head on straight. But after the owners sell Ed to make a buck, Deuce takes matters into his own hands and goes to find Ed only to see him being tortured by a pair of goons. Deuce saves Ed but Ed escapes and finds a truck of Frosted Bananas and doesn't realize he is stuck inside the trailer, which is ice cold. Ed ends up in the hospital from almost freezing to death before the final game of the season and Deuce questions his own ability to continue playing without his best friend. Deuce ends up playing and struggles right off the bat. But when Ed, Elizabeth and Lydia arrive at the game together, Deuce turns up the heat and the Rockets take the championship. Ed, Deuce, Lydia and Elizabeth then become a family and live happily ever after. ===== Rational, exacting, and self-controlled theater director, Henrik Vogler, often stays after rehearsal to think and plan. On this day, Anna comes back, ostensibly looking for a bracelet. She is the lead in his new production of Strindberg's A Dream Play. She talks of her hatred for her mother (now dead), an alcoholic actress who was Vogler's star and lover. Vogler falls into a reverie, remembering a day Anna's mother, Rakel, late in life, came after rehearsal to beg him to come to her apartment. He awakes and Anna reveals the reason she has returned: she jolts him into an emotional response, rare for him, and the feelings of a young woman and an older man play out. ===== Painter Johan Borg and his pregnant young wife Alma live on the small island of Baltrum. He shares sketches with Alma of frightening visions he has had, and begins to give them names, including the Birdman, the Insects, the Meat-Eaters, the Schoolmaster, and the Lady With a Hat. As his insomnia grows worse, Alma stays awake by his side. One day, an elderly lady stops by the house and tells Alma to read Johan's diary, which he hides under his bed. Alma discovers that Johan is haunted not only by the real or imaginary strangers, but also by images of his former lover, Veronica Vogler. She also reads that Johan was approached by Baron von Merkens, who lives in a nearby castle. The painter and his wife visit them and their household. After dinner, the baron's wife shows the couple into her bedroom, where she has a portrait of Veronica by Johan. After they leave the castle, Alma expresses to Johan her fears of losing him to the demons, as well as her will to persevere if such were to happen. Baltrum is one of the Frisian Islands. One night, Alma again stays awake with Johan. He tells her of the "vargtimmen" ("Hour of the Wolf"), during which, he says, most births and deaths occur. He also recounts his childhood trauma of being locked into a closet where, as his parents said, a small person lived. He then recalls a confrontation with a small boy while out fishing on the island, which culminated with him killing the boy. Alma is shocked by Johan's confessions. Heerbrand, one of von Merkens's guests, shows up at the couple's house to invite them to another party at the castle, adding that Veronica Vogler is among the invitees. He places a pistol on the table, for protection against "small animals", and leaves. Johan and Alma begin quarreling over his obsession with Veronica. Johan finally picks up the pistol, shoots Alma and runs to the castle. Johan attends the party. The baron's guests are revealed to be the demons that Johan described to Alma. As he rushes through the castle searching for Veronica, he meets Lindhorst, who applies cosmetics to his pale face and dresses him in a silk robe. He then leads Johan to her. Johan finds Veronica, who appears to be dead; as he looks over the body, she suddenly sits up and laughs. Johan is physically attacked by the demons and flees into underbrush. Alma, who was injured by one of the shots but is only left with a scar, searches the forest for her husband. She witnesses the attacks on him before he finally disappears, leaving her alone in the woods. Alma later shares her story and her husband's diary. She wonders whether the fact that she and Johan lived together for so long and became so similar was why she could see his Man-Eaters, and whether she would have been better able to protect him if she had loved him less, or more. ===== The story begins with two young brothers, Peter and Dennis, finding a cymbal- banging monkey toy in the attic of their great uncle's house. Soon, it's revealed how their father, Hal, discovered the toy monkey inside an antique chest owned by his father (Hal's father was a merchant mariner who disappeared under mysterious circumstances; Hal suspects that the monkey led to his father's disappearance). The monkey is actually cursed, and every time it claps the mechanical cymbals together, someone close to Hal dies. Hal was tormented by the monkey as a child. He helplessly watched as the toy worked its lethal enchantment onto his family and killed them off, until Hal chucked it down an old well at the home of his uncle. In the present, Hal takes the monkey and throws it into Crystal Lake, hoping that it will be finished for good and never kill anyone again. The story ends with an excerpt from a newspaper article, which reports the mysterious death of many fish in the lake. ===== The third grade girls, led by Lizzy, challenge the boys to a sled race down Phil Collins Hill. After the boys accept the challenge, Cartman gets into an argument with Token, because he keeps reminding him about his obesity. Cartman threatens to throw a rock at Token's face if he ever calls him fat again. Kyle then calls Cartman a fatass instead, causing him to throw the rock at Token, giving him a black eye in the process, much to Kyle's shock. Because Token is African-American, the FBI and the entire media overreacts to the situation. Assuming that the rock was thrown because of racism and not provocation, the government tries Cartman in a federal court. The prosecution's case, although utterly nonsensical, is accepted by the judge, who wishes to make an example out of Cartman to warn against racists. Cartman is convicted of a hate crime, and sentenced to juvenile prison until he reaches the age of 21. Cartman escapes the courtroom and enlists Kenny and his Go Go Action Bronco toy car to try to flee to Mexico, but the toy car goes extremely slow and they eventually fail after it runs out of battery. Cartman is taken to jail, and he is given the number 24601. The boys realize that they have always taken Cartman's "ass" for granted and without his weight on the back of their sled, they are doomed to lose. Clyde takes over for Cartman, since he is the second fattest in the grade (despite the fact that Clyde has normal weight like everyone else), and everyone immediately starts calling him 'fatass.' Clyde tries to get them to stop, and yells "God dammit," seeing that he is like Cartman. When they sled down the hill, however, they find they are only average speed, as Cartman's fat 'ass' helped the boys go faster. They kick Clyde off and instead use bricks disguised as a kid (having pants and a jacket on it) to help them get faster. But, the sled goes too fast and starts to spin. Stan and Kyle manage to jump off, but Kenny flies off the sled into a tree, where he is crushed by the brick person. Stan and Kyle then realize the only way to win is to make Token forgive Cartman. Token is willing to forgive Cartman, but Token's father, who is himself against hate crime laws, tells the boys they will have to convince the Governor of Colorado to free Cartman, after a failed attempt to sneak in a nail file hidden inside a cake for Cartman to bust out of jail on account of how he isn't permitted to bring gifts to his cell (that and he did not understand their pig-latin message regarding the nail file). The boys then put on a presentation before the governor, complete with visual aids, in which they detail their opposition to hate crime laws, declaring it a "savage hypocrisy" (their visual has it as "a savage hypocracy") and arguing that all forms of crime warrant some sort of hate, and that the laws serve only to encourage discrimination further. The governor is impressed, claiming that it made more sense than anything else he has heard in the last three years. Meanwhile, Cartman adapts to life in prison by smuggling in things for his cellmate, Romper Stomper, who, along with Cartman, escapes the prison after feeling sorry for him and that he wishes to see Disneyland. They are caught by the authorities, who take Romper back to the prison, but tell Cartman that he has been pardoned by the governor. Cartman returns home, arriving at the sled race just as they are about to begin, and helps the boys beat the girls by throwing two yellow buckets (that Romper himself used as footwear until he gave them to Cartman when he tripped on a rock during their attempted escape) at the girls' sled, causing them to fall off a cliff and land on a pile of snow, after which Lizzy is carried off by a bear. The boys celebrate their victory and promise to Cartman that they will never exploit him ever again. After Pip refers to Cartman's "big fat-ass," Cartman throws a rock at Pip but this time gets away with it as injuring British people does not count as a hate crime. Cartman decides to pay a visit to Romper, who always wished to see Disneyland and grants his wish by defecating it (off-camera), having smuggled it in his anus, much to Romper's delight. ===== Similar to Hanna-Barbera's successful Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, Goober and the Ghost Chasers also features a group of teenagers (Ted, Gilly and Tina) solving spooky mysteries with their Afghan Hound-like dog Goober. Writing for Ghost Chasers Magazine, the group uses their equipment from the Apparition Kit (like the Specter Detector, the Poltergeist Powder, etc.) when it comes to determining whether the ghost is real or not. The major differences were that the ghosts they eventually find are real and would help in defeating the fake ghosts. Some of those people behind the mask of some fake ghosts are not criminals. Goober had the power to become invisible (but could not control it) and his closest human companion is reckless instead of cowardly. Also unlike Scooby-Doo, Goober can speak more clearly, but speaks only to "break the fourth wall" with a comment aimed at the viewers; otherwise, he merely barks. In eight of the first 11 episodes, the Partridge Kids (from The Partridge Family) were regular members of the cast, with their live-action counterparts voicing the parts. They disappear after the eleventh episode and did not appear when other guest stars appeared. ===== The titular character of Inch High Private Eye is a miniature detective (literally one inch high), who attained his diminutive stature by way of a secret shrinking potion. Inch often enlists the help of his niece Lori (sometimes written "Laurie"), her muscle-bound friend Gator, and their dog Braveheart to help solve mysteries. Their primary mode of transportation is the Hushmobile, a streamlined car that makes virtually no noise while being driven, making it perfect for following criminals unnoticed. Inch works for The Finkerton Detective Agency (a wordplay lampoon of The Pinkerton Detective Agency), where the boss (Mr. Finkerton) constantly dreams of the day that he will fire him. Unlike most Hanna-Barbera mystery solving cartoons, the characters in this show are not teenagers. ===== Small town Michigan cafe owner Tom McKenna becomes a local hero after defending his store from an attempted robbery. Despite his efforts to avoid the limelight, Tom's story receives national attention. He is soon visited by three men who are later revealed to be associates of the New York City Mafia. Their leader, John Torrino, an aging hitman who lost an eye, alleges that Tom is actually named Joey, who crossed him 20 years earlier. Torrino notices that Tom is missing a finger on his left hand and pulls out a pendant containing a severed finger, claiming he took it from Joey during their last encounter. Tom's wife Edie intervenes and orders the men to leave before she calls the police. The men comply but Edie still calls Sheriff Frank Carney, who confronts the mobsters but then later questions Tom as to whether they might have something against him. Tom vehemently protests his innocence to everyone but he is eventually forced to drop his façade when Torrino and his accomplices take the McKennas' son Buzz hostage in order to draw out Tom. Tom manages to thwart their plan and kill the other two mobsters, while Edie shoots Torrino in defense of her husband. At the hospital, Tom finally admits to Edie and Buzz that he is in fact Joey and reveals why he left New York and changed his identity. He and his childhood friend Richie pulled off a well- planned and spectacular heist, killing local crime boss Lou Manzi and several of his associates. This event was perpetrated mostly by Richie in retaliation for the murder of his older brother. Tom, then known by his real name Joey Muni, only agreed to help so he could acquire the money that his grandmother needed for an expensive medical procedure on her heart. Unfortunately, Richie foolishly chose to flaunt his take, which allowed Torrino and his cronies to identify him as one of the robbers. Using a woman as bait, they lured Richie to a derelict apartment building where he was tortured and presumably killed, but not before naming Joey as his accomplice. Joey narrowly escaped the same fate, losing his finger to and taking an eye from Torrino in the process, and fled the city with the intent of starting over with a new identity, eventually changing his name to Tom McKenna. Tom is eventually forced to confess all of this to the police after DNA analysis reveals that the finger Torrino kept is his. Fortunately for him, his lawyer arrives and learns that the police failed to Mirandize him, which makes his confession inadmissible in court. Prior to his confession to the police, Tom learns that Richie is still alive and being held captive by someone later revealed to be Manzi's sadistic son, Little Lou, who has assumed control over his father's territory. Tom and Edie send their children to stay with relatives while the two of them fly to New York to deal with related legal matters. He arranges a meeting with Manzi at a warehouse where he dispatches three more men and maims a fourth, who leaves a blood trail that helps the police track down his location later on. Tom finds Richie hanging in a harness, having been horribly mutilated and tortured for twenty years. Manzi arrives and subdues Tom by hitting him with a baseball bat. He then hangs Tom by his wrists next to Richie and prepares to torture him. Tom thwarts Manzi by wrapping his legs around Manzi's head, causing Manzi to lose his balance and fall backward, bringing Tom down with him. Tom grabs a gun and prepares to shoot Manzi but finds it is empty. Manzi attacks Tom with a chainsaw, but Tom deflects the blade with his shackles. Manzi slips and falls onto the blade, killing him. Tom tells Richie he will get him to a hospital but Richie, no longer wanting to live, begs Tom to help him die instead. Tom suffocates Richie in an act of euthanasia shortly before the police arrive. As Tom is loaded onto an ambulance, he assures Edie that it is all over. ===== Tom Stall is a diner owner who lives in the small (fictional) town of Millbrook, Indiana, with a loving wife Edie, teenage son Jack, and daughter Sarah. One night, two spree killers attempt to rob the restaurant. When a waitress is threatened, Tom deftly kills both robbers with surprising skill and precision. He is hailed as a hero by his family and the townspeople, and the incident makes him a local celebrity. Tom is visited by scarred gangster Carl Fogarty, who alleges that Tom is actually a Philadelphia professional hitman named Joey Cusack who had dealings with him in the Irish Mob in Philadelphia. Tom vehemently denies this, but Carl remains persistent and begins to stalk the Stall family. Under pressure from Carl and his newfound fame, Tom's relationships with his family become strained. Following an argument with his father over the use of violence on a bully at his school, Jack runs away. He is caught by Carl, who, with Jack as his hostage, goes with his men to the Stall house and demands that "Joey" return to Philadelphia with them. After the gangsters release Jack, Tom is slow to join them in their car, so they attempt to force him to cooperate. Tom kills the two henchmen with the same precision he used against the robbers, but Carl shoots Tom before he can do the same to him. As the gangster stands over Tom, preparing to kill him, Tom finally drops the façade and admits he is indeed Joey. However, before Carl can deliver a coup de grâce, Jack kills him with a shotgun. At the hospital, Edie confronts Tom, claiming that while he was attacking Carl's men, she saw "the real Joey" that the gangster was talking about. Tom shocks Edie by admitting that he is actually Joey Cusack, and that he has killed for both money and pleasure. He tells Edie that he ran away from Philadelphia to escape his violent criminal past. This admission deepens the tensions in their marriage. After Tom gets out of the hospital, Sam, the local sheriff, pays a visit. Sam expresses confusion about everything that has happened. He tells Tom and Edie that these mobsters would never go to so much trouble unless they were certain that they had the right man. Just when Tom is about to confess, Edie lies to Sam, claiming that Tom is who he says he is, and that their family has suffered enough. At a loss for words after Edie breaks down into tears, Sam leaves. Edie and Tom then start slapping and hitting each other, their fight eventually culminating in violent sex on the stairs. Afterward, Edie and Jack continue to further distance themselves from Tom, leaving him isolated. He receives a call from his brother Richie Cusack, who also demands his return to Philadelphia, or else he will come to Indiana to find him. After traveling to meet his brother, Tom learns that the other mobsters whom he had offended in Philadelphia took out their frustrations on Richie, penalizing him financially and delaying his advancement in the organization. Tom offers to make peace, but Richie orders his men to kill his brother. Tom manages to kill most of the guards and escape. As Richie and his last henchman are hunting for him, Tom kills the henchman, takes his gun, and confronts Richie outside; stunned, Richie says "Jesus, Joey" before Tom kills him with a single gunshot to the head, responding "Jesus, Richie". Tom returns home, where the atmosphere is tense and silent as the family sits around the dinner table. ===== Buzzy Crocker (Steve Guttenberg) is a journalist who was fired from the Los Angeles Banner (where his then girlfriend Jill works as editor) for publishing a news story which turned out to be fake. He now writes for a supermarket tabloid, "The National Inquisitor" with the help of his young niece Anna (Kirsten Dunst) with whom Buzzy is close friends. An elderly woman named Abigail Gregory comes to visit Buzzy, and explains that on Halloween in 1939, she was witness to a bizarre incident in the Hollywood Tower Hotel, when five hotel guests - singer Carolyn Crosson, actor Gilbert London, much-loved child star Sally Shine, her nanny Emeline Partridge, and bellhop Dewey Todd, - mysteriously disappeared without a trace when lightning struck the elevator they were in on their way up to a party at the hotel's Tip Top Club. Abigail says that the nanny, Emeline, was a bitter witch who tried to put a curse on Sally, only for the curse to misfire, trapping all of the five people who were in the elevator as ghosts, who haunt the hotel. Buzzy investigates the shuttered hotel and finds book of spells mentioned in Abigail's story. The book reveals the curse can be reversed by its "contrary." Abigail also explains that items belonging to the passengers must be found, and what happened in 1939 must be repeated to break the curse. Buzzy and Anna enlist the help of Chris "Q" Todd, the hotel caretaker and grandson of Dewey, the bellhop. Q is reluctant, but he decides to help his deceased grandfather and the four guests, especially as he stands to inherit the hotel if an explanation to the 1939 event is revealed. Inside the hotel Buzzy and Anna meet an actress named "Claire Poulet", who had been hired so Buzzy could take fake pictures of the "ghosts" for the supermarket tabloid. Buzzy tries to develop a relationship with Claire, but she is dismayed when Buzzy expresses more interest in restoring his career than helping the spirits. Fearing an intrusion, some of the ghosts appear and repeatedly attempt to frighten off Buzzy and Anna, but Anna steadfastly offers to help the ghosts escape the curse. Finally the ghost of Carolyn appears. It is immediately apparent that she is the same "Claire Poulet" that Buzzy already talked to. Anna accuses Emeline of cursing the other guests. Shocked and dismayed at being put to blame, Emeline states her innocence, to which the other ghosts agree. Jill meanwhile has been researching Buzzy's story more and learns that Abigail is the sister of Sally Shine. Abigail was secretly jealous of her younger sister's talents and fame. Although Halloween was Abigail's birthday, no one seemed to have remembered: no presents, no party. Abigail was the one who cursed her sister. Abigail has been in a sanitarium ever since, but is allowed out on day release. Buzzy realizes that finding the personal effects of the guests (a lock of Sally's hair, Ms. Partridge's handkerchief, Dewey's spare bell-boy hat, Gilbert's Oxford spectacles, and Carolyn's locket) and repairing the elevator has given Abigail the means to complete the curse. He and Jill rush back to the hotel, but they are too late. Unaware that they are about to walk into a trap, an eager and excited Carolyn, Gilbert, Dewey, Emeline and Sally enter the repaired elevator. Anna runs in, but only Sally makes it out of the elevator before the doors close and the car moves up the shaft. The group confronts Abigail, who then tearfully admits her actions before Sally appears. The elevator continues to move up, but gets stuck on the eleventh floor, with only minutes left before the final phase of the curse comes into effect. Sally explains that the party was a surprise birthday party for Abigail and apologizes to Abigail for not being able to get to it. But of course Abigail didn't know about it. Sally has kept the present she wanted to give to Abby: a golden friendship bracelet with two hearts engraved with their names, assuming she would forgive her. Buzzy then explained that Abigail was the one who started the curse all out of jealousy over Sally, which makes Sally surprised that Abigail is an old woman now and was the one responsible. Abigail is distraught at her mistake but doesn't know how to stop the spell. Buzzy, Q, Jill, Abby, and Sally board the service elevator, catching up with the others on the eleventh floor. Anna manages to leap from an emergency escape hatch, rejoining Buzzy and the others, but at exactly 8:05pm, lightning strikes the hotel again, and both cars plummet towards the basement. Amidst the chaos, Sally and Abby reconcile, breaking the curse. As they lovingly hold hands, they both dissolve into a shower of golden sparkles that safely stop both elevators just as they were about to crash. Buzzy and his group follow up behind as Carolyn, Gilbert, Dewey, Emeline, and Sally finally ascend to the Tip-Top Club, restored to its former glory. One by one, the ghosts then ascend to Heaven, along with the other partygoers. Abigail, now a child again, appears with Sally, and thanks her for the present. The sisters then hold hands and vanish into golden sparkles, reversing the curse on the hotel. With the spell broken, the Hollywood Tower Hotel is restored and re-opened to the public, with Q taking charge as the new owner. ===== Mario and Princess Peach visit a funfair and wait in line to try a ride called the Air Cannon, where the rider is turned into a ball via the Spherasizer and shot out of the cannon. As Peach is about to take her turn, two Goombas kidnap her by aiming the cannon towards Bowser's Castle. To save Peach, Mario uses the Spherasizer to turn into a ball, allowing for the pinball action of the game. ===== Gina Norris (Queen Latifah) is a widowed hairstylist who has moved from Chicago to Atlanta so her daughter Vanessa (Paige Hurd) can attend a private music school. She's made a name for herself as a stylist, but after her self-centered and domineering boss, Jorge (Kevin Bacon), criticizes her decisions, she leaves and sets up her own shop, purchasing a run-down salon with the help of a loan officer. Upon buying the salon, she runs into instant barriers: loudmouthed young stylists, older clients who are fixed in their habits, an energetic young boy named Willie (Lil' JJ) who constantly flirts with women (including Vanessa) while filming for his next music video, people wary of her ability as a hairdresser, and the constant trouble her rebellious sister-in-law, Darnelle (Keshia Knight Pulliam), finds herself in. Gina issues an ultimatum with Darnelle to clean up her act and start paying her back or she will be evicted. In a short time, the previous owner's clients become her own and many of her former customers find their way from Jorge's to her salon. When electrical issues arise, she finds that the upstairs renter, Joe (Djimon Hounsou), is a handsome, sexy electrician from Africa who eventually bonds with Vanessa due to his skills on the piano. Because Jorge is jealous that his shop is losing clients to Gina's, he pays a health inspector named Crawford (Jim Holmes), to find various ways to shut down Gina's business. Over time, neighborhood regulars frequent the shop and the varied stylists become close to Gina, as does Joe. And one of her former clients from Jorge's uses her connections to set up a meeting with Cover Girl for Gina's homemade miracle conditioner, affectionately called "hair crack". Tragedy strikes when the shop is trashed and vandalized the night before Vanessa's big piano recital. When Gina next enters the shop, she finds not only that her staff has cleaned up the majority of the mess and brought items from home so the shop could operate, but Darnelle has also decided to grow up and enter beauty school. While filming for his next topic, Willie tapes a meeting between Jorge and Inspector Crawford and learns that they were responsible for trying to ruin Gina. Shortly, a disheveled woman enters the shop and begs for someone to fix her hair for a wedding she has in a few hours. Soon after, Willie shows Gina the videotape of a meeting he filmed of Jorge and Inspector Crawford. Later that night, Gina goes to Jorge's salon to not only tell him about the tape, but that she knows he is not Jorge from Austria, but George Christie from Nebraska. As soon as Gina leaves, James (Bryce Wilson) (Gina's only male employee) and a few of his friends give Jorge an extreme haircut as payback for what he did to her in trying to close her shop. Later, as the shop listens to their favorite radio talk-show host DJ Hollerin' Helen (Adele Givens), they find out she was the desperate customer on the way to the wedding as she gives the shop (and Gina's "hair crack" conditioner) a shout-out on the radio. ===== Poirot boards Le Train Bleu, bound for the French Riviera. So does Katherine Grey, who is having her first winter out of England, after recently receiving a relatively large inheritance. On board the train Grey meets Ruth Kettering, an American heiress leaving her unhappy marriage to meet her lover. The next morning, though, Ruth is found dead in her compartment, a victim of strangulation. The famous ruby, "Heart of Fire", which had recently been given to Ruth by her father, is discovered to be missing. Ruth's father, the American millionaire Rufus Van Aldin, and his secretary, Major Knighton, persuade Poirot to take on the case. Ruth's maid, Ada Mason, says that she saw a man in Ruth's compartment but could not see who he was. The police suspect that Ruth's lover, the Comte de la Roche, killed her and stole the ruby, but Poirot does not think that the Comte is guilty. He is suspicious of Ruth's husband, Derek Kettering, who was on the same train but claims not to have seen Ruth. Katherine says that she saw Derek enter Ruth's compartment. Further suspicion is thrown on Derek when a cigarette case with the letter "K" is found there. Poirot investigates and finds out that the murder and the jewel theft might not be connected, as the famous jewel thief The Marquis is connected to the crime. Eventually, the dancer Mirelle, who was on the train with Derek, tells Poirot she saw Derek leave Ruth's compartment around the time the murder would have taken place. Derek is then arrested. Everyone is convinced the case is solved, but Poirot is not sure. He does more investigating and learns more information, talking to his friends and to Katherine, eventually coming to the truth. He asks Van Aldin and Knighton to come with him on the Blue Train to recreate the murder. He tells them that Ada Mason is really Kitty Kidd, a renowned male impersonator and actress. Katherine saw what she thought was a boy getting off the train, but it was really Mason. Poirot realised that Mason was the only person who saw anyone with Ruth in the compartment, so this could have been a lie. He reveals that the murderer and Mason's accomplice is Knighton, who is really The Marquis. He also says that the cigarette case with the K on it does not stand for 'Kettering', but for 'Knighton'. Since Knighton was supposedly in Paris, no one would have suspected him. Derek did go into the compartment to talk to Ruth once he saw she was on the train, but he left when he saw she was asleep. The police then arrest Knighton and the case is closed. ===== Newly ordained Father Amaro (Gael García Bernal) arrives in Los Reyes, a small town in the fictional state of Aldama, to start his life serving the church. He is a protégé of a ruthless political bishop, while the local priest, Father Benito (Sancho Gracia), is having a long ongoing affair with a local restaurant owner. Benito is building a large hospital and recuperation center, which is partially funded by a cartel's drug lord. Meanwhile, another priest in the area, Father Natalio, is under investigation for supporting left-wing insurgents in his secluded rural church area. Amelia (Ana Claudia Talancón), a local 16-year-old girl, teaches catechism to the young children in the town, and is the daughter of Benito's mistress. At the start of the story, she is contemplating marriage to Rubén (Andrés Montiel), a young journalist beginning his career, but tension is depicted as Rubén is a non-believer and Amelia strongly Catholic. Rubén's father is an avowed anti-clerical atheist who is unpopular within the town for his strong opinions. Amaro soon becomes infatuated with Amelia, who is strongly attracted to him and asks awkward questions about love and sin in the confessional, admitting that she masturbates to Jesus. She later touches his hand while serving him at the restaurant. The newspaper is tipped off about Benito baptising the drug lord's newborn child, and Rubén is asked to write about the scandals in his hometown. With the aid of mountains of evidence compiled by his father, he publishes a story about Benito's hospital being a front for money laundering. The church has Amaro write a denial and Rubén is then sacked by the newspaper under pressure from the Catholic lobby. Amelia then phones Rubén and dumps him, berating him with a string of obscenities. Rubén's family home is vandalized by devout Catholics and when he returns home, he assaults Amaro when he sees him in the street. Amaro decides not to press charges, and Rubén avoids jail time. The film delves into the struggle priests have between desire and obedience. Amaro is plagued with guilt about his feelings for Amelia. When the local press begins to reveal the secrets of the parish, Amaro turns to his superior, Benito. Amaro and Amelia start an affair, and Amaro cites verses from the Song of Songs as he seduces her. Later he drapes a robe meant for the statue of Virgin Mary over Amelia during a secret meeting. After Amelia becomes pregnant with Amaro's child, he tries to convince her to leave town to protect him. Later, she decides to try to trick the town by trying to pass off Rubén as the father. She tries to reunite with him and organize a wedding at short notice so that the baby can be attributed to him, but he tells her he is no longer interested. When Benito threatens to report Amaro, Amaro threatens to retaliate over Benito's affair. During an ensuing scuffle, Benito is injured by a fall and is subsequently hospitalized. Eventually, Amaro arranges for a backstreet abortion in the middle of the night. It goes wrong, and Amelia begins to bleed out. Amaro drives her to the hospital in a large city, but she dies before they get there. Amaro weeps. The lurid details of the case are suppressed, but Benito and a cynical old woman know what has happened. A false story is passed around the town, blaming Rubén for impregnating Amelia before marriage, and praising Amaro for breaking into the abortion clinic and liberating Amelia in a failed attempt to save her and her child. Amaro presides over Amelia's funeral, packed with mourners. Benito, now using a wheelchair, turns and rolls away in disgust. ===== Ginta Toramizu is a 14-year- old junior high student from Tokyo who is portrayed as a typical video game geek and underachieving student who is a fan of fairy tales. One day and without warning, he finds himself summoned to the mysterious world of MÄR- Heaven which he has only seen before in his dreams and in his mother's books. In this fairy tale world, Ginta's physical weakness is replaced with superior physical strength, incredible stamina and endurance, and being able to see without his glasses. Upon meeting a mysterious 16-year-old witch named Dorothy, Ginta is introduced to the powerful magical accessories and weapons called "ÄRM" (pronounced air-um). Dorothy plans to steal the mysterious ÄRM Babbo from a trap-guarded cave, and brings Ginta along to assist her, intrigued by his unusual strength and abilities. Babbo is revealed to be an extremely special and unique ÄRM, as he possesses a will of his own and the ability to speak. Displeased with the fact that Babbo is so cumbersome, Dorothy gives Babbo to Ginta instead taking the guardian arm that guarded the chest, departing with a warning that others will try to steal Babbo from him. He continues on a journey of discovery, reveling in this new world. When he encounters the farmer Jack and his mother, who are troubled by two werewolf brothers, he finds that he misses the real world. Ginta resolves to find a way to reach home while enjoying as much of MÄR as he can along the way with Jack journeying with him. However, it is not long before Ginta learns that the world of MÄR-Heaven is not as peaceful as it seems when he is attacked by thieves wishing to steal Babbo. Upon meeting Alviss (who summoned him to MÄR- Heaven using a ÄRM known as the Gate Keeper Clown), he learns of the sinister "Chess Pieces" and how they had tried to take over MÄR-Heaven six years earlier. Alviss reveals that he summoned Ginta in order to gain assistance from an "other-worlder" in the upcoming war, as was done previously, and that Babbo originally belonged to one of the knights of the Chess Pieces. Gaining both allies and enemies, the series follows Ginta as he opposes the Chess Pieces led by Chess Piece King Orb, Queen Diana and her servant Phantom. ===== Act 1 is set in a chocolate house where Mirabell and Fainall have just finished playing cards. A footman comes and tells Mirabell that Waitwell (Mirabell's male servant) and Foible (Lady Wishfort's female servant) were married that morning. Mirabell tells Fainall about his love of Millamant and is encouraged to marry her. Witwoud and Petulant appear and Mirabell is informed that should Lady Wishfort marry, he will lose £6000 of Millamant's inheritance. He will only get this money if he can get Lady Wishfort's consent to his and Millamant's marriage. Act 2 is set in St. James’ Park. Mrs. Fainall and Mrs. Marwood are discussing their hatred of men. Fainall appears and accuses Mrs. Marwood (with whom he is having an affair) of loving Mirabell (which she does). Meanwhile, Mrs. Fainall (Mirabell's former lover) tells Mirabell that she hates her husband, and they begin to plot to deceive Lady Wishfort into giving her consent to the marriage. Millamant appears in the park and, angry about the previous night (when Mirabell was confronted by Lady Wishfort), she tells Mirabell of her displeasure in his plan, which she only has a vague idea about. After she leaves, the newly wed servants appear and Mirabell reminds them of their roles in the plan. Acts 3, 4 and 5 are all set in the home of Lady Wishfort. We are introduced to Lady Wishfort who is encouraged by Foible to marry the supposed Sir Rowland – Mirabell's supposed uncle – so that Mirabell will lose his inheritance. Sir Rowland is, however, Waitwell in disguise, and the plan is to entangle Lady Wishfort in a marriage which cannot go ahead, because it would be bigamy, not to mention a social disgrace (Waitwell is only a serving man, Lady Wishfort an aristocrat). Mirabell will offer to help her out of the embarrassing situation if she consents to his marriage. Later, Mrs. Fainall discusses this plan with Foible, but this is overheard by Mrs. Marwood. She later tells the plan to Fainall, who decides that he will take his wife's money and go away with Mrs. Marwood. Mirabell and Millamant, equally strong-willed, discuss in detail the conditions under which they would accept each other in marriage (otherwise known as the "proviso scene"), showing the depth of their feeling for each other. Mirabell finally proposes to Millamant and, with Mrs. Fainall's encouragement (almost consent, as Millamant knows of their previous relations), Millamant accepts. Mirabell leaves as Lady Wishfort arrives, and she lets it be known that she wants Millamant to marry her nephew, Sir Wilfull Witwoud, who has just arrived from the countryside. Lady Wishfort later gets a letter telling her about the Sir Rowland plot. Sir Rowland takes the letter and accuses Mirabell of trying to sabotage their wedding. Lady Wishfort agrees to let Sir Rowland bring a marriage contract that night. By Act 5, Lady Wishfort has found out the plot, and Fainall has had Waitwell arrested. Mrs. Fainall tells Foible that her previous affair with Mirabell is now public knowledge. Lady Wishfort appears with Mrs. Marwood, whom she thanks for unveiling the plot. Fainall then appears and uses the information of Mrs. Fainall's previous affair with Mirabell and Millamant's contract to marry him to blackmail Lady Wishfort, telling her that she should never marry and that she is to transfer her fortune to him. Lady Wishfort offers Mirabell her consent to the marriage if he can save her fortune and honour. Mirabell calls on Waitwell who brings a contract from the time before the marriage of the Fainalls in which Mrs. Fainall gives all her property to Mirabell. This neutralises the blackmail attempts, after which Mirabell restores Mrs. Fainall's property to her possession and then is free to marry Millamant with the full £12000 inheritance. ===== The Sixth Doctor and Evelyn meet Charles Darwin on the Galapagos Islands where an awakening group of Silurians have horrifying plans for mankind. ===== 1999\. The Sixth Doctor and Evelyn try to find out what connects "Project: Twilight", a secret government initiative, to a seedy casino in London Docklands. ===== Dr. Jason Howard is a general practitioner at Good Health Plan (a fictitious Boston hospital); he was formerly a resident at Massachusetts General. When a patient of his is admitted complaining of heart problems and later dies, Jason finds that, though having received a clean bill of health less than a month before, that the heart attack came totally out of left field and the patient looks decidedly older than he ought to at 56. Soon two more cases come to his attention, both healthy a month before, now dead, both looking older than their years. Alvin Hayes, a former classmate of Jason's at Harvard, asks to speak to him about his recent strange caseload. Hayes is a shifty, twitchy man whose personal life is a subject of some question who seems unduly paranoid, and Jason wonders if the resident mad scientist has gotten into something illicit. At dinner Hayes, while talking about his genetic research on aging, suddenly begins expelling blood violently. He dies a gory death right there in the restaurant. Jason begins investigating the connection between the man's sudden demise, his nervous demeanor, and the patients in his hospital who have all been admitted with what seems to be a mutant strain of progeria that killed them in mere days. Category:1988 American novels Category:Novels by Robin Cook Category:Macmillan Publishers books Category:Novels set in Boston Category:Euthanasia in the United States Category:Medical novels ===== The beginning of the game The game takes place in Cabeza Plana, a quiet (and fictitious; the name is Spanish for "Flathead", from Zork mythology) suburb of Los Angeles, California in February 1938. Freeman Linder, a local millionaire, has begged the police for protection from a man named Stiles. The player's character is a detective assigned one evening to check out the wealthy man's claims. Is Linder seriously in danger or just another rich eccentric? Before the player can decide, a window explodes and Linder collapses, dead. The case of possible harassment has just become a murder, with the player as the only witness. With the help of Sgt. Duffy (last seen in Deadline), the player has until sunrise to solve the mystery. Motive, method, and opportunity must all be established to secure a solid arrest and the optimal ending. There are two ways for the player to die. ===== Ace was the skipper of the cargo spaceship Speedo Ghost, for much of the series the Ace Trucking Co.'s only ship. His crew included his huge 'biffo' (both bodyguard and security) GBH, who believed himself to be dead, Feek the Freek, a skeletal being who acted as the ship's engineer, and the sarcastic ship's computer Ghost. Joining the crew later in the run was Chiefy the Pig-Rat, a small rodent-like creature that became Feek's best friend and missed no opportunity to insult Ace. In later stories, the crew was also joined by a duplicate of Ace himself. The reason for this is that, tired of the series, the creators killed off Ace by having him believe that he was suffering a fatal disease, causing him to commit suicide by flying into a star. However, the popularity of the series with 2000AD's readers caused it to be revived, the explanation being that Ace passed through a dimensional rift in the star, and ended up being discovered by his counterpart in another universe, but not before a brief detour in the offices of Tharg the Mighty in a drawer filled with other characters that had been killed off over time. Technically, the second Ace is the 'real' one from the earlier stories. Other recurring characters were Jago Kain, the human boss of Ace's business rival Yellow Line, Cap'n Evil Blood, a space pirate who was always trying to kill Garp, Ace-hating officers Kroxley and Zagger of the Galactic Police and Fatty Arkl, a rotund alien who ended up as the skipper of Ace's second ship (Old Peart The Third). The main artist for the series' run was Massimo Belardinelli, although Ian Gibson and Giolitti also contributed. As mentioned above, Grant and Wagner became tired of writing the series and made several attempts to end it (one series ended with the entire crew in prison), but reader demand kept bringing it back. The later stories show clear signs of the writers' annoyance at having to keep going on a series they had lost interest in - Ace started out as a smart and resourceful character, but ended up a greedy, dim-witted buffoon disliked even by his own crew. The character's official final story "The Garpetbagger" ended with his companions GBH and Feek the Freek ordering Ace to sell up and move on, quipping that he "outlived his welcome a long time ago". In 1988, a one off mini-story was produced for a 2000AD annual which featured the original Ace returning to his own universe only to find that Feek has taken over the business and GBH has become his second in command. Ace loses his temper and vandalises a bar owned by Feek which lands him in prison, vowing to gain revenge at some point "in the near future". Despite this, Ace Trucking Co would not make a reappearance in 2000AD until 2015, when the eight-page strip Star's Truck, by Eddie Robson and Nick Dyer, was published in that year's Sci- Fi Special. ===== The SS Berwind is a rusty old ship chartered by the line to meet high demand. The captain of the Berwind has died and the coroner wants an autopsy due to the suspicious circumstances of the death, which has caused several crew members to leave the ship. In need of a captain, Vic (Harlan Warde) and Mr. Adams (Jonathan Hole) meet with the "White Fleet" S.S. Mariposa First Officer, Edwin 'Ed' Rummill (James Mason) and his wife Joan (Katharine Bard) to offer him the Berwind. Ed has applied for captain vacancies for five years but has little chance of getting one of the main ships of the line. He is warned of the recent problems by Vic, but agrees--against the emotional pleas of his wife--to join the Berwind in New Zealand. Henry Scott (Broderick Crawford) and Mace (David Cross) work in the loud and hot engine room of the Berwind. Scott says he's upset that the Berwind's current First Officer, Mr. Moody (Hank Patterson), hasn't been offered the Captain's position (due to his old age of 76). In fact, Scott intends to use this decision to rile the crew as he puts into action his plan of mutiny. While the ship's deceased captain noted in the log that Scott is an "Exemplary Seaman," Mace knows that Scott has been responsible for stirring up problems among the crew several times. Scott says he needs a second partner who is good with a gun, to assist him and Leroy Martin (Stuart Whitman) in a mutiny plan he has been working on for years while researching maritime history and law. Letting Mace know he has found out his secret--he's an ex-con who robbed a liquor store last year--Scott traps him into being the third partner. Scott lays out his plan to make a million dollars by “steaming up” the crew into a mutiny, killing the officers (and eventually the entire crew) to make it look like they abandoned a sinking ship, thus leaving the partners in possession of a ship which they can sell off for salvage value. Scott and Leroy proceed to foment anger among the crew due to Moody being overlooked for promotion. The new captain arrives to find a poorly kept ship, an unhappy Moody and a lack of key crew that have left the ship. In need of a cook and steward, the captain hires a local Māori couple--Pete (Joel Fluellen) as the cook, and his beautiful wife Mahia (Dorothy Dandridge) as the steward. Setting out to sea Capt. Rummill is optimistic, while Scott and Leroy force Mace to choose between joining the partnership or being thrown overboard. In the officer’s saloon, officer Alex Cole (Jack Kruschen) warns Rummill about the devious nature of Scott and Leroy. Moody dies early in the journey, of what is believed by the crew to be a broken heart, further inflaming the crew against the new captain. One day Scott enrages Pete by letting him overhear that his wife (Mahia) will be seduced by Leroy. A butcher-knife-wielding Pete confronts Leroy while he is attacking Mahia, knocking out Leroy causing Pete to be confined to his cabin. Mace continues to be distraught over being part of the conspiracy and is still having nightmares that cause him to sleep-talk about the plan. Having warned Mace to never do this again, Scott and Leroy honor their threats and throw Mace overboard, making him the first known victim. After the officers discover that Mace is missing, Scott shows a gun he says he’s found to the captain, warning that a mutiny may be afoot and that Mace may have been murdered. Due to concerns over what is going on, the captain moves Mahia to a cabin across from him, allowing her access to his cabin to borrow a book to read. Scott uses this event to launch the mutiny plan he's waited nine years to enact. Scott and Leroy try to convince the captain that the crew will mutiny because Mahia has been seen in his room and it is believed the captain has locked up Pete and moved Mahia near him so he would be able to attack her. Trying to uncover what is going on, the captain questions several crew members but this doesn't reveal any concerns of which Scott warned. Scott then convinces the crew to set Pete free. With tensions mounting and no bullets for the gun Scott found and gave to the captain, one officer says he’s brought aboard an old German Luger with a few rounds. Scott and Leroy call the crew together to convince them to mutiny against a captain who Scott says needs to be turned into the Line for taking advantage of Mahia. The crew begins to suspect Scott has been lying to them all along, then a crewman reveals that he heard Mace's screams and that he believes Scott and Leroy killed Mace. The planned mutiny having backfired, Scott convinces Leroy they must kill the whole crew before the crew can join the officers against them. Hearing a sound, the officers rush to find the ship's radio has been destroyed. Scott and Leroy uncover their hidden stash of a rifle and handgun while the officers have only knives and the Luger. In the meantime, the crew follows previous orders by locking Pete back in his cabin; showing that they will not mutiny. Taking their rifle to the loud engine room, Scott kills a crew member at point-blank range and forces Leroy to kill the second. Seeing this, another of the crew attempts to warn the others, only to be killed by Scott. Not hearing the shots, the fourth engine room crewman is murdered by Scott. The officers realize that no one can be contacted in the engine room, and go to find the bodies and that the engine is slowing due to the ship taking on water as part of Scott's plan to make it appear that the crew abandoned a sinking ship. The sinking is stopped, and the captain warns that the crew not be informed so they won't try to go for the lifeboats and be also killed. The officers order the remaining crew to assemble in the saloon, where it's revealed that three crew members are missing and that Pete and Mahia were told to stay in their cabins. The captain orders new First Officer Jim Osborne (Guy Kingsford) to stay with the lone pistol in the salon to protect the crew while the ship's Chief, "Bull" Pringle (John Gallaudet), goes to find Pete, and the captain searches for Mahia. Scott, armed with the rifle, intends to start at the bridge and work his way down to kill everyone while Leroy stays on deck with the handgun. Finding Mahia in bed asleep, Rummill warns her of the killings. After Mahia dresses they flee from a pursuing Scott only to be saved at the last second by a covering shot from Osborne. Bull attempts to evade Leroy to make it to Pete, not knowing Pete has already joined the crew in the saloon. Hearing a shot that Leroy has taken while wounding Bull, Pete grabs his butcher's knife to go to Bull's aide. While protecting Bull, Pete is killed by Leroy, allowing Bull time to escape. Bull, making it back to the saloon, reveals Pete and two other crewmen (including Elliott) are dead. Mahia tells the captain he is a coward to not pursue Scott and Leroy, and the captain tries to settle a panicking crew. With Mahia having gone for her husband and the crew taking to the lifeboat, the captain orders three officers without children to stay to fight. Before the escape, though, Scott traps Mahia on deck. Having Mahia in his sights, Scott gives the officers and crew 60 seconds to get in the lifeboats and leave. Knowing that alone on sea in a lifeboat the crew will all surely die, and with seconds to act, the captain hatches a risky plan. He realized that Elliot, who was last known to be taking a reading of the ship's speed using a Chip log, may have been killed before he pulled in the log and its line floating behind the ship. The captain surmises that he could abandon ship, but then use the line from the log to climb back aboard. He orders the crew to abandon ship, with Scott and Leroy planning to keep Mahia aboard with them. With the lifeboat away, Scott and Leroy return to the engine room to restart the engines and continue their plan of partially sinking the ship. Scott then goes to the bridge to pilot the ship, leaving Leroy to run the engines. Having rowed a distance from the ship, the captain and officer Pringle then fight the cold water to swim back to the stern of the ship. Pringle, though, is unable to keep up and eventually drowns, as the captain must leave him in order to have any chance of making it to the ship before Scott and Leroy get it underway again. Rummill makes it to the log line just as engine pressure is restored. With the propeller now turning below, he must make an impossible climb to the deck. Once aboard, though, Rummill finds Mahia and takes a knife from the kitchen since his wet gun is now not reliable. Mahia advises the captain to try to kill the weaker Leroy first with the knife before going after Scott on the bridge. She convinces Rummill of her plan to put Leroy off-guard down in the engine room by claiming Scott has attacked her. Mahia tells Leroy that Scott has promised her half the money, and that Scott will eventually kill Leroy. Mahia convinces Leroy they can be together instead, and as they begin to kiss she takes Leroy's handgun from his back pocket and shoots him twice, leading to his slow death. Scott, still on the bridge, steers the ship towards the lifeboat to kill the remaining crew. When he is not able to contact Leroy to change the ship's speed, he rushes unarmed to the engine room where he is confronted by a knife-wielding Rummill. Seeing Leroy's handgun on the engine room floor below, Scott leaps for it and fires at Rummill; only to realize the gun is empty. Rummill then leaps on and fatally stabs Scott, while in the sea the crew evades the ship bearing down on them. With ten crewmen now dead, the movie ends with those remaining on the lifeboat cheering their rescue by Rummill, who is now back in command. ===== Ninne Pelladata is family romance based movie in which Mahalakshmi (Tabu) comes to Hyderabad for Flight Training and falls in love with Seenu (Nagarjuna). The duo decide to inform their respective parents of their plan to get married. Seenu's family welcomes Mahalakshmi, and approves of her. Just shortly after their approval, Mahalakshmi's parents interrupt the proceedings and forcibly take Mahalaxmi with them, to get her married to someone else, leaving Mahalakshmi and Seenu to an unknown fate. ===== The game takes place in and around the fictional Hardscrabble Island. For centuries, Hardscrabble was a thriving seaport, but the local fishing industry died out in the 1920s. Most of the area's remaining population is an assortment of hard-luck types and people of questionable ethics. The player's character is a skilled diver scraping to make ends meet. One night, an old shipmate named Hevlin barges in with a map indicating the locations of two previously undiscovered shipwrecks. Flashing between excitement and paranoia, Hevlin abruptly leaves, asking the player to safekeep the map. Naturally, the old sailor is murdered as he practically steps from the doorway; someone obviously wants this map quite badly. As the player attempts to mount a perilous dive for sunken treasure, several characters offer their help. Some of them can be trusted and some can not. Failure to tell the difference between the two can result in an "untimely accident". Successfully making positive contact with the right characters is the only way the player can advance to the actual shipwrecks. Once the dive begins the player must locate and retrieve the treasure from that wreck to complete the game. Each time the game is played, either the São Vera or the Leviathan is randomly chosen as the wreck to be explored. The other two locations contain no treasure and are red herrings. The game has 68 locations.Infocom Fact Sheet, Section VI, Game Statistics ===== Jeff Taylor and his wife Amy drive cross-country from Boston to San Diego in their new Jeep Grand Cherokee. Jeff narrowly avoids colliding with a beat-up truck. Later, at a gas station, Earl, the truck driver, confronts Jeff and they exchange hostile words. Shortly after the couple resume their journey, their car breaks down on a vacant road. Leaving Jeff with the Jeep, Amy accepts a ride from a passing big rig trucker to get to a nearby diner and call for help. Jeff eventually discovers that someone has tampered with the Jeep's battery connections. After reconnecting them, he drives to the diner, only to discover that no one has seen Amy. When he sees the trucker on the road and forces him to stop, the trucker claims he has never seen Jeff or Amy. Jeff then hails a passing sheriff named Boyd, but a brief search of the truck yields no sign of Amy. The trucker, Red Barr, is let go and Jeff is instructed by Boyd to see his deputy in the town of Brackett. After speaking with the deputy, Jeff goes back to the diner. Billy, a mentally-impaired mechanic, informs Jeff that Amy left with some men, but refuses to speak with the police, claiming they are involved. Jeff rushes to the location Billy mentioned, but is ambushed on a back road by Earl. He escapes by driving his Jeep into a river and swimming into the water abandoning his jeep. Jeff makes it to shore and watches from the bushes as Earl and another accomplice, Al, pull his jeep out of the water. He is then discovered and knocked out by Billy. When Jeff wakes up, he is confronted by Billy (who feigned mental impairment earlier) and Earl. Their leader is Red Barr, who informs Jeff that he has Amy (she is with Al somewhere off screen) and wants the $90,000 in Jeff's bank account and orders him to withdraw the money in the nearby town of Brackett in exchange for Amy's life. Realizing he has only a fraction of the assumed amount, Jeff attempts to alert the bank manager to his plight. However, paranoid that Red's group is keeping an eye on him, Jeff abandons the idea and steals marked money ribbons and a letter opener. He uses the money ribbons to pack stacks of $1 bills between two $100 bills. Jeff is then instructed to leave town, where Earl picks him up and binds him with duct tape. Earl begins gloating about how Jeff and his wife were easy targets, how he tampered with their Jeep and that his group intends to kill them anyway. Jeff cuts himself free with the letter opener and stabs Earl. After a brief struggle, Jeff takes over the vehicle, binds Earl, and tortures him to reveal his rendezvous with Red at a local truck stop. They pass Boyd, who sees the speeding, swerving pickup and stops the vehicle. When Jeff exits the truck with Earl's gun, Boyd mistakes the situation and forces him to lie down. Earl frees himself and shoots Boyd with a concealed gun. Before Earl can shoot Jeff, a wounded Boyd shoots and kills him. Jeff uses Boyd's radio to call for an ambulance and rushes to the truck stop. At the stop, Jeff sees Red and stows away under his truck. Early the next morning, Red arrives at his farm. Jeff sneaks into the barn, discovering evidence that Red has a history robbing and killing people and that his real name is Warren. Al and Billy arrive with a bound and gagged Amy, and the three lock her in a freezer in the barn's cellar, leaving her to die. Unable to open the cellar door, Jeff finds a gun and demands the cellar key from Red. When he is distracted by Red's son Deke, Billy escapes. Jeff forces Al, Red, his wife Arleen and Deke to release Amy, then locks them in the cellar. Jeff and Amy steal a pickup and flee, while Billy returns to free Red, Al, Arleen and Deke, who each pursue the Taylors in their own vehicles. During the pursuit, Billy is killed when his car explodes after Jeff forces his car off the road. Shortly after, the trailer from Red's truck detaches, causing Al to violently crash into it killing him also. Undeterred, Red attempts to force Jeff and Amy's vehicle off a bridge, trapping Amy's leg underneath the dashboard. Jeff rushes out of the vehicle and into Red's big rig, where a struggle over the steering wheel forces Red's truck over the edge, leaving it dangling on a steel bridge support. Jeff fights Red on the suspended big rig, eventually hurling him to the rocks below. Jeff frees Amy from the dashboard. Seeing that Red survived the fall, Amy pulls the automatic shifter on their pickup, causing the semi to fall on Red and crush him. Sitting on the edge of the bridge beside their mangled pickup, Jeff and Amy embrace each other. ===== Big Enos and Little Enos offer retiring Sheriff Buford T. Justice a wager, betting $250,000 against his badge on his ability to transport a large stuffed fish from Florida to Texas. Buford rejects the wager and retires, but goes through all sorts of mishaps before finally realizing retirement is not all it is cracked up to be and accepting the Enoses' wager. Buford picks up the fish and starts driving with his son, Junior. The Enoses set many traps, but Buford dodges all of them, so they try to hire the Bandit to stop him. Deciding that the original Bandit is too hard to manage, they hire the Snowman to act as the Bandit. The new Snowman/Bandit parks his truck so he can drive a black and gold 1983 Pontiac Trans Am. The Bandit picks up Dusty, who quits her job at a used car dealership. The Bandit catches up with Buford and steals the fish with Dusty's help. Buford pursues the Bandit, with another local officer who attempts to take charge of the situation. Both police cars are disabled in the chase. Buford catches up after the Bandit and Dusty stop at a redneck bar to eat. The chase then creates mass chaos in a local town. The Bandit escapes when an 18-wheeler blocks the alleyway where the Bandit ran through on foot. While trying to get the truck out, Buford's car is towed, but he reverses the car and escapes. The tow truck operator chases him, with Junior spinning on the hook. Buford makes the truck flip over, sending Junior flying. Other cars crash into the pile-up. Buford chases the Bandit in the Mississippi Fairgrounds. Buford's car is thrown up on two side wheels by an incline, but he continues the pursuit while driving on two wheels. At night, the Bandit and Dusty stop at a hotel called the Come On Inn, where people are involved in an orgy. Buford sees the Bandit's Trans-Am parked there and searches for the fish, which he finds. Buford also thinks he finds the Bandit in the sauna, but it turns out to be a muscular woman who bonds with him. The next day, two of Buford's tires are blown by the "Enos Devil Darts". The Bandit retakes the fish. Buford pursues on the remaining two tires, first through a herd of cattle, then through parked boats, then a nudist camp, then through a field where the Enoses set off explosions, one of which destroys the car except the engine, seat, and lights, the latter of which Junior is holding above his head. In an anticlimactic ending, the Bandit decides to surrender the fish and let Buford win. As Buford collects his money, he spots the Snowman. Thinking he is dealing with the real Bandit, he resists "the Bandit's" (imagined as Burt Reynolds) attempts to sweet-talk him out of capturing him before Junior (in a voiceover) reminds him of what is in store for him if he retires. Both Buford and the Bandit both separately come to the same conclusion that they need each other in order to have meaning in their lives and the chase resumes, with Buford giving the Bandit a five-minute head start and with the muscular woman joining up with him. Junior is left behind and chases after Buford and the woman, dropping all the money in the process. ===== Howard Cottrell awakes from some form of unconsciousness to find himself laid out in an autopsy room. As the doctors prepare to begin, Howard struggles to come to grips with what is happening. After realizing that he isn't dead, Howard deduces that he is in a paralysed state. Howard tries to somehow inform the doctors of this fact before they cut into him. While prepping Cottrell's body, the doctor in charge, Katie Arlen, finds shrapnel wounds around his nether regions. While she is absent-mindedly examining these, another doctor rushes into the room to inform them that Howard is still alive. Katie looks down – to find herself holding Howard's erect penis. In a humorous afternote, Howard explains that he was possibly bitten by a very rare snake, causing the deathlike paralysis. Another one of the doctors discovered that same snake in his golf bag and was promptly bitten. It's presumed that he will recover. Howard adds that he and Katie dated for a while, but parted due to an embarrassing issue in the boudoir (he was impotent unless she was wearing rubber gloves). ===== Fletcher, a former reporter from The New York Times, has been captured by members of a South American dictatorship. The story begins as he is brought into the titular "deathroom" for interrogation about an allegedly communist insurgency, which he has been supporting due to the government's killing of a group of nuns which included his sister. Fletcher realizes that his captors, despite their promises to the contrary, will not let him leave the room alive. During the course of his interrogation, Fletcher manages to keep calm, and hatches a desperate plan to escape, which, to his surprise, actually works. He fakes an epileptic seizure and, in the captors' struggle to save him, steals a gun. After killing three of his captors and maiming one, he escapes the deathroom. Fletcher, having no way of knowing if the gunfire was heard, starts up the stairs to see if he can escape. The story ends with a man, almost certainly Fletcher, buying a pack of cigarettes at a newsstand kiosk in New York. ===== Two college students, Keith and AJ, want to hire a stripper to buy their way into a campus fraternity. They borrow a Cadillac from lonely rich student Duncan, who insists on coming with them to scope out strip clubs in a nearby city. The three boys find themselves at a club in a shady part of town, and after being impressed by a surreally artistic stripper, Katrina, AJ visits her dressing room to try and convince her to come strip for their college party. Katrina seduces AJ, then pins him down - killing him with a fatal bite to the neck. Keith becomes concerned at his friend’s delay and gets help from a waitress named Amaretto, who keeps insisting (to his confusion) that she knows him. They search the neighborhood, and Keith is separated from her while trying to escape from both a psychotic albino street gang, as well as from vampires throughout the area. While hiding in a dumpster, he finds AJ's discarded body, but when he calls the police and returns to the club to accuse the owners, the vampires have preempted him by bringing AJ back to the club as undead. AJ confesses to Keith that he's now a vampire, and after realizing that Keith will not kill him and is willing to die for him, AJ stakes himself with a piece of broken furniture. Keith, Amaretto, and Duncan flee the club, but their car is rammed by vehicles driven by vampires. After escaping, they realize that Duncan has been turned to a vampire, and they abandon him in a burning car. The pair attempt to escape through the sewers, as Amaretto breaks down and tells Keith that her real name is Allison, and she knows AJ from a game of spin the bottle when they were classmates in fifth grade. While they flee through the sewers, they discover and burn a nest of vampires, but Allison is grabbed and held hostage by Katrina. After an arrow to the face and being staked in the chest with a pipe fail to stop Katrina, Keith kills her by opening a grating, allowing the sunlight to destroy her. Before they can escape to the surface, they are trapped by Vlad, Katrina's vampire consort, until Vlad is staked from behind by a revived AJ, who sheepishly notes that the stake he tried to kill himself with turned out to be formica. As Keith and Allison climb to the surface daylight, AJ remains in the sewers calling out to him his ideas to go to night school, or work a job on a graveyard shift. ===== Since the beginning of time, there have been "Others" - humans endowed with supernatural abilities - and for just as long, the Others have been divided between the forces of Light and Dark. In Medieval times, the armies of both sides met by chance, and a great battle began. Seeing that neither side had a clear advantage, the two faction leaders, Geser and Zavulon, called a truce and each side commissioned a quasi-police force to ensure it was kept; the Light side's force was called The Night Watch. In modern-day Moscow, Anton Gorodetsky () visits a witch named Daria and asks her to cast a spell to return his wife to him, agreeing that she should miscarry her illegitimate child as part of it. Just as the spell is about to be completed, two figures burst in and restrain Daria, preventing her from completing the spell. When they notice that Anton is able to see them, they realize that he is also an Other. Twelve years later, Anton has enlisted in the Night Watch. While policing Moscow, he encounters several portents that Geser says are linked to an ancient prophecy of an immensely powerful Other that will end the stalemate between Light and Dark, but will be more likely to join the Dark. Anton's investigations lead him to a nurse, Svetlana, whom disaster seems to follow everywhere, and a young boy named Yegor. In the film's climax, Anton prevents a catastrophic storm from leveling Moscow, when he realizes that Svetlana is an Other, and begins teaching her to control her power. But in the process, Anton realizes that Yegor is his own son, and that his wife was pregnant with him when Anton tried to have a spell cast on her (believing, mistakenly, that the father of the child was his wife's lover, not himself). Learning that his own father tried to kill him before he was born turns Yegor - the Other of the prophecy - against Anton and towards Zavulon, which was the latter's plan all along. In helpless rage, Anton strikes Zavulon, while saying in voice over that, although the prophecy has come true and the Dark's victory seems inevitable, he will not give up. ===== Ben Shockley, an alcoholic cop from Phoenix, is given the task to escort witness Augustina "Gus" Mally from Las Vegas. His superior, Commissioner E.A. Blakelock, says she is a "nothing witness" for a "nothing trial." Mally protests that they are both set up to be killed in a hit, which a jaded Shockley doubts. Mally reveals herself to be a belligerent prostitute with mob ties and is in possession of incriminating information concerning a high figure in society. Her suspicions are confirmed when the transport vehicle is bombed and Mally's house is fired upon. Shockley and Mally are then pursued across the open country with no official assistance and with the police force regarding them as fugitives. They kidnap a local constable, who they then let go, as Mally knows there'll be another hit. The constable dies at the hands of several men armed with machine guns. They eventually run into a gang of bikers whom Shockley threatens with his revolver, then confiscates one of their motorcycles and takes off on it with Mally. It is revealed that Shockley's boss, Commissioner Blakelock, wants both of them dead, because Mally knows about Blakelock's secret life. Assistant District Attorney John Feyderspiel is involved with the plot to kill Shockley and Mally. Both of them are also blamed for the death of the constable. The two ride into a town where Shockley and Mally are ambushed by a helicopter filled with cops sent by Blakelock who pursues the two onto the open road, firing at them from above. During the high-speed pursuit, the helicopter crashes and explodes. The two ditch the damaged motorcycle and hop on a train on which, coincidentally, the same two bikers whose machine they had "borrowed" are riding. The bikers attack and assault Shockley and attempt to rape Mally. The wounded Shockley grabs hold of his gun and subdues the bikers, knocking them and their girlfriend off the train. Shockley and Mally both realize that going back to Phoenix will be suicide, but it's the only way to prove their innocence. The two hijack a bus and outfit it with a crude set of armor made from scrap steel. They are about to enter Phoenix when Maynard Josephson, an old friend of Shockley's, warns the two of a gauntlet of armed police officers that Blakelock has set up to "welcome" them. Josephson convinces Shockley to turn himself in to Feyderspiel whom he thinks is an honest broker. As the pair follow Josephson out of the bus, Josephson is shot dead from a nearby building, and Shockley is hit in the leg. With no other option, the two return to the bus and enter the town. The bus is shot at as it runs the titular "gauntlet" of hundreds of armed officers lining both sides of the road, until it reaches the steps of City Hall, finally immobilized. The two emerge from the riddled bus and surrender, but Shockley uses Feyderspiel as a shield, in order to have him confess that Blakelock and Feyderspiel are both corrupt. The enraged Blakelock shoots at Shockley and Feyderspiel, wounding the former and killing the latter. Blakelock is in return shot dead by Mally. Realizing Blakelock's crime and having witnessed his wanton killing of Feyderspiel, the rest of the assembled officers do nothing to stop the pair as Shockley and Mally walk away safely from the gauntlet. ===== The story starts in 1958. Anders Roos, 14 years old, arrives one week late at Södra Latins' summer camp (which is 10 weeks in total). The leaders of the camp have put him in another barrack than his peers, because they know there are "troubles" at school. Usually peers are together. The other people in the barrack have to decide on a nickname for him: all people in the camp have one. They decide to call him Anna because they think he looks like a girl. Anders is far too small for his age, cannot play football and cannot swim. At summer camp, Anders is severely bullied. In the morning, when all boys have to fix their bed, the other people will not let him. This results in a low number of points, and because he gets a low number of points for his bed, the other boys throw him into the sea. A number of times, he is beaten up so badly that he is unable to leave his bed for many days. The camp leaders do not want to send anyone home: the camp reputation would be severely damaged. Micke is the sports' leader at the camp. Through the ten weeks at summer camp, Anders discovers that he can trust Micke. He tells Micke that he is the only one he likes: at home, his father mistreats him. When he eats, his father tells him exactly how much money he owes. On the other hand, his father always complains that Anders is much too small and that he is an imbecile. He also forces him to watch when he rapes his mother. Micke finds it very difficult to react to this openness, but tries to be open and be a friend. When the summer camp is finished, Micke needs to work for his exams, at the end of the year. He also trains a lot, and wins a lot of matches by running fastest. He has hardly any time left for Anders, and the few times he sees him, Anders tells him a lot about how he is mistreated everywhere. Micke finds it increasingly difficult to know how to handle the situation. He tries to contact the school about it, but the school direction does not believe that there is any bullying at Södra Latins. Later, it seems Anders' life might be getting better, because he and his mother are finally moving out of his fathers' house and Anders may be able to change school. However, at a later moment, Anders has a fight with his mother. The neighbours, who he visits sometimes, are not at home, and he cannot find Micke either. At this moment, he commits suicide by hanging himself. When Micke visits Anders' parents after his suicide, Anders' father asks Micke if he wants to sell his model railway track. ===== The now-adult Stevie Taggert, a tobacconist, makes a bet with an elderly John Moore that he can write the story of one of their adventures together as well as Moore (a former newspaper reporter) could. Set in 1897, Dr. Laszlo Kreizler's associate, Sara Howard, now a private detective, comes to him for help in locating Ana Linares, the kidnapped infant daughter of a visiting Spanish dignitary. The mystery is complicated by rising tensions between Spain and the United States, and war in Cuba seems inevitable. Kreizler re-convenes his old "team": Sara; John; NYPD detectives and forensic specialists Marcus and Lucius Isaacson; and Kreizler's faithful servants, Stevie and Cyrus. Their search for the missing child leads them to contact with an enigmatic woman with a murderous past, who enjoys the protection of the Hudson Dusters, a notorious gang. =====