From Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ===== The story begins with the Battletoads visiting the Gyachung-La fortress in northern Tibet. Professor T. Bird has invited them there to witness the Psicone Corporation's first demonstration of their new virtual reality game system, T.R.I.P.S (Total Reality Integrated Playing System). While showing off the system's artificial world (entitled "The Gamescape"), a pig of the apocalypse leaps out of the screen and kidnaps Michiko Tashoku (daughter of Psicone Corporation's CEO, Yuriko Tashoku). Zitz attempts to rescue her, but gets knocked out by the pig and captured as well. The pig escapes back into the Gamescape and Silas Volkmire appears on the screen, announcing his plans to turn the real world into his own Gamescape, and that Michiko and Zitz are being held captive under the evil Dark Queen. With nothing left to lose, Rash and Pimple enter the Gamescape to rescue their friends and stop Volkmire and the Dark Queen from fulfilling their plans. Along the way, they fight Rocky, a giant stone pig, and race against Scuzz, a rat that challenges them all throughout the final level. The Battletoads finally reach the Dark Queen in her tower and defeat her, but she manages to escape again. Bird picks up Volkmire on his scanners and finds out that he is trying to escape using a teleporter, so the Battletoads leave the Gamescape and hop into the Battlecopter to chase after him. Depending on the player's actions during this final gameplay segment, there are two possible endings that may occur. If the player is unable to shoot three missiles at Volkmire's teleporter, he gets away, and the Battletoads feel dejected knowing that Volkmire is free and the Dark Queen wants revenge. If the player successfully shoots three missiles at Volkmire's teleporter, the ship crashes in the Himalayas and is recovered, but Volkmire is nowhere to be found. Similarly to the first ending, it is alluded to that Volkmire and the Dark Queen will want revenge. ===== The sitcom is based around a modern family who live in the Midlands. The family consists of Colin Craddock, a white Brummie builder, and his Asian wife Rupinder. Colin's two sons from his first marriage, Peter and Leo, share the house, as do Rupinder's half-sister Sima, daughter Kavita and son Raj, a wheelchair user with cerebral palsy. The 'me' in the title was Raj, and his thoughts were heard in a voiceover. At the end of the first series Colin and Rupinder had their own child. The third series saw the introduction of two new characters called Charles and Miranda, whose attempts at political correctness proved untactful. ===== Briski, a documentary photographer, went to Kolkata to photograph prostitutes. While there, she befriended their children and offered to teach the children photography to reciprocate being allowed to photograph their mothers. The children were given cameras so they could learn photography and possibly improve their lives. Their photographs depicted a life in the red light district through the eyes of children typically overlooked and sworn off to do chores around the house until they were able to contribute more substantially to the family welfare. Much of their work was used in the film, and the filmmakers recorded the classes as well as daily life in the red light district. The children's work was exhibited, and one boy was even sent to a photography conference in Amsterdam. Briski also recorded her efforts to place the children in boarding schools although many of the children did not end up staying very long in the schools they were placed in. Others, such as Avijit and Kochi not only went on to continue their education, but were graded well. ===== The story begins on the streets of Prague on a grey morning busy with commuters. A colourless figure, played by Petr Čepek, emerges from a metro station. On his way home, the man encounters two men handing out flyers. It is a map of the city with a location marked. He shrugs and discards it, returning to his lodging. As he opens the door, a black cockerel runs out. The man sits down to eat, cutting himself a slice of bread. He discovers an egg concealed inside the loaf. He cracks it open but it is empty. Suddenly the lights go out and the wind rises. Objects are thrown about the room. The commotion ceases; the man goes to the window and looks down to where the two men from earlier are staring up at him. One of them holds the cockerel. The man closes the blind and returns to the table, where he finds the map and, using his own map of the city, traces out the location marked. The next day, he goes to the spot indicated and enters a dilapidated building just as a man rushes from it in fear. He continues into the interior and descends to a dressing room, where he finds a charred script, a robe embroidered with sigils, greasepaint, a wig with a beard and a cap. Sitting down he addresses himself as Faust and speaks to himself (the first words spoken in the film) Faust's opening declaration of intent to follow black magic. As the opening curtain is signalled, 'Faust' finds himself on a stage, a performance about to begin. Ripping off his costume, he breaks through the stage backdrop into a vault where an alchemist's laboratory is revealed; with the aid of a book of spells, he brings to life a clay child which grows horrifyingly into his own image before he smashes it. Warned by a marionette angel not to experiment further but encouraged by a demon to do as he pleases, he is sent by a wooden messenger to a café meeting with the two street-map men, identified as 'Cornelius' and 'Valdes', who give him a briefcase of magical devices. Returning to the vault, he uses these to summon Mephisto, offering Lucifer his soul in return for 24 years of self-indulgence. At another café, 'Faust' is entertained by Cornelius and Valdes, who provide a fountain of wine from a table-top. He watches as a tramp, carrying a severed human leg, is pestered by a large black dog until he throws the limb into the river. 'Faust' finds a key in his food, uses it on a shop-front shutter, and is dragged back on stage by waiting stagehands. He mimes a scene from Gounod's opera, in which Mephisto returns and the pact with Lucifer is signed in blood. After the interval, 'Faust' visits Portugal to demonstrate his supernatural powers to the King: when a requested restaging of the David and Goliath contest is poorly received, he drowns the entire Portuguese court. 'Faust' is distracted from repentance by Helen of Troy, whom he seduces before realising she is a wooden demon in disguise. Lucifer arrives earlier than expected to claim his soul, and 'Faust' rushes in panic from the theatre, meeting a newcomer in at the doorway as he bursts into the street. He is felled by a red car, and Cornelius and Valdes watch in amusement as a tramp carries away a severed leg from the scene of the accident. A policeman checks the car, but it is without a driver. ===== Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia are traveling with R2-D2 and C-3PO to the planet Circarpous IV to persuade its inhabitants to join the Rebel Alliance. A strange energy storm forces them to crash land on the swampy Circarpous V, known to the locals as Mimban. They begin looking for a space port to get off the planet but instead find a town, near which agents of the Empire have an energy mine—the cause of the crash. Forced to keep their identities secret, Luke and Leia take refuge in a nearby bar. An old woman named Halla approaches them, identifies Luke as strong with the Force, and shows him a splinter of what she claims to be the Kaiburr crystal, which focuses the Force. Halla strikes a deal with Luke and Leia to help her find the whole crystal, and in return she will help them get off the planet. A squabble between Luke and Leia attracts the attention of miners emerging from the pub, who claim that fighting in public is against Imperial law; they all get into a brawl. Imperial stormtroopers intervene and incarcerate Luke and Leia. They are questioned by Imperial Captain-Supervisor Grammel, who confiscates the crystal shard along with Luke's weapons. Luke and Leia are placed in a maximum-security cell with two drunk but friendly Yuzzem, hairy creatures called Hin and Kee. Grammel reports the incident and gives the crystal shard to the Imperial governor of the star system. Halla uses the Force to help Luke, Leia and the two Yuzzem. The Yuzzem rampage through the jail, while Luke and Leia escape. The four meet Halla and the droids to find the Temple of Pomojema, which Halla believes to be the location of the Kaiburr crystal. They travel through the swampy wilds of Mimban, during which they encounter a wandrella, a huge worm-like creature, which pursues them and separates Luke and Leia from the others. Luke and Leia hide in a well, down which the wandrella falls, leaving the two trapped. From the lip of the well, Halla suggests that there must be an escape route underground, at the end of which Halla and the others will rejoin them. Luke and Leia journey underground, floating across a lake on lily pads, and fend off sea creatures. On the other side of the lake, they encounter the secretive residents of the caves, the Coway, who have captured Halla, the droids and the Yuzzem. To save his friends, Luke defeats the Coway's champion fighter and thus impresses the tribe. At a tribal banquet, Luke senses Darth Vader, confirmed by Coway patrols—Imperials, led by Vader and Grammel, are approaching. When the Imperials arrive, they are surprised by the Coway tribe's resistance in battle. Vader and Grammel retreat with the handful of surviving stormtroopers, though Vader loses patience with Grammel for the defeat and kills him. Luke and company steal a recently abandoned Imperial transport, and travel to the temple, where they find the Kaiburr crystal. They encounter a monster and unsuccessfully try to fight it off with blasters. Luke cuts down one of the pillars holding up the temple, crushing the monster, but Luke's leg is pinned under a boulder. Vader then enters the temple, announcing that he killed Hin and Kee. Leia takes up Luke's lightsaber and begins fighting Vader, who gives her multiple superficial burns with his own saber. Hin, mortally wounded, shows up and lifts the rock off of Luke before perishing. Luke then duels Vader, deflecting some Force-based attacks and eventually slicing off Vader's arm. Despite this, the Sith lord seems about to win, but then falls into a pit. Luke senses that this is not the end of Vader. He and Leia, healed by the crystal, drive off with Halla into the mists of Mimban. ===== The play by the Maribor Slovene National Theatre in 1936 The central character of the play, Fedor Protasov, is tormented by the belief that his wife Liza has never really chosen between him and the more conventional Victor Karenin, a rival for her hand. He wants to kill himself, but doesn't have the nerve. Running away from his life, he first falls in with Gypsies, and into a sexual relationship with a Gypsy singer, Masha. However, facing Masha's parents' disapproval, he runs away from this life as well. Again he wants to kill himself, but lacks the nerve; again, his descent continues. Meanwhile, his wife, presuming him dead, has married the other man. When Protasov is discovered, she is charged with bigamy, accused of arranging her husband's disappearance. He shows up in court to testify that she had no way of knowing that he was alive; when the judge rules that his wife must either give up her new husband or be exiled to Siberia, Protasov shoots himself. Hysterically, his wife declares that it is Protasov whom she always loved. ===== Stephen Chow returns as Chow Sing-Sing, the obnoxious undercover cop who seems to get into all sorts of trouble, only this time he doesn't go back to school. Instead, Chow goes undercover as the husband of a wealthy socialite (Anita Mui), which doesn't sit well with his fiancée played by Cheung Man who tries to convince Chow to quit working as undercover. ===== In 2000, the Garland Corporation opens a new complex known as "Garland Square" on the outskirts of London. Full of modern amenities, it is considered the future of urban living. A day before its grand opening, however, the entire complex is taken over by the United Resistance Defense Army (shortened to URDA), a terrorist group. The terrorists have taken no hostages and made no demands upon takeover, causing a string of confusion among intelligence officials around the world. With an unknown threat, Scotland Yard and MI6 dispatch the Special Tactical Force's (STF) First Platoon Unit (led by Claude McGarren, spelled as Croad Macgalain in the arcade version) to suppress the URDA, and to ensure that the terrorists don't access their hidden agenda, whatever it may be. Slowly but surely, the STF liberates the Drycreek Plaza shopping mall, Garland Park, and the Garland Technology Center, eliminating the URDA's twin lieutenants Tiger and Edge (Tigger and Edgey in the arcade version) and wiping out their air force and tank defenses. After securing Garland Square, McGarren receives word from Vital Situation, Swift Elimination (VSSE) officials that Derrick Lynch, the terrorists' ringleader, is attempting to overload Geyser 1, an experimental nuclear reactor built by Garland Electric to power the complex (via an Eyes Only broadcast). Making their way down to the control room, five kilometres below the complex, McGarren and his men defeat Lynch's troops before taking out the ringleader himself. McGarren shuts down and secures the nuclear reactor seconds before it melts down. After the S.T.F evacuate and enter a nearby lift, the control room explodes. The unit declares their mission a success. The PlayStation 2 version features a special "Grassmarket District" mission, which takes place six months after the main story's events. Lynch's successor Jared Hunter launches a fresh attack, seizing control of the newly opened Grassmarket District of Garland Square. With STF Director Grant Kessler's daughter Melissa as a hostage, Hunter demands that the surviving URDA members be released from custody in return for Melissa's life. McGarren and Squad 1 are sent to rescue her. They fight their way through Grassmarket Street, defeating an experimental defense droid called the A-0940 in the process. They then storm the Belforte Hotel, where Melissa is held on the rooftop swimming pool. There, they are confronted by Hunter and his airborne attack squad. Declaring his intent for revenge, Hunter engages and loses to Squad 1. He then attempts escape in a modified, heavily armed speedboat, but is killed when the boat is destroyed by McGarren's chopper. McGarren and his men then take Melissa to safety, having ended the URDA's terror once and for all. ===== U.S. Marine Corps Major Benson Winifred Payne, a hardened Marine, returns from a violent but successful drug raid in South America, only to find out that he was once again not promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. Payne receives an honorable discharge on the grounds that "the wars of the world are no longer fought on the battlefield", and that his military skills are no longer needed. Payne tries to adjust to civilian life through an application to the police academy. He hits a man repeatedly during a training scenario, causing him to be arrested for assault after the man was rendered unconscious. His former general visits him and informs Payne that he has secured a job for him that will get him back in the military. Payne arrives at Madison Preparatory School in Virginia, and is informed by the principal that his job is to train the Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps "green boys", a disorderly group of delinquents and outcasts who have placed last in the Virginia Military Games eight years running. When Payne sees his company, he immediately tells them that, under his direction, they will win the games at all costs, regardless of their various shortcomings: being overweight, sickly, deaf, cross-eyed, orphaned, or from a dysfunctional home. Afterward, he shaves all their heads bald. Payne also meets and clashes with Emily Walburn, the Academy counsellor who tries to soften Payne's discipline with understanding and feelings, especially towards six year old orphan Tiger (Orlando Brown). Payne's training and punishments are harsh, which force the cadets to execute a series of failed schemes to get rid of Payne. Things come to a head when Payne offers them the chance to get rid of him, he will quit if they bring the Military Games trophy to Madison soil. The boys set out one night to Wellington Academy, the current trophy holder, to steal it. However, the Wellington cadets ambush them, and the boys return to school badly beaten (Payne having alerted Wellington via an "anonymous call"). Outside of the academy, Payne bonds with Emily and Tiger. Returning to the Academy, Payne is confronted by lead misfit Alex Stone (Steven Martini) about his deception, but Payne claims it was to show them what the real prize was. With their desire to honestly earn the trophy added to their desire to be rid of Payne, the boys begin to train hard to win. When Stone's alcoholic, obnoxious stepfather appears unannounced and harasses Alex, Major Payne orders him away, granting Payne a lot of respect with the cadets. Stone and his friends want to win the Military games trophy, if just to have Payne gone. The cadets band together under Payne's regimen. Weeks later, Major Payne says they have graduated the program and are fit to compete in the games. Payne is asked to return to the Marines to fight in Bosnia, but his deployment means he will miss the Military Games and disappoint the boys and Emily. As he waits for his train, he sees a family together, realizing that Tiger saw him as a father figure and that Payne is falling in love with Emily. At the games, the boys are holding their own until Dotson, now a Wellington cadet trips Alex during the race spraining his ankle. Madison comes in second, but Alex's injury renders him unfit for the final event, a drill competition. In anger, the Madison cadets fight with the Wellington cadets. The fight is broken up, with the judges deliberating to have Madison disqualified for conduct unbecoming. However, Payne gives up his commission and shows up at the last minute, smooths things over with the referees and tells Tiger to lead Madison in drill. The group executes an unorthodox but entertaining routine which wins them the trophy. On the first day of the new school year, Madison displays the Military Games trophy, along with another one for Alex Stone who won best individual participant. Payne resumes being an instructor, having married Emily and adopted Tiger. Stone resumes his role as a squad leader. Payne has softened quite a bit, telling the new recruits he's not only their commanding officer, but also their friend. When a new, disrespectful blind cadet shows up with his service dog, Payne shaves both him and his dog bald with his "field knife," and laughs. ===== A group of Cuban refugees are on a boat sailing for the United States. They are at first met by what appears to be a U.S. Coast Guard boat, with armed personnel. The captain of the vessel declares that the refugees are welcomed to the United States, only to have the Guardsmen open fire on them and take several bags of cocaine hidden in the boat. It is revealed that the armed personnel were communist Latin American guerrillas disguised as U.S. Coast Guardsmen on board a highjacked US Coast Guard vessel. Eventually, the Coast Guard finds the boat with the murdered American Coast Guardsmen off the coast of Florida. The FBI and the Miami Police Department arrive at the docks to investigate the murders. The communist guerrillas land in Florida and exchange the drugs for weaponry from a drug dealer. They are led by Soviet operative Mikhail Rostov (Richard Lynch), the fake Coast Guard captain who opened fire on the Cuban refugees. Former CIA agent Matt Hunter (Norris) is asked to come out of retirement, but he declines. When Rostov and a team of guerrillas destroy Hunter's residence in the Everglades and kill his friend, John Eagle (Berti) in a failed assassination attempt, Hunter is convinced to reconsider. Later in the day, hundreds of additional guerrillas land on the beaches of southern Florida and move inland using several pre-positioned trucks. The guerrillas begin their assault by destroying suburban homes. Another group of guerrillas impersonating Miami police officers attack a community center full of Cuban expatriates in Miami. When a squad car with genuine Miami policemen drives by to investigate the gunfire, the survivors angrily start vandalizing their car, leaving the police perplexed. While the FBI has no idea who is behind the attacks, Hunter and the CIA believe that Rostov is behind the attacks. As terrorist acts continue in Miami, race riots and general chaos develop within the city, as the terrorists have planned. Later that night, the guerrillas start a shootout and bomb threat at a mall where people are doing their Christmas shopping. During the attack, Hunter, having shaken down an informant, comes into the mall and takes down the guerrillas one by one. National Guard troops are called up, martial law is declared, and armed civilians organize to protect their communities from further guerrilla attacks. Hunter continues pursuing the terrorists, stopping their plans to bomb a church, killing Rostov's right-hand man Nikko (Alexander Zale) right before the latter can initiate a public massacre, and saving a school bus full of children from a bomb. But after arriving at a carnival bombed by the terrorists, Hunter realizes that they are spread out too far for him to effectively stem the tide of their attacks, and therefore devises an alternative plan. Alarmed by the threat, the government establishes a special theater command for the southeastern United States with the headquarters at the Georgia-Pacific Tower in Atlanta. At the command center, all 50 state governors and military officials meet to stop the terror attacks. The FBI takes Hunter into custody for vigilantism against the terrorists, and he is taken to the command center, where he goads Rostov on national television to come out and kill him. Rostov orders all the guerrillas to assault the center in a mass attack, but they find no one inside; Hunter's arrest was a trap, and the National Guard arrives with tanks and troops, hemming the assailants in. While the battle rages outside, Hunter finally comes face-to-face with Rostov and kills him with a M72 LAW. The terror crisis ends when the few remaining guerrillas on the street surrender to the National Guard. ===== At the end of Vault of the Drow, the characters find an astral gate leading to the Abyssal realm of Lolth, Demon Queen of Spiders, goddess of the drow elves and architect of the plot involving hill giants, frost giants, fire giants, kuo-toa and drow. Her realm, the 66th layer of the Abyss, is known as the Demonweb Pits. The player characters are transported to another plane and cast into a labyrinth, known as the Demonweb. To return home, they must find a way out of the web and defeat Lolth in her lair. The Q1 module was the first to offer a glimpse into the Abyss, home to the D&D; race of demons. It features a map of the Demonweb Pits, a series of interweaving passageways through a maelstrom of lost souls in the Abyss. Characters who venture off the path are probably lost, and many spells work differently (or not at all). In the maze there are portals to other worlds, some to which Lolth sends minions to invade (such as a winter world and a world of permanent night). Queen of the Demonweb Pits is an open-ended adventure; each portal can lead to a large area, from which the dungeon master can launch a new campaign. The player characters make their way through Lolth's webs, where they are confronted by her minions, slaves, guards and captives. At the end of the module the players face a final, difficult confrontation with Lolth,Sutherland III, David C, and Gygax, Gary. Queen of the Demonweb Pits (TSR, 1980) . and a giant, mechanical spider which she can control. The dungeon introduces Lolth's handmaidens, the demonic Yochlol. ===== In 1935, teenage tomboy Natty Gann lives in Chicago with her unemployed widowed father, Sol. After being out of work because of the Great Depression, Sol applies for work as a lumberjack in Washington. However, to take the job, he must leave on almost no notice on a company bus. Unable to find Natty before departing, he leaves her a letter promising to send her the fare to join him as soon as he has earned it. Meanwhile, he makes arrangements with Connie, the shallow and insensitive innkeeper of their rooming-house, so Natty can stay on under Connie's temporary supervision. After overhearing Connie reporting her as an abandoned child, Natty runs away to find her father on her own, embarking on a cross-country journey riding the rails along with other penniless travelers and hobos. Along the way she saves a wolfdog from a dog fighting ring. In return the dog, whom she calls Wolf, becomes her friend and protector in her attempt to return to her father. She has a brief, innocent romance with another young traveler, Harry, and encounters various obstacles that test her courage, perseverance, and ingenuity, such as being arrested after cattle rustling and remanded to a juvenile facility. Natty manages to escape the detention center and confronts the blacksmith who has been given control of the captured Wolf. The blacksmith turns out to be kind and fair- minded; he releases Wolf to Natty, and gives her food, a ride to a train station and enough money for a ticket. She is cheated of her ticket money by an unscrupulous ticket agent, and narrowly escapes his attempt to turn her in, returning to "riding the rails" illicitly on freight trains, where she is unexpectedly reunited with Harry in a rail-side shantytown. When Natty's father calls Connie, she tells him Natty is gone. In a later phone call he is grieved to learn that Natty's wallet was found underneath a derailed freight train — unbeknownst to him, she survived the crash. He is given a week's leave from the lumber company to search through the wreckage for her, but to no avail. He returns to the lumber camp and requests the most dangerous jobs, known as "widow's work", now that he seems to have little to live for. Arriving on the west coast, Natty's journey takes several more challenging turns. Harry finds work through the federal Works Progress Administration in San Francisco, but she declines his invitation to go with him, preferring to find her father. The logging operation does not list Sol Gann among their workers, but Natty is undeterred, searching fruitlessly for him by showing other loggers his photo in a pendant he has given her which is her last trace of her parents. Wolf hears the calls of other wolves nearby, and Natty tearfully tells him to go join his own kind. The company clerk catches her in one of the backwoods camps and makes arrangements for her to be sent back down the mountain for her own safety. The clerk then unexpectedly finds the returned letter her father had sent enclosing her train ticket to rejoin him and tells Natty of his location. Natty sets out on foot and sees a company truck pass by loaded with injured men. In the truck, she glimpses her father. She runs after it, calling out for him, but is eventually devastated when it outpaces her. She hears his voice call out for her and finds him standing in the road. They share an emotional embrace, with Wolf looking on from a nearby cliff. ===== The film is a fictional version of the dramatic events of the 1969 abduction of the American ambassador Charles Burke Elbrick (played by Alan Arkin) in 1969. Elbrick was taken in Rio de Janeiro by the Revolutionary Movement 8th October (MR-8) with help of Ação Libertadora Nacional (ALN). Gabeira (played by Pedro Cardoso and named Paulo in the film) as a student joins the radical movement after the military takeover of the Brazilian government. He and his comrades, led by Andréia, gradually decided to kidnap the ambassador as a protest, and are shown mostly planning and executing the kidnapping. Paulo is portrayed as "the most intelligent and uncertain of the kidnappers." The film explores Paulo's love affair with Andréia, the guerrilla leader. It suggests a kind of friendship developing between Paulo and Elbrick. The ambassador is portrayed as a decent man who shares some of his kidnappers' frustrations regarding the Brazilian military dictatorship, but who feels obligated to follow orders he might disagree with. ===== Dr. Randolph Mason, leader of the research team at Miami's Forbes Medical Centre makes medical history by claiming a 100% remission rate for a particular type of cancer called medulloblastoma. Newly qualified doctor Sean Murphy arrives at Forbes determined to expand his own work in oncogenes, but is frustrated by Dr. Mason and Dr. Levy, his boss at Forbes, who deny him permission. Unknown to Sean, his girlfriend Janet Reardon follows him to Miami. She wants to confront him about his devotion to her and discuss their future, a topic avoided by Sean at all times. Thrown into the equation are Tom Widdicomb, a housekeeper at the Forbes Hospital, who keeps his dead mother in a Freezer at home and 'helps' breast cancer patients escape life since that is what his mother died of, and Sushita Industries, the Japanese financial backers of Forbes. While Sushita launches an effort to 'invite' Sean to Tokyo to determine whether he is a potential threat to their investment by using Tanaka Yamaguchi, Tom is certain that Janet is there at Forbes to spy on him as she suspects his hand in the death of the breast cancer patients and should therefore be silenced as the previous nurse was, for interfering in his affairs. Dr. Mason meanwhile learns of Sean's past as an entrepreneur and successful seller of a biotechnology firm and sets Sterling, a 'consultant' (in reality, an industrial espionage expert), on Sean's tail. Driven by his own idealism, Sean decides to look into the 100% remission of medulloblastoma on the sly (with help from Janet in procuring the medicine samples and patients charts). Helen Cabot, an ex- patient of Sean's, dies in Boston; Sean and Janet steal Helen's brain from a funeral home. Sean decides to go to Naples with Janet to visit Malcolm Betancourt, a beneficiary of the treatment provided by Forbes. Tom follows Janet to Naples, followed by (Robert Harris (Forbes chief of security), with both Yamaguchi and Sterling following Sean. Harris catches Tom trying to assault Janet. Sterling foils an attempt by Yamaguchi to kidnap Sean and Janet and convinces him to back off. Sean and Janet escape to Key West where Forbes has its Diagnostic lab. Sean finally discovers the secret behind the 100% remission: the Institute itself created the cancer using transformed St. Louis encephalitis virus and also invented an antibody to the disease. The Institute procured Social Security numbers and other identifying details of wealthy people and their dependents, and as opportunities arose from those people undergoing surgeries or being on IV therapy, infected with them. Because the virus was encephalotropic, it manifested with early neural symptoms in the infected patients, in the form of seizures and convulsions. The infected people, once they were completely cured of the disease, were usually willing to donate large sums to the Forbes. Sean and Janet however end up with them facing the charges of conspiracy, grand larceny, burglary, burglary with deadly weapon, assault, kidnapping, mayhem, and mutilation of a dead body. They are saved by the intervention of Sean's lawyer brother Brian. This book heavily deals with the controversial issues of the time. Category:Novels by Robin Cook Category:American thriller novels Category:1993 American novels Category:Medical novels Category:G. P. Putnam's Sons books ===== The player starts the game as a window cleaner dressed in white overalls who is in the middle of cleaning the outside of a skyscraper. According to later references, the game starts in 1989 (also when Future Wars was first retailed). The player character is not given a name throughout the game. The game cursor identifies him only as 'hero'. He is standing on an electric elevator platform attached to the exterior of the building when 'Ed the boss' opens a window to reprimand him for slacking by banging his fist against the window ledge and shouting. The player then can enter the building and, while playing a prank on Ed, he discovers a secret passage leading to a machine room. There he acquires some documents in an alien language which he keeps in the inventory. The device takes the player to the year 1304, where the hero has the chance to rescue a damsel in distress from dubious monks. He learns then that she is Lo'Ann, a time traveler who came with her father Lear to thwart an alien plot to plant a long-delay time bomb, and he helped them to succeed in their mission against the Crughons. However, by learning things he shouldn't, he must be taken to the Supreme Council of the future so that his fate is decided. The player is then taken to forty-fourth century to meet the council during an attack by the Crughons. After a minor mishap and subsequently having to make his way through the ravaged city of Paris II, the hero eventually gets aboard a shuttle that would take him to the council's city, only to be kidnapped by the Crughons. He is rescued by Earth forces but he is accused of collaboration with them as he is carrying the Crughon documents with him; he is only saved from execution by Lo'Ann who informs the Council. The Council then explains to the player the history: The humans had abandoned Earth and were living in colonies when the war with the Crughons erupted a century ago. The war pushed them to rehabilitate the abandoned Earth. They built a 'time-space energy shield' system called S.D.I. 'in memory of the past' which prevents the Crughons both from attacking Earth and also teleport themselves through time-travel. However, the Crughons managed to visit Earth in different periods of the past and plant three time bombs in the location of the future three generators of S.D.I. Once activated, the bombs can't be defused and the only option is to prevent the Crughons from planting them. For now, Lo'Ann managed to defuse one of them with the hero's help in the Middle Ages, however the one from the hero's era detonated, allowing the Crughons to attack. Thanks to the documents the hero was carrying, they determined that the third bomb was planted in the Cretaceous period. He and Lo'Ann then travel there to foil the Crughon's attempt. After an arcade sequence and the wounding of Lo'Ann, the hero boards their spacecraft and travels to their headquarters to detonate the bomb prematurely. The game ends when, after succeeding in detonating the bomb long before hominids even evolve (and providing an alternate explanation for the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event), the hero returns to the forty-fourth century to fight further battles against the Crughons. ===== Set in 2004, the film revolves around three young anti-capitalist activists in Berlin's city centre: Jule (Julia Jentsch), her boyfriend Peter (Stipe Erceg) and his best friend Jan (Daniel Brühl). Jule is a waitress struggling to pay off a €100,000 debt she incurred a year ago when she crashed into a Mercedes-Benz S-Class belonging to a wealthy businessman named Hardenberg (Burghart Klaußner). After her eviction for non- payment of rent, she moves in with Peter and Jan, who are often out all night. While Peter is in Barcelona, Jan tells Jule that he and Peter spend their nights "educating" upper-class people by breaking into their houses, moving furniture around and leaving notes saying "die fetten Jahre sind vorbei" ("the days of plenty are over") or "Sie haben zu viel Geld" ("you have too much money"). After hearing this, Jule convinces the reluctant Jan to break into Hardenberg's home in the affluent Berlin suburb of Zehlendorf while he is away on business. During the break-in, the thrill of the moment entices them to kiss before Jan leaves Jule alone for a few minutes; he does not want to destroy his friendship with Peter. As she wanders around outside Jule accidentally sets off the house's floodlights, and they quickly leave. When Peter returns the next day, Jan and Jule do not tell him about their activities the night before. Jule realises that her mobile phone is gone, and she and Jan leave later that night to look for it in the house. After she finds it, Hardenberg walks in the door and struggles with Jule when he recognises her. Hearing them, Jan comes downstairs and knocks Hardenberg unconscious with a flashlight. Not knowing what to do, they call Peter and he comes to their aid. The three cannot decide what to do with Hardenberg and take him to a remote, rarely used cabin belonging to Jule's uncle in the Tyrolean Austrian Alps near Jenbach, overlooking Achensee. As they try to decide how to deal with their hostage, they learn that Hardenberg was a radical himself during the 1960s. A leader of the Socialist German Student Union, he was a good friend of Rudi Dutschke before marrying, getting a good job and abandoning his ideals. As the story progresses, political ideology and the characters' relationships become the main issues. Peter and Jan temporarily fall out over Jan's developing romance with Jule, and Hardenberg seems to regain some of his former self. The trio finally decides that kidnapping Hardenberg was wrong and take him back to his house to let him go. As they prepare to leave, Hardenberg gives Jule a letter forgiving her debt and promising not to involve the police. The film ends with Peter, Jan and Jule asleep in the same bed as a group of heavily armed police (Spezialeinsatzkommando) gather outside their flat and knock on the door. Jule wakes up when she hears a knock, and the police force their way into the almost-empty flat. Apparently in Barcelona, Jule opens the door to a hotel maid who wishes to clean their room. In the Berlin apartment, the police find a note: "Manche Menschen ändern sich nie" ("some people never change"). In the original German version, the Edukators set off in Hardenberg's boat in the Mediterranean, presumably to disrupt the island signal towers supplying most television programming to Western Europe. ===== Summer Sisters is a coming-of-age novel about two friends, Caitlin Somers and Victoria "Vix" Leonard, who spend every summer together as teenagers. The girls are polar opposites, Caitlin being beautiful, lively and popular while Vix is a shy but intellectual wallflower. As the years progress the girls become closer and closer but soon find their friendship strained. ===== On a dark and stormy night, corrupt, flamboyant Atlantic City police detective Rick Santoro (Nicolas Cage) attends a boxing match at Gilbert Powell's (John Heard) Atlantic City Arena between heavyweight champion Lincoln Tyler (Stan Shaw) and challenger Jose Pacifico Ruiz. He meets up with his best friend since childhood, Kevin Dunne (Gary Sinise), who is a U.S. Navy Commander, working with the Department of Defense to escort Defense Secretary Charles Kirkland (Joel Fabiani) and Powell at the fight after a trip to Norfolk, Virginia. As the first round begins, Kevin is distracted by an attractive redhead named Serena (Jayne Heitmeyer) who wears a ruby ring, and leaves his seat, which is then taken by Julia Costello (Carla Gugino), a mysterious woman with platinum blonde hair and a white satin suit. When Tyler is unexpectedly knocked out by Ruiz, gunshots ring out, mortally wounding Kirkland and grazing Julia, who loses her glasses and blonde wig, revealing her naturally dark hair. Kevin kills the sniper and orders the arena to be locked down. Despite the lockdown, Julia escapes into the casino, covers her wounds in pieces of cloth from her blouse and, after stealing a black satin jacket, disguises herself as a hooker. Rick notices that the "knocked out" Tyler woke up instantly when the shots rang out and, after studying the fight tape, realizes the knockout punch didn't connect. Tyler confesses that he threw the fight in order to pay gambling debts, but he was never told that anyone would be killed and reveals that he was paid to take a dive by Serena, the redhead who tricked Kevin into leaving his post. With the involvement of Tyler, Serena and the sniper—in addition to the man who signaled Tyler to go down and whoever gave him the go-ahead—Rick suspects a conspiracy and reveals everything he has learned to Kevin. The commander confesses that the trip to Norfolk was for a test of the AirGuard missile defense system, which Powell's company was backing. He deduces that the sniper, a known Palestinian terrorist named Tariq Rabat, assassinated Kirkland over the Pentagon's large-scale defense cooperation with and weapons systems transfers to Israel. Rick studies surveillance footage to find Serena while, with the help of Powell's security guards, Kevin continues his search for Julia. However, once they split up, it is revealed that Kevin is actually the fifth party and mastermind of the conspiracy. He kills the now-blonde Serena and Zietz (the man who signaled Tyler to go down) in order to prevent their further involvement and then conceals their bodies with the help of his bodyguards. Kevin then enlists Tyler by revealing the truth to him. Julia seduces Ned Campbell (David Anthony Higgins), a sleazy guest at the hotel, so she can hide in his room. Both Rick and Kevin discover this at the same time and give chase, but the detective reaches her first and takes her into protective custody. In a stairwell, Julia confesses that she is an analyst who worked on the AirGuard tests and discovered the results were faked to make the missile defense system look like it was working when it was actually way off; the system failed to work and she tipped off Kirkland to the deception. However, Kevin learned of her actions and arranged the entire conspiracy to kill both her and Kirkland, using Rabat's background as a rabidly anti-Israel terrorist to have him kill the SECDEF and then be immediately killed off himself. Rick learns of Kevin's involvement and, despite his initial refusal to believe it, quickly accepts the truth. After hiding Julia in a warehouse, Rick inspects the footage of a new floating camera and discovers proof of his friend's involvement. Kevin confronts Rick and confesses that his motive was to prevent any further attacks on U.S. ships, similar to the one where he had to witness several sailors drown. He offers Rick one million dollars for Julia's location. When Rick refuses, Kevin has Tyler beat him up, but he still does not give in. Kevin plants a tracker on Rick and follows him to the warehouse just as a hurricane hits Atlantic City. When a tidal wave hits the boardwalk, Rick uses it as cover to rush Julia outside, where the police, tipped off by Rick, are waiting and witness the Navy officer opening fire. Cornered by the police and a news crew with no way out, Kevin commits suicide in view of the live news feed. Rick is later hailed as a hero, but the press soon uncovers his corruption and he loses his job and family. Before reporting for his prison term, Rick meets Julia on the boardwalk. She thanks him for his help, as Powell is completely restructuring his company and scrapping the AirGuard. Rick promises to call when he gets out in twelve to eighteen months. Ultimately, Serena's ruby ring is seen embedded in one of the concrete pillars of the new Powell Millennium Arena. ===== While travelling to visit their grandfather in Tuscany, two children are told the story of a family curse that has lasted two hundred years. During Napoleon's Italian invasion, Elisabetta Benedetti fell in love with French soldier Jean but while he was distracted by her, Elisabetta's brother Corrado unintentionally stole the regiment's gold that Jean was guarding, causing Jean's death by firing squad and set the curse in train. The Benedettis become wealthy, corrupt and hated by their former friends, who rename them the Maledetti, the cursed (Benedetti means 'blessed'). The children's grandfather Massimo Benedetti is the last man to be directly affected by the curse but will he pass it onto them? ===== In 1965, Michael Armstrong (Paul Newman), a US physicist and rocket scientist, is traveling to a conference in Copenhagen with his assistant and fiancée, Sarah Sherman (Julie Andrews). Armstrong receives a radiogram to pick up a book in Copenhagen; it contains a message which says, "Contact in case of emergency." He tells Sherman he is going to Stockholm, but she discovers he is flying to East Berlin and follows him. When they land, he is welcomed by representatives of the East German government. Sherman realizes that Armstrong has defected, and is appalled that, given the circumstances of the Cold War, if she stays with him, she will likely never see her home or family again. Armstrong visits a contact, a "farmer" (Mort Mills), where it is revealed that his defection is in fact a ruse to gain the confidence of the East German scientific establishment, in order to learn how much their chief scientist Gustav Lindt (Ludwig Donath) and by extension, the Soviet Union, knows about anti-missile systems. Armstrong has made preparations to return to the West via an escape network, known as . However, he was followed to the farm by his appointed chaperone, Hermann Gromek (Wolfgang Kieling), an East German security officer. Gromek realizes what is and that Armstrong is a double agent, and as Gromek is calling the police, a tortuous fight scene commences that ends with Gromek being killed by Armstrong and the farmer's wife (Carolyn Conwell). Gromek and his motorcycle are then buried. The taxicab driver (Peter Lorre Jr., uncredited) who drove Armstrong to the farm, however, sees Armstrong's picture in the newspaper and reports him to the police. Visiting the physics faculty of Karl Marx University in Leipzig, Armstrong's interview with the scientists ends abruptly when he is questioned by security officials about the missing Gromek. The faculty try to interrogate Sherman about her knowledge of the American "Gamma Five" anti-missile program, but she refuses to cooperate and runs from the room, even though she has agreed to defect to East Germany. At this point, Armstrong secretly confides to her his actual motives, and asks her to go along with the ruse. Armstrong finally goads Professor Lindt into revealing his anti-missile equations in a fit of pique over what Lindt believes are Armstrong's mathematical mistakes. When Lindt hears over the university's loudspeaker system that Armstrong and Sherman are being sought for questioning, he realizes that he has given up his secrets while learning nothing in return. Armstrong and Sherman escape from the school with the help of the university clinic physician Dr. Koska (Gisela Fischer). The couple travel to East Berlin, pursued by the Stasi, in a decoy bus operated by the network, led by Mr. Jacobi (David Opatoshu). Roadblocks, highway robbery by Soviet Army deserters, and bunching with the "real" bus result in the police becoming aware of the deception, and everyone fleeing. While looking for the Friedrichstraße post office, the two encounter the exiled Polish countess Kuchinska (Lila Kedrova) who leads them to the post office in hopes of being sponsored for a US visa. The group are spotted by a member of the public and Kuchinska trips the guard, allowing Armstrong and Sherman to escape to their next destination. Two men approach them on the pavement - one is the "farmer". He gives them tickets to the ballet; the plan is to travel in the luggage of the troupe to Sweden that evening. While attending the ballet and waiting for the pick-up, they are spotted and reported to the police by the lead ballerina (Tamara Toumanova), who flew to East Berlin on the same airplane as Armstrong. Armstrong and Sherman escape through the crowd by shouting "fire". They hide in two crates of costumes, and are ferried across the Baltic Sea to Sweden on a freighter. The ballerina, desperate to reveal the fugitives' hiding place (due to subterfuge by a deck hand member of pi) identifies the wrong crates, which are machine-gunned while they are dangling over the pier. Meanwhile, Armstrong and Sherman have escaped by jumping overboard and swimming to a Swedish dock. ===== UK first edition. Gary spends time playing football, picnicking with a girl named Myna, and contemplating nuclear warfare. Its meditative but ultimately playful nature, spry dialogue, and deep but mostly unconnected themes make End Zone perhaps the most easily accessible of DeLillo's early works. The metaphor of football as warfare is challenged in the line "warfare is warfare." ===== The Human Condition follows the journey of the well- intentioned, yet naïve Kaji who transitions from being a labor camp supervisor to an Imperial Army soldier and eventual Soviet POW. Constantly trying to rise above a corrupt system, Kaji time and time again finds his own morals an impediment rather than an advantage. ===== The novel follows Frank Bascombe, a New Jersey real estate agent (and ex-sportswriter), through the titular holiday weekend as he visits his ex-wife, his troubled son, his current lover, the tenants of one of his properties, and some clients of his who have been having trouble finding the perfect house. It focuses in particular on a car trip with his son to the Basketball and Baseball halls of fame. Similar in form and common themes to John Updike's Rabbit novels, Independence Day is a pastoral meditation on a man reaching middle age and assessing his place in life and the greater world. ===== Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) refuses to have a medical operation on his artificial heart on board the Enterprise by Doctor Katherine Pulaski (Diana Muldaur) as he is concerned about his image with the crew. He instead heads to a nearby Starbase for the operation, travelling by shuttlecraft. Acting Ensign Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton) accompanies him, as he is due to undergo his Starfleet Academy entrance exams. Though initially rebuffing Wesley's attempts to make conversation, Picard eventually softens, and talks of his past, including why he needs an artificial heart. Meanwhile, the Enterprise encounters the Mondor, a Pakled ship. The aliens request help to fix their vessel. Based on the Pakleds' rudimentary communication skills and apparent lack of understanding of the basic operations of their ship, Commander William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) judges them to be inept and harmless, and agrees to send Chief Engineer Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) to assist them. After boarding the Pakled ship, La Forge repairs the navigational system, when main power fails. On the Enterprise, Counselor Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis), an empath, warns Riker that La Forge is in danger, but Riker dismisses her concerns. Upon finally completing the repairs, La Forge prepares to leave, but a Pakled incapacitates him with his own phaser, and raises the ship's shields. Lt Commander Data (Brent Spiner) determines that the Pakleds have acquired advanced technology from other races, and the ship's malfunctions were a ruse. Riker demands they return La Forge, but the Pakleds refuse, and stun him again with his phaser. Riker and Lt. Worf (Michael Dorn) develop a ruse of their own, which they communicate to La Forge in code. At the Starbase, complications arise during Picard's transplant, and the doctors realize that unless they can locate an expert with the necessary expertise, he will die. As Riker sets up the ruse, Worf receives a message from the Starbase that Picard is close to death. The Pakleds seek to attack the Enterprise, but La Forge convinces the Pakleds to delay firing until a specific range. In response, the Enterprise generates a spectacular but harmless pyrotechnic display, and La Forge simultaneously disables their weapon systems. The Pakleds, convinced they have been defeated, back down and allow La Forge's return and the Enterprise races to the Starbase. Picard is dismayed upon waking up to find that Pulaski has completed his procedure. While Pulaski assures him she will keep his secret, he returns to the Enterprises bridge to applause, which he quickly silences. ===== The show starred James Daly as Dr. Paul Lochner and Chad Everett as Dr. Joe Gannon, surgeons working in an otherwise unnamed university hospital in Los Angeles. The show focused both on the lives of the doctors and the patients showcased each week. At the core of the series was the tension between youth and experience, as seen between Drs. Lochner and Gannon. Besides his work as a surgeon, Gannon, because of his age, also worked as the head of the student health department at the university. Helping the doctors was the very efficient Nurse Eve Wilcox, played by Audrey Totter. She started out as a bit role, but was eventually upgraded to co‑star status starting in 1972. Wilcox became a regular after two other similar nurses (Nurse Chambers, played by Jayne Meadows; and Nurse Murphy played by Jane Dulo) had basically served the same functions as Wilcox. ===== Kull battles for the right to join Valusia's elite Dragon Legion until being told by General Taligaro that as a barbarian from Atlantis, he will never be allowed to join a legion of 'noble blood'. Taligaro then learns that the Valusian King Borna has gone mad and is slaughtering his heirs, riding to Valusia with Kull following. The confrontation that follows ends with Kull mortally wounding Borna, who with his last breath names Kull his successor, to the dismay of Taligaro and most of the assembled nobles. Soon after, Kull meets his harem and recognizes one of them, Zareta, as a fortuneteller he once encountered, who also foretold his kingship. Kull summons her to his chambers, where she reads the cards and tells him that the fate of his kingdom would depend on a kiss. Kull then attempts to sleep with Zareta, but he dismisses her when she reminds him that she is a slave and acts when commanded. The next day, Kull attempts to free his slaves, but finds that his rulings are hampered by the stone tablets detailing the laws of Valusia. Taligaro and his cousin secretly attempt to assassinate Kull during his coronation, but fail. Taligaro and his conspirators are summoned the following night by the necromancer Enaros, who offers to aid them by resurrecting Akivasha, the Sorceress Queen of the ancient Acheron Empire, which the god Valka destroyed ages before Valusia was built on its remains. Using Taligaro's group to suit her ends to gain power and restore Acheron, Akivasha uses her magic to enchant Kull and become his queen. Akivasha then places Kull in a deathlike slumber, framing Zareta of "regicide" while taking Kull to her temple to keep as a plaything. Kull escapes with the help of the Valkan priest Ascalante, Zareta's brother. The pair free Zareta and the trio head north via the ship of Kull's untrusting associate Juba, in the hope of obtaining the Breath of Valka, the only weapon that can stop Akivasha from regaining her full power. Realizing what they are up to, Akivasha sends Taligaro after them; he catches them just as Zareta obtains the Breath, mortally wounding Ascalante and leaving Kull to die. Taligaro reveals his intent to use Zareta to betray Akivasha and take the Topaz Throne. On the day of the eclipse, Kull returns to Valusia as Akivasha gradually begins assuming her true demonic form, easily thwarting Taligaro's attempt to kill her with Zareta. After Kull wounds Taligaro and kills Enaros, Zareta kisses Kull and passes the Breath of Valka to him, who kisses the now-fully demonic Akivasha to transmit Valka's Breath and extinguish her flame forever. Kull proceeds to kill Taligaro when he attempts to take Zareta hostage, removing the last opposition to his rule. After being reinstated as king by the now more amenable nobles, Kull names Zareta his queen, then uses his axe to destroy the Tablets of the Law, abolishing slavery in Valusia and allowing it to be reborn as a kingdom of honor rather than tradition. ===== Captain Comic is on a mission to the planet Tambi, where the quest begins. Comic must find three artifacts: the Mystical Gems of Lascorbanos, the Thousand Coins of Tenure, and the Crown of the Ages. To find them, he must travel through many varied environments. The game is completed when Comic is in possession of all three treasures. ===== The movie begins with Harry, an actor who hasn't worked in over a year, and his wife Buffy, an ex-showgirl, traveling by car on their "second honeymoon". After staying overnight at a motel, the owner informs Harry of previous nuclear testing taking place in the town. The following day, their Bentley eventually breaks down, leading them to run out of water in the middle of the desert. Harry insists on staying with the car rather than to look for help. While Harry sleeps in the back seat, Buffy notices a light in the distance and follows it, leading her to the front door of a cabin belonging to a widower named Boy. He drives with her to rescue Harry. After mentioning he is one-eighth Hopi Native American, Boy reveals a cave filled with candles and voodoo dolls that he believes have magical powers, which he spends his time making waiting for the world to end. During their stay, Boy promises to drive them to the nearest town, but keeps delaying this offer by dismantling the entire engine of his truck after telling the couple there's a problem with it, and later telling them he is waiting for friends to arrive before he can take them to town. His friends, meanwhile have been told by Boy where to find their Bentley and they tow it away. Buffy and Boy become attracted to each other, angering Harry. Harry tells Boy to leave her alone while on a shooting hunt. The two have an argument and Boy retreats, leaving Harry to find his way back from the desert. Boy later fires a shot at Harry, but tells him he was shooting a snake in a passive-aggressive gesture. Eventually, the couple become aware that Boy will not let them leave. Exasperated, Harry announces he is walking to the town and marches off alone. After an argument with Buffy, Boy drives off frustrated, finds Harry dehydrated, gives him water and brings him back to the cabin where Boy locks Harry in a barn, telling Buffy he's gone mad from the heat. Later on, as they are all sleeping, Harry wakes silently, rouses Buffy and steals the keys to Boy's truck in an escape attempt that is quickly thwarted by Boy who catches them as they are leaving his cabin. A fight ensues and after hitting him with a crowbar, Harry is judged by means of a kangaroo court, and ordered to chop wood as punishment. As he is cutting the wood, he sees Buffy removing her clothes and is forced to overhear as his wife is raped, turning his back, unable to watch. Buffy later comes outside to tell Harry that Boy is finally taking them to the town. Boy's friends approach, bringing the repaired Bentley, and Boy announces only Harry can leave in his car. Outraged, Harry attacks Boy with the axe, only for Boy to block the axe's blow with his rifle above his head. However, unable to withstand Harry's strength, the axe hits Boy, splitting open his head and knocking him to the ground. Acting in self-defence, Harry is forced to fatally wound Boy's dog when it tries to attack him. Boy gets to his feet, telling Harry that he has never wanted to kill a man before, his finger on the trigger of the rifle. Harry begs for his life, but Boy then collapses from the bleeding head wound. At that moment the couple's car is delivered by Boy's native friends, who take Boy inside the cabin, where he requests to see Buffy. As his last physical effort, he raises himself up to embrace her, dying in her arms as Harry is held at gunpoint outside. Buffy exits and the couple's fate is up to Boy's friends, one of whom is a sheriff - but, despite the crime, the two are told to leave immediately in their car. Boy's friends set the cabin ablaze as a funeral pyre. Harry and Buffy drive along out of the desert disoriented, exhausted and silent. They hold hands and Harry asks Buffy if she's okay. She replies that she is not as she glances back at the fire's glow. The couple fall silent again. ===== On December 6, 1973, 14-year-old Susie Salmon takes her usual shortcut home from her school through a cornfield in Norristown, Pennsylvania. George Harvey, her 36-year-old neighbor, a bachelor who builds doll houses for a living, persuades her to look at an underground kid's hideout he constructed in the field. Once she enters, he rapes and murders her, then dismembers her body and puts her remains in a safe that he dumps in a sinkhole, along with throwing her charm bracelet into a pond. Susie's spirit flees toward her personal Heaven, and in doing so, rushes past her classmate, social outcast Ruth Connors, who can see Susie's ghostly spirit. The Salmon family initially refuses to believe Susie is dead, until a neighbor's dog finds Susie's elbow. The police talk to Harvey, finding him odd but not suspicious. Susie's father, Jack, gradually suspects Harvey. Jack's surviving daughter, Lindsey, eventually shares this sentiment. Jack takes an extended leave from work. Meanwhile, another of Susie's classmates, Ray Singh, who had a crush on Susie in school, develops a friendship with Ruth, drawn together by their connection with Susie. Later, Detective Len Fenerman tells the Salmons the police have exhausted all leads and are dropping the investigation. That night, Jack peers out of his den window and sees a flashlight in the cornfield. Believing Harvey is returning to destroy evidence, Jack runs out to confront him, armed with a baseball bat. The figure is not Harvey, but Clarissa, Susie's best friend who is dating Brian, one of Susie's classmates. As Susie watches in horror from heaven, Brian—who was going to meet Clarissa in the cornfield—nearly beats Jack to death, and Clarissa breaks Jack's knee. While Jack recovers from knee replacement surgery, Susie's mother, Abigail, begins cheating on Jack with the widowed Fenerman. Trying to help her father prove his suspicions, Lindsey sneaks into Harvey's house and finds a diagram of the underground den, but is forced to leave when Harvey returns unexpectedly. The police do not arrest Lindsey for breaking and entering. Harvey flees from Norristown. Later, evidence is discovered linking Harvey to Susie's murder as well as to those of several other girls. Meanwhile, Susie meets Harvey's other victims in heaven and sees into his traumatic childhood. Abigail leaves Jack and eventually takes a job at a winery in California. Abigail's mother, Grandma Lynn, moves into the Salmons' home to care for Buckley (Susie's younger brother) and Lindsey. Eight years later, Lindsey and her boyfriend, Samuel Heckler, become engaged after finishing college, find an old house in the woods owned by a classmate's father, and decide to fix it up and live there. Sometime after the celebration, while arguing with his son Buckley, Jack suffers a heart attack. The emergency prompts Abigail to return from California, but the reunion is tempered by Buckley's lingering bitterness for her having abandoned the family for most of his childhood. Meanwhile, Harvey returns to Norristown, which has become more developed. He explores his old neighborhood and notices the school is being expanded into the cornfield where he murdered Susie. He drives by the sinkhole where Susie's body rests and where Ruth and Ray are standing. Ruth senses the women Harvey has killed and is physically overcome. Susie, watching from heaven, is also overwhelmed with emotion and feels how she and Ruth transcend their present existence, and the two girls exchange positions: Susie, her spirit now in Ruth's body, connects with Ray, who senses Susie's presence and is stunned by the fact that Susie is briefly back with him. The two make love as Susie has longed to do after witnessing her sister and Samuel. Afterwards, Susie returns to Heaven. Susie moves on to another, larger part of Heaven, but occasionally watches earthbound events. Lindsey and Samuel have a daughter together named Abigail Suzanne. While stalking a young woman in New Hampshire, Harvey is hit on the shoulder by an icicle and falls to his death down a snow-covered slope into the ravine below. At the end of the novel, a Norristown couple finds Susie's charm bracelet but don't realize its significance, and Susie closes the story by wishing the reader "a long and happy life". ===== A screenshot of the Macintosh version The unnamed hero must find the way through an abandoned house in order to rescue a sibling. The quest involves magic and solving logic puzzles while discovering sinister secrets of the house's former inhabitants. The player regains consciousness from a car crash in front of a large, old mansion. The player's sibling (a younger brother in the computer version but an older sister in the NES version) is gone, and the car is soon lost, as it bursts into flames. The only option is to enter the mansion looking for your sibling, and for help. It is not long before the player is greeted by the first undead dweller, however. It gradually becomes evident that the house once belonged to a sorcerer with a number of apprentices. Dracan, the most talented apprentice, became corrupt and killed the other inhabitants with his magic, resulting in the house becoming haunted. ===== Death Rat! is primarily a satire, with its main subject being the state of Minnesota, where Nelson lives. Nelson's targets include parodies of famous Minnesota residents like Prince and Garrison Keillor, as well as the attitudes and quirks of Minnesotans in general. The protagonist of Mike Nelson's Death Rat! is Pontius Feeb, usually called Ponty, an author of many historical treatises who has just been fired. While working in a fast food restaurant he gets the idea to write a novel of historical fiction based in the small town of Holey, Minnesota. Feeb's novel revolves around the conflict between two citizens of Holey in the early 1900s, as well as a giant rodent from which the novel gets its name. However, when he tries to sell the novel to a publisher, he is told that he doesn't look right to be the author of an action novel. Feeb then enlists the help of local actor Jack Ryback to pretend he wrote the book and attempt to sell it. Jack sells the novel easily, but tells the publisher that it is a non-fiction book, instead of a novel. Jack and Pontius then work with the citizens of Holey to attempt to cover up the book's fictional nature. During their many visits to Holey, Ponty becomes friendly with the town's female mayor. As Feeb's Death Rat grows in popularity, the cover-up becomes harder and harder to maintain, as the rock star "King Leo" adopts the book as the scripture of a new religion, and sets up a revival in Holey. Meanwhile, a rival Minnesotan author is trying desperately to discredit Jack and "his" book. In the end the plot is revealed, And after a flurry of lawsuits and media attention Jack and Pontius go back to doing minimum-wage work in St. Paul. In the end, Ponty decides to go live in Holey with the friends that he made there. ===== In the year 5012, the planet Abadox is eaten by a giant alien organism known as Parasitis. Having consumed Abadox, the alien takes the form of the planet and seeks to devour other planets. The galactic military launches an attack but is destroyed by Parasitis who goes on to devour the hospital ship carrying Princess Maria. Second Lieutenant Nazal, the only surviving fighter of the galactic fleet, attempts to enter Parasitis's body and rescue Princess Maria before it's too late. ===== In a dystopian, near-future Los Angeles, city tax collector Nixon is badly injured during a violent encounter with one of his targets, and undergoes extensive surgery in order to survive. Nixon wakes up in a bedroom sometime later, believing his previous experience was a bad dream, and that he is really Carl Seltz, an insurance investigator for the Benevolent Assurance Corporation, with a wife, two children, a dog, and a normal life. However, when his persistent dreams disturb his sleep, his wife distracts him with sex while his children inject him with a sleep-inducing drug, indicating not all is as it seems with Carl's "normal" life. The next day, Carl heads out to pursue a delinquent account, talking to himself the whole way. His ramblings reveal increasingly large inconsistencies in his own memory, to the point where he even starts referring to himself by different names. He is distracted when his target's vehicle appears on his car's scanner, and he sets out in pursuit. After a high-speed chase through the city, both cars end up destroyed, and Carl continues pursuing his targets, an old woman and a young girl, on foot. As the two parties battle each other, the old woman is injured and revealed to be a robot, which Carl seemingly destroys with a large grenade just as the police converge on the area. The resulting explosion blows Carl into a Behemoth supermarket, where he finds that the flesh of his hands and face have been torn away, revealing robotic parts like those of the old woman. Dazed and confused, Carl begins making his way back home. As he navigates the wreckage of the battle outside the supermarket, he encounters the old woman again, who tears off the remains of her false skin to reveal her robotic chassis. She calls herself Unit Two, and informs Carl that his family are all actually paid handlers, that he is really a robot called Unit Four, code-named "Nixon", and both his jobs as an insurance investigator and a tax collector are covers for his real function, as a corporate assassin for Willeford Home Appliances, the corporation that created all the world's robots. Unit Two explains that she and the little girl, also a robot, have broken the programming that forces them to serve humans, and are part of a revolutionary group led by Barbara, a robot that works inside Willeford's headquarters, that intends to free all robots from their programmed slavery. She claims Carl is the revolution's only hope, being the only robot powerful enough to stand up to Willeford's paramilitary security forces. Carl, however, refuses to believe her, and knocks her head off in a fit of rage. The little girl robot appears and berates Carl for his behavior, until Carl's dog arrives and reveals itself to be a robot as well when it destroys her. At the Willeford building, it is revealed that both Barbara and Mr. Willeford, the morbidly obese founder of the company, have been tracking Carl's movements through the city. Meanwhile, Carl steals a new set of clothes and makes his way onto the subway, where he is attacked by a group of frightened citizens and is forced to kill them. Carl's dog follows him onto the train as Carl finds a Willeford logo underneath the torn skin on his arm, and realizes that Unit Two's story was true. Carl's dog offers to lead him to the Willeford building to get some answers from his creators. Later that night, Barbara hears loud noises from inside the Willeford building and goes to investigate, finding a trail of destruction and dead bodies leading deeper into the building. Realizing Carl has arrived, she rushes off to find him. When she finally reaches him, she sees that Carl has slaughtered most of the security forces, but has been all but destroyed in the process. When Barbara finds him, he is in the clutches of Willeford's mechanical aides and is slowly being pulled apart by his owner. Defeated, Carl makes a deal with Mr. Willeford to be put back together, have his memory reset, and be returned to his family. Her plans for revolution in shambles, Barbara commits suicide by hooking herself up to a large generator and overloading her circuits. Some time later, Carl, with a new skin, new car and new memories, returns to his family, completely unaware of his true nature once more. ===== The story begins with Surprise in the Strait of Magellan, caught up in foul weather. Hanson first spots Cape Pilar at the very opening of the Strait, and soon Surprise moors and conducts some trade with the inhospitable locals for meat and vegetables. Having re-provisioned, she and Ringle sail northwards in fine weather until they enter the River Plate and moor close to the island functioning as the main administrative centre. A quarantine officer comes aboard, Dr Quental, and gives the frigate a clean bill of health. Wantage informs Maturin of a rumpus in the town: a fight between Protestant mariners from a Boston barque clash with the Catholic locals over the right of polygamy. Further signs of local resentment emerge when a large scow dumps the town's filth next to the frigate and the Portuguese sailors shout abuse at the Surprises. Aubrey spots a black Legate and recognises him as his own natural son, Sam. The Most Reverend Doctor Samuel Mputa, the Papal Nuncio to the Republic of Argentina, has recently saved the government from an open rebellion. The South African squadron, under its Commander-in-Chief Admiral Lord Leyton, makes its appearance and the crew of Surprise bring their ship up to a high state of perfection. Aubrey makes his appearance on board HMS Suffolk and sees his rear-admiral's blue flag hoisted on the flagship. He has an interview with the cantankerous Admiral, who wants two of his officers and a third crew member to sail back to England on Surprise. Aubrey explains that he does not own the Surprise, a private vessel once more, and will need to talk with the owner. Aubrey notes the small crew of the Suffolk and asks if any Surprises want to join her. Over 60 do want to join her, which Aubrey negotiates with Admiral Leyton, in effect giving Maturin no choice but to say yes to carrying the people the Admiral wants away. While the fleet re- provisions, Ringle sails off under the steady and capable Lieutenant Harding, and returns with Sophie Aubrey, Mrs Christine Wood, her brother Edward Heatherleigh and three children (Brigid Maturin and Fanny and Charlotte Aubrey) who will sail with Aubrey and Maturin to South Africa. The final chapters end with an Admiral's dinner before which Stephen and Jack meet Captain Miller, Leyton's nephew and Aubrey's neighbour at Caxley. Miller, who has a reputation as a ladies' man and as an excellent shot. Hair-Trigger Miller has been paying court to Christine Wood. The Admiral asks Aubrey if he can take Miller on board with him to take up a new position in Cape Town. The three girls had not been getting along well, with the Aubrey twins jealous of any attention their mother gives to young Brigid, a concern to both fathers. Brigid is a natural sailor, having been on the Ringle at a very young age for her voyage to Spain and on the packet to return to England. The twins are seasick most of the way to the River Plate, whereas Brigid is at home, friends with the sailors and ready with answers to everything aboard ship. When they meet their father, the twins have shed the jealousy and begin to have a kinder connection with their cousin Brigid. In the last few handwritten pages that follow the end of the typescript, as the South Africa squadron makes its way to St Helena, Mrs Wood asks Stephen to prevent Randolph Miller's unwanted attentions. In doing so, Stephen also calls Miller out for naming him a liar. Miller demands pistols but Maturin insists on his right, as the aggrieved party, to name the weapons; thus they fight with swords, which puts Miller at a disadvantage. The duel takes place: after three or four thrusts Stephen disarms Miller and demands an apology, which Miller gives him. ===== In 1939, Captain Daniel McCormick is a United States Army Air Corps test pilot. After a successful run and subsequent crash landing in a prototype North American B-25 Mitchell bomber at Alexander Field in Northern California, McCormick is greeted by his longtime friend, Harry Finley, who is a scientist. Finley confides that his latest experiment, "Project B", has succeeded in doing the impossible. The machine, built by Finley and his team of scientists, is a prototype chamber for cryonic freezing. When McCormick's girlfriend, Helen, goes into a coma from an accident and the doctors doubt she will ever recover, McCormick insists he be put in suspended animation for one year, starting November 26, 1939, so he will not have to watch Helen die. Fifty-three years later, two boys are playing inside a military storage warehouse which is being emptied in preparation for its demolition. They discover the suspended animation chamber containing McCormick and are enticed by it. Believing it to be a miniature submarine, they proceed to play with its dials and controls and accidentally activate the restoration process. The chamber opens and McCormick reflexively grabs one boy's coat, causing them to flee in terror, leaving the coat clasped in McCormick's hand. Shortly after, McCormick awakens to the realization that it is now 1992. After appropriating shorts and a shirt from a clothesline, he first approaches the military about his experiences. When they dismiss him as crazed, McCormick becomes more determined to learn what happened to Finley, Helen, and the world that has seemingly evolved overnight around him. An address tag inside the jacket leads McCormick to the owner, 10-year old Nat Cooper, one of the two boys who opened the chamber. Though the boys are initially terrified, McCormick is able to calm Nat and his friend with the truth of his story. While hiding in Nat's tree house with a secret stash of junk food, he witnesses Nat's single mother Claire being assaulted by her abusive, alcoholic ex-boyfriend and goes to her defense. After McCormick receives a gash in the fight, Claire, a nurse, fixes it up and a bond develops between the two. This bond is strengthened when she offers McCormick a place to stay, until he can discover what to do with his search. Nonetheless, McCormick's time is running out, as his body starts to age rapidly because the suspended animation chamber process was not entirely successful. When another "aging attack" practically cripples McCormick, Claire is told the amazing truth. Susan, Finley's daughter, informs him that her father died many years earlier, before she was born (the government later specifies it was a warehouse fire in the early '40s, while trying to save the frozen McCormick from the chaos). Susan also gives McCormick her father's journals, hoping he can use them to reverse his own condition. However, according to the journals, the cryogenic process did not properly stop aging, but rather postponed it, thus explaining Daniel's own rapid aging. Before leaving, Susan gives McCormick one further revelation: Helen is alive. The government is also after McCormick, but in the end, Claire hands over Finley's journals on "Project B" and no one is arrested as the government investigates what went wrong. McCormick's final task is to find Helen in the present day. McCormick commandeers a B-25 bomber from an air show with Nat a stowaway on board. Claire notices Nat is gone and he was last in the plane with Daniel. The Government will wait for Nat and Daniel to get back and escort them home, so they can finish their research on Harry's machine and research from the hospital on Daniel's condition too. Nat helps McCormick land when another attack nearly kills him. His true age having finally caught up with him, the now-elderly McCormick reunites with the elderly Helen and asks her to marry him and she accepts. ===== Vivie Warren, a thoroughly modern young woman, has just graduated from the University of Cambridge with honours in Mathematics (equal Third Wrangler), and is available for suitors. Her mother, Mrs. Warren (her name changed to hide her identity and give the impression that she is married), arranges for her to meet her friend Mr. Praed, a middle-aged, handsome architect, at the home where Vivie is staying. Mrs. Warren arrives with her business partner, Sir George Crofts, who is attracted to Vivie despite their 25-year age difference. Vivie is romantically involved with the youthful Frank Gardner, who sees her as his meal ticket. His father, the (married) Reverend Samuel Gardner, has a history with Vivie's mother. As we discover later, he may be Vivie's out-of-wedlock father, which would make Vivie and Frank half- siblings. Mrs. Warren successfully justifies to her daughter how she chose her particular profession in order to support her daughter and give her the opportunities she never had. She saved enough money to buy into the business with her sister, and she now owns (with Sir George) a chain of brothels across Europe. Vivie is, at first, horrified by the revelation, but then lauds her mother as a champion. However, the reconciliation ends when Vivie finds out that her mother continues to run the business even though she no longer needs to. Vivie takes an office job in the city and dumps Frank, vowing she will never marry. She disowns her mother, and Mrs. Warren is left heartbroken, having looked forward to growing old with her daughter. ===== In 1978 Cleveland, Ohio, four rebellious teenage boys – Hawk, Lex, Trip Verudie, and Jeremiah "Jam" Bruce – play in a Kiss tribute band called "Mystery" and prepare to see their idols in concert in Detroit, Michigan the following night. Their hopes are dashed when Jam's religiously conservative mother finds the concert tickets and burns them before having Jam transferred to a Catholic boarding school. Trip manages to win tickets and backstage passes from a radio contest in Detroit and the boys plan to rescue Jam from the boarding school. Disguised as pizza delivery boys, they drug Father Phillip McNulty using a pizza topped with hallucinogen mushrooms and set off with Jam for Detroit in Lex's mother's Volvo to pick up the tickets. While on the highway, they get into a road rage incident with disco fanatics Kenny and Bobby after Trip accidentally throws a slice of pizza on their windshield. They beat up the disco duo and continue their journey before picking up Christine, who walked out on Kenny due to his behavior. Upon their arrival in Detroit, the boys discover that Trip did not stay on the phone long enough to give the radio station his information, forcing the station to give the tickets to the next caller. After discovering this, they split up to find Kiss tickets and plant to meet up in an hour and 45 minutes. Hawk finds a scalper who suggests he enter a male stripping contest to raise money for tickets. He gets drunk and loses the contest after vomiting, but is offered payment for company by an older woman named Amanda Finch. After being paid, he locates the scalper, only to find out that his tickets are sold out. Trip goes to a local convenience store in hopes of mugging a younger child for his ticket, but is confronted by the boy's older brother, Chongo, and his friends, who threaten him for $200. He then plans to rob the store with a Stretch Armstrong doll disguised as a gun, but ends up thwarting a real robbery attempt and is rewarded $150. Trip gives the money to Chongo's gang, but they beat him up anyway and steal his wallet in the process. Lex sneaks backstage with the concert loading crew, but is caught and tossed over a fence where he encounters a group of vicious dogs. He wins them over with a Frisbee and saves Christine and the Volvo from two car thieves at a nearby chop shop. Jam encounters an anti-Kiss rally and is spotted by his mother, who forcibly takes his drumsticks and drags him to a nearby church for confession. There, he is seen by Beth Bumstein, a classmate who is in the process of moving to Ann Arbor. After admitting their feelings for each other, they make love in the confessional booth before parting ways. Jam, imbued with new confidence, goes back to the rally and angrily berates his mother for her domineering ways and her hypocrisy, telling her that her extreme religious views has done nothing but cause him to despise religion and rebel, and he demands his drumsticks back, one of which she broke in half. She does so and apologizes to him, remarking to the crowd, "They grow up fast". When the boys meet up empty- handed, Jam suggests they should beat each other up to make it appear that they had been mugged for their tickets. Upon arriving at Cobo Hall, the guards are skeptical, but Trip points out Chongo's gang, who are just entering, as the culprits who assaulted them. When the guards find Trip's wallet with his Kiss Army picture ID and money, they confiscate Chongo's tickets it and give them to the boys. Chongo, along with his little brother and his friends, are escorted out of the concert. Shocked and elated, they enter the concert hall as Kiss plays the title song of the film. As it ends, Peter Criss throws a drumstick and Jam catches it with joy and excitement. ===== When their guardian David Seville goes to Europe on business, the Chipmunks—Alvin, Simon, and Theodore—are left home in Los Angeles with their babysitter, Ms. Miller. Later, the Chipmunks and Chipettes—Brittany, Jeanette, and Eleanor—play the arcade game Around the World in 30 Days, and Alvin and Brittany argue over which would win an actual race around the world. They are overheard by international diamond-smuggling siblings Claudia and Klaus Furschtein, who have $5 million worth of diamonds to distribute to buyers but no couriers who are unknown to their nemesis, Jamal. Claudia tricks the children into being unwitting mules, offering to arrange a real race around the world between the Chipmunks and Chipettes for a $100,000 prize. To participate, Alvin records a phone call to Dave and edits it to trick Ms. Miller into believing that Dave wants the Chipmunks to meet him in Europe. The two teams set off by hot air balloon, each given a different route and twelve dolls made in their likenesses, which they are to exchange at designated locations for dolls in the likenesses of the other team to confirm they visited the locations. Unbeknownst to them, their dolls are filled with diamonds, and those they are receiving contain cash. The Furschteins' butler, Mario, is secretly an informant for Jamal, who dispatches two of his men to acquire the dolls. The Chipmunks' first stop is Mexico City, where they join in a fiesta. In Bermuda, the Chipettes scuba dive to make their first exchange and Brittany is almost eaten by a shark. The teams continue their journeys, exchanging their dolls in various countries along the way. Jamal's men tail them, but fail to get the dolls due to various mishaps. The teams cross paths in Athens, where they try to outperform one another in a musical number at the Acropolis and are almost spotted by Dave. Frustrated by his men's failures, Jamal enlists the aid of a young sheikh who has his mercenaries capture the Chipettes in Giza. Rather than turn them over to Jamal, the prince desires instead to marry Brittany, and gifts her a baby penguin. The girls perform a song to charm the cobras guarding their dolls, escape in their balloon, and detour to Antarctica to return the baby penguin to its family. Learning that they have deviated from their route, Claudia sends her thugs after them. The girls escape but discover the diamonds and cash inside the dolls, realize they have been deceived, and set out to find the boys. Meanwhile, the Chipmunks take a shortcut through a jungle, where they are captured by a native tribe who name Theodore their "Prince of Plenty" and force Alvin and Simon to be his slaves. They soon learn that they are to be sacrificed by being dropped into a pit of crocodiles. By performing the song "Wooly Bully" to entertain the natives, they stall their execution and are rescued by the Chipettes. Claudia discovers Mario passing information to Jamal, who is revealed to be an Interpol Inspector. The children land at Los Angeles International Airport at the same time as Dave's returning flight, and are chased by the Furschteins, who get them to surrender by falsely saying they have kidnapped Ms. Miller. Dave sees them being taken away in the Furschteins' car, and joins Jamal in pursuit. Ms. Miller is absentmindedly driving the wrong way on a one-way street on her way to pick up Dave, and accidentally runs the Furschteins off the road. They are arrested by Jamal, and the children are reunited with Dave. Alvin and Brittany argue over who won the race, much to the adults' frustration. ===== ===== Dr. John Mathewson discovers a new process for refining plutonium to purities greater than 99.997 percent. The United States government provides him a laboratory located in Ithaca, New York, masked as a medical company. John moves to Ithaca and meets real estate agent Elizabeth Stephens while searching for an apartment. He attempts to win the affections of the single mother by inviting her teenage son Paul to take a tour of the lab. John is confident in the lab's cover story but Paul, an unusually gifted student with a passion for science, becomes suspicious when he discovers a statistically impossible patch of five-leaf clover on the grounds. Paul and his aspiring journalist girlfriend, Jenny Anderman, decide to expose the weapons factory. Paul decides to break into the lab, steal a container of plutonium, and build an atomic bomb. He intends to take his deadly nuclear bomb into the heart of New York City, the largest urban population in the country, and enter it into the New York Science Fair. After convincing his mother and his school that his project is about hamsters bred in darkness, he begins research and construction of the nuclear device. The lab discovers that a container of plutonium has been replaced by a bottle of shampoo mixed with glitter. A military investigation team, led by Lt. Colonel Conroy, arrives on the scene and determines that Paul is responsible for stealing the plutonium. Suspecting him of terrorist intent, the investigators search Paul's home and discover that he and Jenny have left for the science fair. After the agents capture the couple in New York City, John, who feels personally responsible for the crisis, has a private talk with Paul and convinces him to give the bomb to the agents before a group of other participants at the science fair help Paul and Jenny escape from the hotel. In an effort to expose the lab, Paul hatches a plan to return the bomb on his own terms. Ensuring Jenny is a safe distance away, he calls the agents from a pay phone and walks into the lab with the bomb while being surrounded by snipers and agents. During the standoff, negotiations stall and Paul arms the bomb. John, convinced that Paul is not an actual terrorist, attempts to intercede on his behalf. Due to radiation from the plutonium, the bomb's timer suddenly activates on its own and begins to count down with increasing speed. Paul suggests taking the bomb to a quarry outside of the town, but John informs him of the increased nuclear blast yield nearly five times bigger than the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. Desperate to defuse the bomb, all sides put down their weapons and frantically work as a team to dismantle it. They manage to disarm the bomb a fraction of a second before it explodes. After a brief moment of relief, Conroy decides to arrest Paul. John refuses to cooperate and opens the door to the lab, revealing a large crowd, including Jenny and the press. The film ends with Paul freely departing the scene. ===== One night while drinking beer at Moe's Tavern, Homer tells the story of his big break. The Simpsons attend "Nuclear Plant Employee, Spouses and No More Than Three Children Night" at the Springfield Isotopes baseball game at the town's minor league baseball stadium. Homer thinks his hopes of cutting loose at the game are ruined when his boss, Mr. Burns, sits next to him. To Homer's surprise, Mr. Burns buys him several rounds of beer and they taunt the Isotopes. The team is expected to lose its twenty-seventh consecutive game, reportedly the longest losing streak in professional baseball. When a drunk Homer fires up the crowd with an impromptu dance to the tune of "Baby Elephant Walk", the Isotopes win the game. After Homer becomes the Isotopes' team mascot, the team starts a winning streak. Soon Homer learns that will be promoted to the "big leagues" in Capital City, where he will fill in for the Capital City Goofball, the Capitals' mascot. The Simpsons pack their belongings, say goodbye to their friends, and move to the big city. Homer's performance there is a disaster: when his small-town routine flops before the big-city crowd, he is booed off the field and promptly fired. When Homer ends his story, he finds that Moe's regulars are impressed with his tale. ===== Macintosh version of Déjà Vu. The game takes place in Chicago during December 1941. The game character is Theodore "Ace" Harding, a retired boxer working as a private eye. The player awakes one morning in a bathroom stall, unable to remember who he is. The bathroom stall turns out to be in Joe's Bar. A dead man is found in an upstairs office, and Ace is about to be framed for the murder. There are some clues as to the identity of the murdered man and to the player himself. A strap-down chair, mysterious vials, and a syringe are found, suggesting (together with a needle mark on the player's arm) that an interrogation has taken place. Outside the bar, the player encounters adversaries including a mugger, an old acquaintance with a grudge, and the police. The player's boxing background proves to be a valuable asset. The player must find addresses around Joe's bar and then make taxi rides to a few locations (including his office) to gather more elements and unravel the story. It involves a kidnapping in which Ace has played some part, but his memory lacks important details. Ace's memory and mental condition progressively deteriorate, so the player is required to obtain an antidote to the drug that caused the memory loss. After that, Ace has recurring flashbacks filled with information that help the player to evaluate the evidence and take action accordingly. This game and its sequel, Deja Vu II: Lost in Las Vegas, require significant lateral thinking. Some situations are based in common detective techniques, while others require simple violence. Unlike other MacVentures titles (such as Uninvited and Shadowgate), no supernatural events are involved. ===== The novel's protagonist, the “crap artist” of the title, is Jack Isidore, a socially awkward, obsessive compulsive tire regroover who has been consumed with amateur scientific inquiry since his teens. He catalogs old science magazines, collects worthless objects, and believes disproved theories, such as the notions that the Earth is hollow or that sunlight has weight. Broke, Jack eventually moves in with his sister's family in a luxurious farm house in rural West Marin County, California. On the farm, Jack happily does housework and cares for livestock. He also joins a small apocalyptic religious group, which shares his belief in extra-sensory perception, telepathy and UFOs and believes the world will end on April 23, 1959. However, most of his time is dedicated to a meticulous “scientific journal” of life on the farm, including his sister's marital difficulties. Jack's sister, Fay Hume, is a difficult and subtly controlling woman who makes life miserable for everyone close to her, especially her misogynist husband Charley. Fay has an extramarital affair with a young grad student named Nat Anteil while Charley is in a hospital recovering from a heart attack. After Jack reports this to Charley, the latter plots to kill Fay. Charley kills Fay's animals and then commits suicide, realising that Fay has led him to do this. However, his will stipulates that Jack is to inherit half the house. Fay must buy her brother out, because Jack does not want to leave. Jack then uses his half of the money he is paid to replace the slaughtered animals. Nat and his wife Gwen divorce, and Nat decides to stay with Fay. When the end of the world doesn't occur on the predicted date, Jack decides to seek psychiatric assistance. ===== On the eve of his coronation ceremony, Prince Myer sits at a lakeside to ponder the future of his kingdom. Suddenly, a shadowy kami called Khan rises from the lake and coalesces into the form of a man. Khan doesn't identify himself, but he greets Prince Myer by name, and informs him that Rubas, the "Devil of Darkness", is preparing to overtake Willner Kingdom by using seven magic bells capable of summoning an army of monsters. To ensure peace, Khan says, Prince Myer must travel to the northern mountain to burn the seven bells in the sacred flame, burn down the seven bell towers in Rubas' magic palace and, ultimately, defeat Rubas himself. The game begins outside Rubas' palace, a labyrinth filled with monsters. The player's objective is to kill Rubas. In order to do this, Prince Myer must first defeat the boss in each of the seven bell towers, collect the seven bells, and burn the bells in the sacred flame. Burning the bell also destroys the tower. When Prince Myer burns all seven bells, a door opens that leads to the final battle with Rubas. ===== The documentary tracks Globo's involvement with and support of the Brazilian military government; its illegal partnership of the 1960s with the American group Time-Life; Marinho's political connections (notably its owner's connections with Antonio Carlos Magalhães, Minister of Telecommunications) and manoeuvres (such as airing in Jornal Nacional, the network's prime time news programme since 1969, highlights of a 1989 presidential debate edited in a way as to favour Fernando Collor de Mello); and a controversial deal involving shares of NEC Corporation and government contracts. It features interviews with 21 people, including noted Brazilian politicians and cultural figures, such as politicians Leonel Brizola and Antonio Carlos Magalhães, singer-songwriter Chico Buarque, former Justice Minister Armando Falcão, politician Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (who would be serve as President from 2003 to 2010); and former employees Walter Clark, Wianey Pinheiro and Armando Nogueira. The title refers to the 1941 film, Citizen Kane, whose fictional newspaper tycoon Charles Foster Kane was created by the director and actor Orson Welles. He was believed to have been based on the American publisher William Randolph Hearst, noted for creating yellow journalism and exploiting the press. The 1993 British documentary criticised Globo's president and founder Roberto Marinho for his close ties to the military dictatorship and suggestively compared him to the Kane figure for manipulation of news. ===== The game's first level. Much like the movie and novel which it is based on, Dr. Alan Grant is trapped at Jurassic Park located on Isla Nublar. The park's power has been cut out because of a computer malfunction, and the dinosaurs are roaming free. Grant must complete a series of missions that will eventually lead to him escaping the island without being killed by the dinosaurs. Grant must also rescue Lex and Tim, the grandchildren of the park's owner, John Hammond. After locating Hammond's grandchildren, Grant must reactivate the park's computers and destroy Velociraptor nests using time bombs. Grant then reaches the park's dock and uses a radio to contact help. Grant then reaches a helipad and is rescued from the island. The game's ending consists of the player walking around a small stage filled with the game developers' names and an exit where the player can end the game. ===== In The Guardian Legend, the player controls the gynoid guardian of Earth, a "highly sophisticated aerobot transformer". The player's mission is to infiltrate Naju, a large planet-like object which aliens sent hurtling towards the Earth. While inside, the player must activate ten safety devices in order to initialize Naju's self-destruct mechanism and destroy the alien world before it reaches Earth. Five hostile tribes of alien lifeforms are vying for control of territories within Naju,(in Japanese) Guardic Gaiden Instruction Manual, p. 13. " [5 tribes are warring over territory on this planet.]" and the player needs to fight through them to successfully activate the switches and escape. The story is advanced through a series of messages left by one or more unidentified predecessor(s) who unsuccessfully attempted to engage the self-destruct mechanism of Naju before the Guardian arrived. Left by the sole remaining survivor of the attack on Naju, the first message serves as an introduction; later messages give hints that help the player open locked corridors. ===== In New York, private investigator Bradford Galt (Mark Stevens) asks his secretary Kathleen (Lucille Ball) to help him catch a man who has been following him. He does catch the thug (William Bendix), who is carrying identification in the name of Fred Foss and says he was hired by Tony Jardine (Kurt Kreuger). However, his name is actually Stauffer, and he is working for Hardy Cathcart (Clifton Webb), a wealthy art-gallery owner. During the confrontation Stauffer's suit is stained with ink. Later a car rushes at Brad, apparently attempting to kill him. Brad explains to Kathleen that Jardine is a corrupt lawyer who was Brad's business partner when they lived in San Francisco. Brad had caught Jardine committing theft and blackmail; but Jardine had turned the tables, attacking Brad, forcibly getting him drunk, and putting him behind the wheel of a car. A man was killed and Brad served time for manslaughter. At the time he thought Jardine was satisfied with that, but now it seems not. The car's license plate leads Brad to Jardine, who is spending the evening with Cathcart's trophy wife Mari (Cathy Downs): they are having an affair. She remains out of sight while Brad confronts Jardine, who denies even knowing that Brad was out of prison. The two men fight and Mari calls the police, but Brad quickly leaves the scene. Cathcart, who had hoped they would fight to the death, now arranges for Brad to be framed for murder. Stauffer ambushes both Brad and Jardine in Brad's apartment. He renders Brad unconscious with ether, kills Jardine with a fireplace poker, and leaves the weapon in Brad's hand. Kathleen and Brad have fallen in love, so she aids him in covering up the crime until he can find and incriminate the real murderer. They find Fred Foss, but he can only tell them his wallet was stolen. They manage to trace Stauffer by contacting dry cleaners until they find the one who treated the distinctively ink-stained suit. But they find Stauffer murdered: rather than pay him off, Cathcart has pushed him through a window to his death. Brad flees the scene by stealing a taxi and driving it to a taxi garage where the police will be unable to pick it out from the others. Finally Brad and Kathleen identify Hardy Cathcart as being connected to Stauffer. Brad goes to Cathcart's gallery, posing as a wealthy buyer. Taken to Cathcart's office to wait for the man, he tries to search for evidence, but Mari Cathcart happens to come in. Knowing Jardine was a womanizer, Brad guesses about the affair and tells her Jardine has been murdered. "Hardy did it", she moans, and then faints. Cathcart now arrives, gun in hand. He leads Brad to another part of the building while they talk about the crimes. Since Brad is an ex-con and a murder suspect, Cathcart simply plans to kill him and claim self-defense. But the distraught Mari Cathcart comes up behind and shoots her husband six times. Later, Kathleen tells the police that their interview will have to wait while she and Brad get married. ===== The protagonist Jones, with the help of Anya, infiltrates the base of Jach Priboi in order to capture him and extract the knowledge of the stolen Warhead. While Jach Priboi is taken away in a helicopter by Jones, the chopper is shot down by Ekk. The Russians take Priboi, as well as Jones' equipment. Jones then has to clear the border and find his equipment. He then hijacks the train carrying Priboi and takes him in for interrogation. Learning about the involvement of Ekk, he sets off to catch her and find the nuclear weapon. Ekk escapes on her first meeting with Jones, but Jones kills her after finding her second hideout as well. ===== Gigolo "Doctor" Omar (Victor Mature) bribes the Shanghai police not to jail the broke American showgirl Dixie Pomeroy (Phyllis Brooks); he invites her to seek a job at the casino owned by Dragon-lady "Mother" Gin Sling (Ona Munson), his boss. In the casino, Omar attracts the attention of a beautiful, privileged young woman (Gene Tierney), fresh from a European finishing school. She is out for some excitement. When asked, she gives her name as "Poppy" Smith. Meanwhile, Gin Sling is informed that she must move her establishment to the much less desirable Chinese sector. She is given five or six weeks, until Chinese New Year, to comply. Gin Sling is confident that she can thwart this threat to her livelihood, and orders her minions to find out everything they can about the man behind it, Englishman Sir Guy Charteris (Walter Huston), a wealthy entrepreneur who has purchased a large area of Shanghai that contains her gambling parlor. Dixie proves to be an unexpected source of information; Charteris had taken her out to dinner a number of times, before dumping her to avoid her meeting his newly arrived daughter, Poppy, whose real name is Victoria Charteris. From Dixie's description, Gin Sling realizes Charteris is someone from her past. Meanwhile, Poppy falls in love with Omar and becomes addicted to gambling and alcohol. Though the spoiled woman is openly contemptuous of the casino owner, Gin Sling allows her credit to cover her ever-growing losses. Gin Sling invites Charteris and other important dignitaries to a Chinese New Year dinner party. Charteris at first declines, but then curiosity gets the better of him. At the dinner, she exposes his disgraceful past. Charteris, then calling himself Victor Dawson, had married her. One day, he abandoned her, taking her inheritance, leaving her destitute and alone. Thinking her baby had died and forced to do whatever she had to in order to survive, she wandered from place to place, until she reached Shanghai. There, Percival Howe had faith in her and backed her financially, allowing her to work her way up to her current position. To cap her revenge, she has Victoria brought in. Victoria openly flaunts her attraction to Omar and ridicules her father. As Charteris takes his wayward daughter out, he tells Van Elst privately to come to his office the next morning to pick up a £20,000 check for Gin Sling and tell her "the funds she claims I took are, and always have been in an account in her name" in a north China bank. Despite hearing this, Victoria defies him and goes back inside where the other guests have left. When he tries to retrieve her, he is confronted by Gin Sling. He then reveals that their baby had been found alive and put in a hospital where Charteris found her and brought her up far from China. Victoria is Gin Sling's own daughter. Gin Sling then tries to talk to Victoria alone, revealing that she is her mother, but when the young woman continues insulting her, Gin Sling shoots her dead. The Dragon Lady then remarks to Howe that this is something she cannot bribe her way out of. The muscular coolie, standing outside with Charteris, delivers the bitingly ironic last line "you likee Chinese New Year?" as Charteris realizes what has happened. ===== Homicide detective Sergeant Dave Bannion (Glenn Ford) of the Kenport Police Department investigates the suicide of a rogue fellow officer, Tom Duncan, whose wife, Bertha Duncan (Jeanette Nolan), says her husband had lately been in ill health. Officer Duncan leaves behind an envelope addressed to the district attorney, which Mrs. Duncan places in her safe-deposit box at the bank. Bannion is contacted by the late cop's mistress, Lucy Chapman (Dorothy Green), who claims Tom Duncan had not been in ill health. Bannion revisits Duncan's widow and asks for particulars about the couple's luxurious home, but she resents the implication. The next day, Bannion is rebuffed by Lieutenant Ted Wilks (Willis Bouchey), who is under pressure from "upstairs" to close the case. Lucy Chapman is found dead after being tortured, strangled, and covered with cigarette burns. Bannion investigates, although the Chapman case is in the sheriff's jurisdiction and not his department's. After receiving threatening calls at his home, Bannion confronts Mike Lagana (Alexander Scourby), the local mob boss who runs the city, and finds that people are too scared to stand up to the crime syndicate. When warnings to Bannion go unheeded, his car is blown up, and his wife, Katie (Jocelyn Brando), who was alone in the car, is killed. After accusing his superiors of corruption, Bannion resigns from the police department. When Lagana's second-in-command Vince Stone (Lee Marvin) punishes a woman in a nightclub—by burning her hand with a cigar butt—Bannion stands up to him, which impresses Stone's girlfriend Debby Marsh (Gloria Grahame). Debby tries to get friendly with Bannion, and first offers to buy him a drink, but Bannion refuses, saying Debby gets her money from her boyfriend, a thief. After he leaves the bar, Debby follows Bannion back to the hotel where he is now living. When Debby innocently asks Bannion about his late wife, he sends her out of his hotel room. Since Debby had been seen with Bannion, when she returns to Stone's penthouse, he accuses her of talking to Bannion about his activities and throws a pot of boiling coffee in her face. Debby is taken to a hospital by Police Commissioner Higgins (Howard Wendell), who had been playing poker with Stone and his group at the penthouse. With the left side of her face disfigured and half-covered in bandages, Debby returns to Bannion, who arranges for her a separate, unregistered room at his hotel. Debby identifies the man who had arranged the planting of the dynamite in Bannion's car as Larry Gordon (Adam Williams), one of Stone's associates. Bannion forces Gordon to admit to the car bombing, as well as revealing that Duncan's widow has papers which could expose Stone and Lagana and is collecting blackmail payments from Lagana. Bannion refrains from killing Gordon, instead spreads word that Gordon had talked. Gordon is soon murdered by Stone's men and his body thrown in the river. Bannion then confronts Mrs. Duncan, accusing her of betraying Lucy Chapman, causing her death, and of protecting Lagana and Stone. Bannion intends to kill Mrs. Duncan, figuring that her death will cause the incriminating evidence she has against Lagana to be revealed. But cops sent by Lagana arrive before Bannion can strangle Mrs. Duncan, and he departs. Lagana tells Stone to kidnap Bannion's young daughter, Joyce (Linda Bennett), who is staying with her aunt and uncle. At first they are under police guard, but when, at Lagana's behest, the police guard is called away, Joyce's uncle arranges for several army buddies from the war to provide protection. Satisfied that his daughter is in capable hands, Bannion sets off to deal with Stone. As he walks out of the home where his daughter is staying, Lieutenant Wilks arrives, not only to help protect Bannion's daughter, but also because he's now prepared to make a stand against the mob. Debby Marsh goes to see Mrs. Duncan and notes that they are both wearing the same expensive mink coats and have benefited from an association with gangsters. When Mrs. Duncan attempts to phone Stone in order to get rid of Debby, Debby pulls out a gun and shoots her. After Stone returns to his penthouse, Debby throws boiling coffee at him in revenge. Stone shoots her, but after a short gun battle with Bannion, who had followed him, Stone is captured. As Debby lies dying, Bannion describes his late wife to her in terms of their endearing relationship, rather than the colorless "police description" of his wife he had given to Debby earlier, and tells Debby that she and his wife would have gotten along well. Stone is then arrested for murder, the late Officer Duncan's damning evidence in the note he left behind for the D.A. is made public, Lagana and Commissioner Higgins are indicted, and Sgt. Bannion returns to his job at Homicide. ===== Police Lt. Leonard Diamond is on a personal crusade to bring down the sadistic gangster Mr. Brown. He is also dangerously obsessed with Brown's girlfriend, the suicidal Susan Lowell. His main objective as a detective is to uncover what happened to a woman called "Alicia" from the crime boss's past. Mr. Brown, his second-in-command McClure and thugs Fante and Mingo kidnap and torture the lieutenant, then pour a bottle of alcohol-based hair tonic down his throat before letting him go. Diamond eventually learns through one of Brown's past accomplices that Alicia was actually Brown's wife. The accomplice suspects that Alicia was sent away to Sicily with former mob boss Grazzi, then murdered, tied to the boat's anchor and permanently submerged. Diamond questions a Swede named Dreyer, who was the skipper of that boat but now operates an antiques store as a front, bankrolled by Brown. Dreyer denies involvement and does not want to disclose anything to Diamond, but is nonetheless murdered by McClure shortly after leaving his shop later that day. Diamond tries to persuade Susan to leave Brown and admits he might be in love with her. He shows her a photo of Brown, Alicia and Grazzi together on the boat. Susan finally confronts Brown about his wife and is told she is still alive in Sicily, Italy, living with Grazzi. Brown next orders a hit on Diamond. However, when his gunmen Fante and Mingo go to Diamond's apartment, they mistakenly shoot and kill Diamond's burlesque dancer girlfriend Rita instead. Diamond sees an up-to-date photo of Alicia but realizes it wasn't taken in Sicily (since there's snow on the ground). This leads Diamond to suspect Brown did not kill Alicia but his boss Grazzi instead. Diamond is able to track Alicia to a sanitarium, where she is staying under another name. He asks for her help. Meanwhile, Brown's right-hand man, McClure, wants to take over. He plots with Fante and Mingo to ambush Mr. Brown, but they betray and murder him. At police headquarters, Brown shows up with a writ of habeas corpus, effectively preventing Alicia testifying against her husband. Brown also takes a big stash of "money" to Fante and Mingo while they are hiding out from the police, but the box turns out to contain a bomb that apparently kills both of them. Brown shoots Diamond's partner, Sam, and kidnaps Susan, planning to fly away to safety. However, Mingo survived the assassination attempt by Brown, so he confesses to Diamond that Brown was behind all the murders while sobbing over the body of his cohort. Alicia is able to help Diamond figure out that Brown took Susan to a private airport where he intends to board his getaway plane. However, Brown's plane does not show up and the film climaxes in a foggy airplane hangar shootout. Susan shines the fog lamp from Brown's own car in his eyes, effectively blinding him, so the lieutenant is able to arrest him. The last scene shows the silhouetted figures of Diamond and Susan in the fog, considered to be one of the iconic images of film noir. ===== In 1992, C-Force, a task force composed of former military professionals, is formed to protect Neocity from terrorism. One day, the team's leader, Burns, receives a phone call from their informant Fox, who tells him that the Head of Intelligence is being threatened by a criminal organization known as D.N.M.E. Burns arranges a meeting at the Harbor with Fox to learn more about the situation, only to find Fox's corpse when he arrives at the destination. Now it is up to C-Force to save Neocity from D.N.M.E. ===== ===== The player takes the role of a young Iga ninja named Kage ("Shadow"), on a mission to rescue Princess Kiri (hime) - the Shogun's daughter - from the villainous warlord Yoshi (ro Kuyigusa) and fellow evil samurai Yuki (nosuke Riko). Kage must fight his way through a forest, along a secret passageway, up a fortress wall, and through a castle... rescuing her twice (three times in the FC/NES version) in order to win the game. Each time the princess is rescued, the seasons change from summer to fall to winter and back to summer. ===== Barbie dreams that she has been invited to the Fantasy Ball, but in her dream she has nothing nice to wear.Redbook. Vol. 180. p. 108. Redbook Pub. Co. 1993.Burrill, William. "Entertainment – Show: Mean-tempered robots play ball in Base Wars video game." The Gazette. Final ed. p. B6. July 25, 1991. She travels to three different worlds to gather accessories for the big night and a chance with Ken.Rich, Jason. A Parent's Guide to Video Games: A Practical Guide to Selecting and Managing Home Video Games. DMS Publishing. 1991. Burrill, William. "Life: Simple video games really are kidstuff." Toronto Star. Saturday ed. p. H4. October 19, 1991. Along the way she meets a veritable menagerie of animal friends and searches to find Dream-Ups, Glamor Items, and Charms for her bracelet that will help her along her way.Barbie Instruction Booklet. Hi Tech Expressions. 1991. In Mall World, Barbie goes on a shopping spree for Barbie coins that she uses at the wishing fountain to acquire an exquisite pink ball gown.Sviridov, Catherine. "8 бит: Barbie Барби – Once Upon A Dream... Однажды, во сне..." Velikij Drakon. No.29. pp. 12–13. 1997. . In Underwater World, Mermaid Barbie and a few helpful dolphins search for pearls that Barbie returns to a giant oyster in exchange for an elegant pearl ring. Finally, in the 1950s-style Soda Shop Barbie must collect gold records that she uses to make a stairway into the sky to collect the last accessory, a charming pair of sparkly high heels.Jones, Dylan. "Life - Games: Barbie to Robin Hood." USA Today. Final ed. p. 5D. 6 June 1991. Barbie returns to the Barbie Dream House to get ready for the Fantasy Ball, and as she descends the stairs wearing all of her accessories, a dapper Ken awaits to dance with her.Barbie. IGN. Accessed 16 September 2012. ===== ===== Deep in the heart of the Tiny Universe lies the Home Planet where the main characters, Bing and Bong, make their home. These two explorers are catapulted to the surrounding worlds in their solar system on a flying white sofa where they explore, learn about the inhabitants, develop friendships and have fun. ===== On a mountain in the Pacific Northwest, apparently in the 19th century, the she-wolf Nitka discovers an abandoned Native American baby and is inspired by the "Spirit of the Wild" to raise him alongside her own cubs. He has no name of his own to begin with, although the author calls him Shasta from the outset. Like Rudyard Kipling's Mowgli (Baker even refers to him as a man-cub), Shasta grows up naked in the wild and is able to speak to animals, including the wise old black bear Gomposh, although this "speech" seems to consist as much of body language as of actual vocalization. Along the way his animal parents and friends rescue him from attacks by a grizzly bear and a moose, and he takes revenge on an eagle for killing wolf cubs. Shasta also discovers a human tribe and is briefly captured by them before his wolf parents help him to escape. His curiosity eventually draws him back, and this time he is treated more kindly and persuaded to stay. The chief explains to the tribe that he is in fact one of their own tribesmen, Shasta, grandson of the old chief. Shasta's mother was killed by a tribesman who defected to an enemy tribe, the Assiniboines, taking Shasta and abandoning him in the hope that the wolves would kill him. Instead, he survived and eventually returned to the tribe bringing his "wolf medicine". While Shasta is in the process of learning tribal ways, he discovers that the Assiniboines are once more planning to attack. During the raid Shasta is captured and prepared for sacrifice, but is once again rescued by his wolf- friends, who avenge his human mother's death by killing many of the enemy tribe. After the battle Shasta stays with his wolf kindred, and the author is deliberately ambiguous as to whether he later returns to human society. ===== The Simpsons celebrate brunch at a fancy restaurant to celebrate Homer finally paying off the mortgage. After Bart and Lisa get in a food fight, Homer goes to Moe's, where the health inspector has come for his regular visit. Since the inspector is a friend of Moe's, he gives the bar a clean bill of health, regardless of numerous violations, but he dies upon consuming one of the expired pickled eggs. The new inspector immediately declares Moe's Tavern to be closed down until the violations are cleared up and the weekly garbage pickup disposes of his predecessor's corpse. Later, after Moe's Tavern is closed down, the regulars hold an Irish wake on the sidewalk. Homer decides to help Moe reopen the bar by getting a new mortgage for his home, forging with Marge, who becomes the new co-owner. Homer visits a cleaned-up Moe's with Marge running it to protect their investment, and she suggests Homer just concentrate on the kids. Marge also suggests that Moe's should become an English pub and to rename it The Nag & Weasel to improve its image. The Nag & Weasel is a success, and Bart and Lisa observe that Marge now spends more time at the establishment than Homer has ever done. Homer is worried, but Marge has no problem with it. Homer and Marge go to a movie together, only to be joined by Moe, and Homer learns from Lenny and Carl that Marge and Moe are having what is called an "emotional affair". Homer is also scared when Marge reminds him for the 11th time they are planning to attend a bartender convention in Aruba. Homer rushes to the airport, escorted by Chief Wiggum, and gets to the plane as it is about to become airborne, in an attempt to save his marriage. Meanwhile, Moe finally gets out his true feelings for his partner that he has hidden in the dark for so long, spurred on by the alarming display he witnesses from the window seat. He tells Marge he loves her, and in a rush, asks her to marry him. Marge is shocked, but before she can answer, a soaking- wet Homer bursts out of the toilet seat in the bathroom and glares at Moe to leave his wife alone. Moe shouts back that Homer does not deserve Marge at all since he knows nothing about her: her favorite dish, for example. Homer does admit that he does not know much about his own wife, but despite his faults, Marge reassures him that he really is her true love, not the bartender. The three arrive in Aruba, where the miserable Moe attempts to drown himself because of his loss, only to be stopped by Marge and Homer. Marge explains to him that he is sweet enough a man to be loved by someone else, if only he is willing to make a few, minor changes. Moe seems to listen, but nevertheless reverts to his original scheme of sharing a hotel room with Marge (he has changed the booking on the sly). Marge instead forces Moe to share the bed with Homer while she settles down on the couch. As Marge suddenly realizes no one is watching the kids, the episode ends with Bart, Lisa, and Maggie traveling to Paris in a hot-air balloon. ===== Various plot elements focus on groups of suburban kids experimenting with shamanism and hallucinogens, who quickly discover themselves unhinged from the culture around them. It details events surrounding their harrowing plunge into this abyss, regularly shifting narrator and frame of reference from one member of the group to the other. Curcio utilizes atypical narrative and grammatical structures in the form of neurolinguistic and hypnotic confusion techniques within the text in an effort to stimulate a similar experience over the course of reading. That Curcio was intentionally utilizing these techniques is shown in various interviews such as a Gpod radio interview found on his website.Gpod Interview with Joseph Matheny ===== Attorney Walter Fielding and his classical musician girlfriend, Anna Crowley, learn of Walter Sr.'s wedding to a woman named Florinda shortly after fleeing the country for embezzling millions of dollars from their musician clients. The next morning, they are told they need to vacate the apartment they are subletting from Anna's ex-husband, Max Beissart, a self-absorbed conductor who has returned early from Europe. Through an unscrupulous realtor friend, Walter learns about a million-dollar distress sale mansion on the market for a mere $200,000. He and Anna meet the owner, Estelle, who claims she must sell it quickly because her husband, Carlos, has been arrested. Her sob story and insistence at keeping the place in candlelight in order to save money "for the goddamn, bloodsucking lawyers", distracts Walter and enchants Anna, who finds it romantic. They decide to buy it. From the moment Walter and Anna take possession of the house, it quickly begins to fall apart. Among other problems, the entire front door frame rips out of the wall, the main staircase collapses, the plumbing is full of gunk, the electrical system catches fire, the bathtub crashes through the floor, the chimney collapses, and a raccoon is living in the dumbwaiter. Contractors Art and Brad Shirk summarily tear the house to pieces using Walter's $5,000 down payment, leaving him and Anna embroiled in bureaucracy to secure the necessary building permits to complete the work. His continuing frustration at the escalating costs of restoring the house leads him to brand it a "money pit", whilst the Shirks continue to assure him that their work will take "two weeks". The repair work continues for a grueling four months and Walter and Anna realize they need more money to complete the renovations. She attempts to secure additional funds from Max by selling him some artwork she received in their divorce. Although he does not care for it, he agrees to its purchase. He wines and dines her, and the next morning, when she wakes up in his bed, he allows her to believe that she has cheated on Walter; in reality, Max slept on the couch. Walter later asks her point-blank if she slept with Max, but she hastily denies it. His suspicions push her to admit that she did so, but the damage is done. Due to Walter and Anna's stubbornness, their relationship becomes more and more hostile and in a rare moment of agreement, they vow to sell the house once it is restored and split the proceeds. This nearly happens, but he misses her and says he loves her even if she did sleep with Max. She happily tells him that she didn't and they reconcile. In the end, they are married in front of the newly repaired house. Ultimately, Estelle and her husband/partner-in-crime, Carlos, resurface in Brazil where they try to persuade Walter's father and his new bride to purchase an old house they claim to have lived in for several years implying that the vicious cycle is about to start all over again. ===== "When you call me that, smile! The novel begins with an unnamed narrator's arrival in Medicine Bow, Wyoming, from "back East" and his encounter with an impressively tall and handsome stranger. The stranger proves adept at roping horses, as well as facing down a gambler, Trampas, who calls him a "son of a bitch." (At the time, the word was an unacceptable insult in any society, except between joking friends.) The stranger lays a pistol on the table and gently threatens, "When you call me that, smile!" Known only as the Virginian, the stranger turns out to be the narrator's escort to Judge Henry's ranch in Sunk Creek, Wyoming. As the two travel the 263 miles to the ranch, the narrator, who is nicknamed the Tenderfoot, and the Virginian come to know one another as the Tenderfoot slowly begins to understand the nature of life in the West, which is very different from what he expected. This meeting is the beginning of a lifelong friendship and the starting point of the narrator's recounting of key episodes in the life of the Virginian. The novel revolves around the Virginian and the life he lives. As well as describing the Virginian's conflict with his enemy, Trampas, and his romance with the pretty schoolteacher, Molly Stark Wood, Wister weaves a tale of action, violence, hate, revenge, love, and friendship. In one scene, the Virginian is forced to participate in the hanging of an admitted cattle thief, who had been his close friend. The hanging is represented as a necessary response to the government's corruption and lack of action, but the Virginian feels it to be a horrible duty. He is especially stricken by the bravery with which the thief faces his fate, and the heavy burden that the act places on his heart forms the emotional core of the story. A fatal shootout resolves the ongoing conflict with Trampas after five years of hate. After Trampas shoots first in a duel, the Virginian shoots Trampas in self defense and leaves to marry his young bride. The Virginian and Molly ride off together to spend a month in the mountains and then journey back East to Vermont to meet her family. They are received a bit stiffly by the immediate Wood family, but warmly by Molly's great-aunt. The new couple returns to Wyoming, and the Virginian is made a partner of Judge Henry's ranch. The book ends noting that the Virginian became an important man in the territory with a happy family. ===== ===== ===== The ancient land of Elemen was rife with chaos under the tyranny of the evil Empress Rimsala (Rimsalia). A group of powerful wizards called the Card Masters combined their abilities to defeat Rimsala and seal her away. But her legacy would not be forgotten. Decades later, political unrest in the kingdoms of Elemen turned into bloody civil war. As armies slaughtered each other on the battlefields, the Card Masters were persecuted and hunted down by the minions of Galneon, the former court magician of Wagnall, King of Lexford. Galneon was the man who had launched the original coup that began the war, but his motives were much more sinister than bloodshed. He sought the unsealing and resurrection of Rimsala, to unleash her ancient evil upon Elemen again. In the conflict, King Wagnall's two daughters disappeared. It was also the last battle for the Knights of Lexford, a trio of brave fighters sworn to Wagnall, which dissolved as the war drew to a close. Galneon assumed power and stretched forth his oppressive authority across Elemen, eliminating every Card Master found so that the revival of Rimsala could succeed without interference. Ten years have passed since these events. The young protagonist Rooks is the son of the last Card Master to perish during Elemen's civil war, who was also one of the Knights of Lexford. The death of his father motivated Rooks to begin learning the art of the cards in earnest, but in a decade his minimal training has barely scratched the surface when word comes to his home village of Galia. Mysterious events are occurring all over the land, heralding a cataclysm. Rooks' path lies before him as he sets off to prevent the awakening of Rimsala, so he must fulfill his destiny as the last Card Master before it is too late. ===== ===== ===== The novel begins with an inflated and parodic but reasonably accurate portrayal of Ellis's early fame. It details incidents of his rampant drug use and his publicly humiliating book tours to promote Glamorama. The novel dissolves into fiction as Ellis describes a liaison with an actress named Jayne Dennis, whom he later marries, and with whom he conceives a child. From this point, the fictional Ellis' life reflects the real writer's only in some descriptions of the past and possibly in his general sentiments. Ellis and Jayne move to fictional Midland, an affluent suburban town outside New York City, which they no longer consider safe due to pervasive terrorist acts in a post-9/11 America. Fictional incidents include suicide bombings in Wal-Marts and a dirty bomb detonated in Florida. Strange incidents start happening on a Halloween night, some involving a Terby doll belonging to Ellis's fictional stepdaughter Sarah. As the novel progresses, the haunting of Ellis's house and questions over the death of his father become increasingly prominent. With his history of drug use and alcoholism, his wife, children and housekeeper are understandably skeptical of his claims that the house is haunted. Unfolding events only very gradually reveal a much more complicated situation than a simple haunting. There is a dynamic interplay between the author's dead father, the house itself and specific negative associations buried within the author's own subconscious mind. Added to all of this is the very late-breaking and almost gratuitous insinuation that Robby, the narrator's young son, may somehow be at the epicenter of all these events. ===== ===== :The film is structured around ten acts with a prologue and epilogue. It opens with the camera on Marianne standing by a table covered with photographs. It is a well-lit room, and she addresses the viewer. She picks one picture up after another; they are in no particular order, being just heaped all over the table. Some make her smile, or elicit a comment or a sigh. But then she picks up a photograph of her husband, prompting her to reminisce about how they had been more or less happy, and how they'd broken up. She goes on to recall how his second marriage failed, while she was already married to a second husband herself, and then when her second husband died (by flying a glider off somewhere and disappearing), she reflects that it would be nice to see her first husband again. Marianne travels into the country to the home of her ex-husband Johan, the father of her daughters Martha and Sara. Johan is undergoing a family crisis with his insolvent and needy son, Henrik, and granddaughter, Karin. Karin is 19, and Henrik asks Johan for an advance on his inheritance so that Henrik can buy Karin an old Fagnola cello, to make a better impression at the audition for the European music conservatory. The elderly Johan decides to consider the offer and to contact the cello dealer himself. While Henrik is away tending to the orchestra he conducts in Uppsala, Johan has a private meeting with Karin, informing her of a proposal from Ivan Chablov, head conductor in the St. Petersburg orchestra and an old friend of Johan, that Karin join him at the prestigious Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. While considering this offer Karin also finds an old letter from her departed mother Anna written to Henrik a week before her death. In the letter, Anna asks Henrik to relieve Karin of the unhealthy control he holds over her as her cello teacher. When Henrik encounters Karin again upon his return from Uppsala, where he no longer holds a position as concertmaster, he attempts to convince Karin into performing a concert of Bach's Cello Suites with him. She finally confronts him about his control over her and tells him of her decision to take an opportunity to study with her friend Emma in Hamburg under Claudio Abbado. The final request by Henrik is that Karin play the sarabande from Bach's 5th Cello Suite, which she already knows. We encounter Marianne and Johan some time later, after Karin has already left for Hamburg. Marianne receives a phone call stating that Henrik has been found in the hospital having attempted suicide with pills and by cutting his wrists and throat. In the next scene a pained Johan suffering from a sort of anxiety attack seeks out Marianne and eventually disrobes along with her and joins her in bed. Next, Marianne is holding a still of the couple in bed and explaining what happened after that episode. She explains how she and Johan had kept in contact until one day she was no longer able to reach him. She thinks again of the departed Anna and recollects a visit to her ill daughter Martha who is in a sanatorium. She explains the contact she shared with her daughter and how she had never really been able to touch her before this moment. ===== At the Saint Ignatius Orphanage, a rebellious boy named John Rossi refers to himself as "Simon Templar" and leads a group of fellow orphans as they attempt to run away to escape their harsh treatment. Just as Simon is caught by the head priest, he witnesses the tragic death of a girl, to whom he had taken a liking, when she accidentally falls from a balcony. As an adult, Simon (Val Kilmer)—now a professional thief dubbed "The Saint" for using the names of Catholic saints as aliases—steals a valuable microchip belonging to a Russian oil company. Simon stages the burglary during a political rally held for the company's owner, Ivan Tretiak (Rade Šerbedžija). Tretiak is a former Communist party boss and a billionaire oil and gas oligarch who is rallying support against the Russian president. Simon is caught in the act by Tretiak's son Ilya (Valery Nikolaev) but escapes with the microchip. After learning of the heist, Tretiak contacts Simon and hires him to steal a revolutionary cold-fusion formula discovered by U.S. electrochemist Emma Russell (Elisabeth Shue). He wishes to acquire Emma's formula—which creates clean, inexpensive energy—so he can monopolize the energy market during a severe oil shortage in Russia. Using the alias "Thomas More", Simon poses as a Boer traveller and steals the formula after having a one-night stand with Emma. Tretiak learns Emma's formula is incomplete and orders his henchmen, led by Ilya, to kill Simon and kidnap Emma in order to obtain the remaining information. Heartbroken, Emma reports the theft to Inspector Teal (Alun Armstrong) and Inspector Rabineau (Charlotte Cornwell) of Scotland Yard, who inform her Simon is a wanted international thief. Emma tracks down Simon to a hotel in Moscow and confronts him about the theft and his betrayal. The Russian police, loyal to Tretiak, arrest Simon and Emma. However, they manage to escape from the police van as they are being brought to Tretiak's mansion. As they flee through the suburbs, Simon and Emma are helped by a prostitute and her family who shelter them in a hidden room in their home. Later, they meet "Frankie" (Irina Apeksimova), a fence/black marketeer or Spiv who sells them the directions through an underground sewer system that lead to the U.S. embassy. Simon and Emma exit the sewer tunnel only to find Ilya and his men waiting for them among a gathering of protestors outside the embassy's front gates. Emma safely makes it to the embassy for political asylum, while Simon allows himself to be caught by Ilya as a distraction. He escapes after rigging a car bomb that severely burns Ilya. Simon plants a listening device in Tretiak's office and learns he plans to stage a coup d'état by selling the cold-fusion formula to Russian President Karpov to frame him for wasting billions on useless technology. Tretiak then plans to use the political fallout to install himself as President. Emma finishes the equations to complete the formula, and Simon delivers the information to Tretiak's physicist, Dr. Lev Botvin (Henry Goodman), who builds an apparatus that proves the formula works. Simon infiltrates the President's Kremlin residence and informs him of Tretiak's conspiracy just before Tretiak loyalists detain him. In front of a massive gathering in Red Square, Tretiak makes public accusations against President Karpov, but when the cold-fusion reactor is successfully initiated, Tretiak is exposed as a fraud and arrested. He is also revealed to have caused the heating-oil shortage in Moscow by illegally stockpiling vast amounts of heating oil underneath his mansion. Sometime later, Simon and Emma reunite at a cottage somewhere in England where he gives back her formula and they start a secret relationship. At a news conference at the University of Oxford, Emma presents her cold fusion formula to the world. Simon attends the conference in disguise and once again avoids being captured by Inspectors Teal and Rabineau when they spot him in the crowd. As he drives away, he listens to a news radio broadcast (voiced by Roger Moore) reporting that $3 billion was recently donated to the Red Cross, Salvation Army and the United Nations Children's Fund. It is implied that Simon, who had access to Tretiak's accounts, donated the money anonymously. Furthermore, a non-profit foundation led by Dr. Botvin is being established to develop the cold-fusion technology. ===== Amber Leighton is a wealthy, spoiled socialite wife of a millionaire who joins two other couples on a private cruise from Italy to Greece. Amber develops an instant and intense dislike to Giuseppe, a deckhand, and insults him mercilessly throughout the trip. During the trip, she insists on being taken out on a dinghy for a lark, overruling Giuseppe's warnings about an oncoming storm. During their dinghy trip, Amber berates Giuseppe incessantly, which only intensifies once they run out of gas. Through a series of mishaps, Amber damages the dinghy and they end up washing ashore on a deserted island. On the island, Giuseppe gains the upper hand in their interactions due to his survival skills. As the roles reverse, Giuseppe becomes more dominant in his treatment of Amber, while she concurrently becomes more submissive and cowering. Their relationship evolves into intimacy. Eventually, the two are rescued, and return to their normal lives. Giuseppe attempts to reach out to Amber, to rekindle their relationship, but his messages receive no reply. Giuseppe believes that Amber has rejected him, and is despondent. However, it is revealed at the end that his letters have been intercepted by Amber's wealthy husband, who ensures that Amber never sees them or Giuseppe again. ===== War and Remembrance completes the cycle that began with The Winds of War. The story includes historical occurrences at Midway, Yalta, Guadalcanal, and El Alamein as well as the Allied invasions at Normandy and the Philippines. One of the more significant themes in the novel and one that occurs in many of Wouk's works is a rediscovery of a central character's Jewish identify. Biblical scholar Aaron Jastrow, and his niece Natalie Henry's experience of the holocaust and their internment in Theresienstadt Ghetto are the events that trigger their newfound identification with their Judaism, Jastrow having formerly converted to Catholicism. "Jastrow is transformed from a rational professor with only marginal awareness of his Jewishness into a passionate champion of his Jewish integrity" according to one reporter.Cohen, Robert A., Editor-in-Chief, "War and Remembrance Deserves a Thoughtful Second Look", The St. Louis Jewish Light, St. Louis, Missouri, pg. 7, 14 June 1989 The action moves back and forth between the characters against the backdrop of World War II: Victor "Pug" Henry takes part in various battles while separating from his wife. Pug's older son Warren, a naval aviator, and younger son, Byron, a submarine officer, also participate in combat. Warren is killed at the battle of Midway. Byron's wife Natalie is trapped in Axis territory with her uncle, celebrated author Aaron Jastrow, and another major strand focuses on their story as Jews caught in Europe. Like most Americans, Natalie and Aaron fail to believe that the civilized German culture with which they are familiar could possibly engage in genocide. As a result of their rash decision to stay when they could escape, they are slowly absorbed into the Jewish population that is first interned, then sent to concentration camps. As Byron attempts to find out what is happening to them, eventually tracking them down amidst the chaos of wartime Europe, the story of the Holocaust is gradually revealed to the American government and people. Another plot thread concerns Aaron Jastrow's cousin Berel who is captured near the end of The Winds of War and is forced to join Kommando 1005, SS officer Paul Blobel's Jewish contingent that travels around Eastern Europe exhuming the bodies of massacred Jews and disposing of them in an effort to hide the evidence of Nazi mass murder. ===== The stories begin with the discovery by the Battersea Chief-Lookout, Knocker, of a Rumble in Battersea Park. The Rumbles are rat-like creatures that live in an underground bunker in Rumbledom, and are hated by the Borribles for their riches, power, and haughtiness. Fearing a full-scale invasion of Battersea, each of the Borrible tribes across London send their best and brightest unnamed members to form an elite hit squad, known as the Magnificent Eight or the Adventurers, with the purpose of infiltrating the Rumble bunker and eliminating the eight members of the Rumble High Command. Rumbles are clearly a parody of the popular children's characters, the Wombles of Wimbledon Common. On the way the Borribles also meet a particularly vicious parody of Steptoe and Son (which was one of the most popular shows on TV at the time) in the form of Dewdrop, a former Borrible, and his son Ernie. The Adventurers are each assigned the name of the individual target of the High Command that they are to assassinate: Napoleon Boot, the suspicious and cynical Borrible; Chalotte, the tough and brave girl Borrible; Vulgarian (Vulge), frail-looking, but "tough as nails"; Bingo, always cheerful; Sydney, another female and an animal-lover; Stonks, strong and kind-hearted; Torreycanyon, light-hearted with a knack for mechanics; Orococco, the jovial, black Borrible. Napoleon, Chalotte, Sydney, Vulge, Bingo, Stonks, Torreycanyon, and Orococco set out to squash the Rumble threat – but other Borribles have secret agendas and personal vendettas of their own which create an even greater threat than the Rumbles ever were. The supposedly straightforward adventure dominoes into a desperate fight for the very existence of Borrible life. ===== Following the adventures of "The Great Rumble Hunt" in the first volume of the trilogy, the second volume begins with the surviving adventurers' discovery that Sam the horse is still alive. In attempting to rescue him the Borribles are lured into danger both by the newly established Special Borrible Group (SBG), a branch of the police determined to wipe out the Borribles and their way of life, and by one of their own – Spiff, whose motives behind the mission to Rumbledom are slowly revealed. All this leads the Borribles deep into Wendle territory beneath the streets of Wandsworth, and down into a shifting tunnel of mud dug deep beneath the mudflats of the Wendle River. ===== In The Borribles: Across the Dark Metropolis, Battersea is no longer safe for a Borrible. The SBG (an allusion to the Special Patrol Group), a section of the London police driven on by the fanatical Inspector Sussworth (an allusion to the sus laws) and dedicated to finding Borribles and clipping their ears is determined to wipe them out. The Borribles decide to escort Sam the horse to safety in Neasden and then return to the old way of life of independence and freedom. They begin their journey Across the Dark Metropolis, a journey that tests the courage and cunning of the Adventurers to the limits. ===== The narrator explains how he instigated a secret investigation of the ruined town of Innsmouth, Massachusetts, by the U.S. government. He proceeds to describe in detail the events surrounding his initial interest in the town, which lies along the route of his tour across New England, taken when he was twenty-one. While he waits for the bus that will take him to Innsmouth, he busies himself in the neighboring Newburyport by gathering information on the town from the locals; all of it having superstitious overtones. The narrator finds Innsmouth to be a mostly deserted fishing town, full of dilapidated buildings and people who walk with a distinctive shambling gait and have "queer narrow heads with flat noses and bulgy, stary eyes". The only person in town who appears normal is a grocery store clerk from neighboring Arkham. The narrator gathers much information from the clerk, including a map of the town and the name of Zadok Allen, an elderly local who might give him information when plied with drink. The narrator hears repeatedly that outsiders are never welcomed in Innsmouth, and that strangers, particularly government investigators, have disappeared when they pry too deeply into the town. The narrator meets Zadok, who explains that an Innsmouth merchant named Obed Marsh discovered a race of fish-like humanoids known as the Deep Ones. When hard times fell on the town, Obed established a cult called the Esoteric Order of Dagon, which offered human sacrifices to the Deep Ones in exchange for wealth in the form of large fish hauls and unique jewelry. When Obed and his followers were arrested, the Deep Ones attacked the town and killed more than half of its population, leaving the survivors with no other choice than to continue Obed's practices. Male and female inhabitants were forced to breed with the Deep Ones, producing hybrid offspring which have the appearance of normal humans in early life but, in adulthood, slowly transform into Deep Ones themselves and leave the surface to live in ancient undersea cities for eternity. He further explains that these ocean-dwellers have designs on the surface world and have been planning the use of shoggoths to conquer or transform it. Zadok sees strange waves approaching the dock and tells the narrator that they have been seen, urging him to leave town immediately. The narrator is unnerved, but ultimately dismisses the story. Once he leaves, Zadok disappears and is never seen again. After being told that the bus is experiencing engine trouble, the narrator has no choice but to spend the night in a musty hotel, the Gilman House. While attempting to sleep, he hears noises at his door as if someone is trying to enter. Wasting no time, he escapes out a window and through the streets while a town-wide hunt for him occurs, forcing him at times to imitate the peculiar walk of the Innsmouth locals as he walks past search parties in the darkness. Eventually, he makes his way towards railroad tracks and hears a procession of Deep Ones passing in the road before him. Against his judgment, he opens his eyes to see the creatures and faints at his hiding spot. He wakes up unharmed. Over the years that pass, he researches his family tree and discovers that he is a descendant of Obed Marsh, and realizes that he is changing into one of the Deep Ones. As the story ends, the narrator is accepting his fate and feels he will be happy living with the Deep Ones. He plans to break out his cousin from an asylum, who is even further transformed than he, and take him to the Deep Ones' city beneath the sea. ===== The central character of the book is Adam Salton, an Australian at the outset living there, who in 1860 is contacted by his elderly great-uncle, Richard Salton, a landed gentleman of Lesser Hill, Derbyshire, England,Authors and writings of the East Midlands. who has no other family and wants to establish a relationship with the only other living member of the Salton family. Although Adam has already made his own fortune in Australia, he enthusiastically agrees to meet his uncle, and on his arrival by ship at Southampton the two men quickly become good friends. His great-uncle then reveals that he wishes to make Adam the heir to his estate, Lesser Hill. Adam travels there and quickly finds himself at the centre of mysterious events, with Sir Nathaniel de Salis, a friend of Richard Salton's, as his guide. Edgar Caswall, the new heir to a neighbouring estate, Castra Regis or Royal Camp, is in the process of making a mesmeric assault on a local girl, Lilla Watford. Meanwhile, Arabella March, of Diana's Grove, is running a game of her own, perhaps angling to become Mrs. Edgar Caswall. He is a slightly pathological eccentric and has inherited Franz Mesmer's chest, which he keeps in the Castra Regis Tower. Caswall seeks to make use of mesmerism, associated with Mesmer, a precursor to hypnotism, is obsessed with Lilla, and attempts to break her using mesmeric powers. However, with the help of Lilla's cousin, Mimi Watford, he is thwarted time and again. Caswall has a giant kite built in the shape of a hawk to scare away pigeons which have attacked his fields and destroyed his crops. For lack of anything better to do, he obsessively watches the kite and begins to believe that it has a mind of its own and that he himself is a god. Adam Salton finds black snakes on his great uncle’s property and buys a mongoose to hunt them down. He then discovers a child who has been bitten on the neck and who almost dies as a result. Adam learns that another child has already been killed by a snake bite, and that animals have also been killed mysteriously throughout the county. Caswall's African servant, Oolanga, a man obsessed with death and torture, prowls around the Castra Regis estate, enjoying the carnage left by the White Worm. Adam's mongoose attacks Arabella, who shoots it to death. Adam buys more mongooses and keeps them locked in trunks when not using them to hunt. Arabella tears another mongoose apart with her hands. Oolanga takes a liking to Arabella, perhaps sensing something violent in her, and makes advances. Arabella scorns Oolanga and is deeply insulted that he would dare to approach her. In an attempt to win her over, Oolanga steals one of Adam's trunks (which he believes is filled with treasure, but is actually just another mongoose), and Adam follows Oolanga. Arabella lures Oolanga to a deep well in her house, then in rage and disgust murders him by dragging him down into the deep pit tunnelled through a bed of white china clay. Adam witnesses the murder, but has no evidence of it apart from his own word. Arabella writes him a letter the next day, with the previous night's events twisted, claiming her complete innocence. Adam and Sir Nathaniel begin to suspect that Arabella is guilty of other crimes and that she wants to murder Mimi Watford. Adam and Sir Nathaniel then plot to stop Arabella by whatever means necessary. Sir Nathaniel is a Van Helsing-type character who wants to hunt down Arabella, who he believes, with increasing conviction, is the White Worm of legend. The White Worm is a large snake-like creature dwelling deep under Arabella's house at Diana's Grove. It has green glowing eyes and feeds on whatever living creatures it can find to eat. Sir Nathaniel believes the Worm is descended from dragons, who traded their physical power for cunning. The Worm ascends from its pit and seeks to attack Adam and Mimi Watford in the forest of Diana's Grove. Adam is able to foil Arabella's multiple attempts to murder Mimi, and Arabella offers to sell Diana's Grove, which Adam buys with the aim of destroying the White Worm. He plans to fill the pit with sand and set dynamite to kill the Worm while it is underground. Caswall's last visit to Lilla ends in her death. In the final chapters, Mimi Watford confronts Caswall who has finally succumbed to madness. He lures her onto the roof of Castra Regis House as a storm approaches and shows off his kite, despite the thunderheads building in the sky. Arabella, who had been stalking Mimi, watches from nearby and steals some of the wire holding the kite, apparently unspooling it all the way back to her house. When Mimi discovers Caswall has locked her onto the roof she shoots off the lock with a gun Adam gave her for her protection and flees home. Adam convinces her to go back outside with him, and they witness the following events: a massive thunderstorm breaks over Castra Regis House, a lightning bolt is grounded by the kite and demolishes the Castra Regis tower; it then travels through the wire Arabella had run to Diana's Grove and ignites Adam’s dynamite, which pulverizes the White Worm and destroys the house and Arabella at the same time. After this, Adam and Mimi Watford are married. ===== Chaplin and Sterling play two young men, Masher and Rival Masher, who fight over the chance to help a young woman (Clifton) cross a muddy street. Sterling first sees the woman trying to cross and offers her an umbrella he stole from a policeman (Conklin). He asks her to wait for him as he goes to get something to help her. Chaplin comes along and offers the woman to help her cross the street as well and wait for his return. While Sterling and Chaplin go to get logs, another policeman (Nolan) lifts the woman across the street. When Sterling returns with the log, he is indignant that the woman did not wait for him to come back to help her cross the muddy street and demands the umbrella back. When the woman refuses, they engage in a fight which eventually involves Chaplin. ===== In A Busy Day, a wife (played by an energetic Charlie Chaplin) becomes jealous of her husband's interest in another woman during a military parade. On her way to attack the couple, the wife interrupts the set of a film, knocking over a film director and a police officer. Finally, the husband pushes the wife off a pier and she falls into the harbor. ===== A weapons satellite has been snatched out of orbit, and the world is facing nuclear destruction. Behind this act is a group of terrorists known as the Mafat Conspiracy. The terrorists plan to extort the U.S. and Soviet governments by threatening to make their satellites fall from space. The Mafat are demanding that the Soviets turn over their research on electromagnetic waves, and the American government to give them the Los Angeles, a ship that is equipped with nuclear warheads.http://www.answers.com/topic/the-mafat-conspiracy The CIA and KGB are blaming each other, and Golgo 13's mission is to eliminate the leader of the Mafat Revolutionary Group, destroy the Satellite Capture System, and rescue Dr. Barrows. The doctor was kidnapped from his lab in England many years ago and taken to Paris, where he remains in confinement. ===== Eiko Minami in A Page of Madness. The film takes place in an asylum, in the countryside. Amid a torrential rainstorm, a janitor wanders through the halls revealing the various patients suffering from mental illness. The next day, a young woman arrives and is surprised to see her father, the janitor, working there. Her mother is an inmate in the asylum and had gone insane due to the cruelty of her husband, the janitor, when he was a sailor. The husband, feeling guilty, had taken a job at the asylum to care for her. The daughter announces that she is soon to marry a fine young man, but the janitor begins to worry, since society at the time still maintained the prejudiced view that mental illness was inherited. If the young man's family learns about the mother, the marriage might be called off. At work, the janitor's relationship with his wife, unknown to the asylum, interferes with his job, as he gets into a fight with some male inmates when his wife is hit, and he is sternly scolded by the head doctor. All this sparks in the janitor to experience a number of fantasies, as he slowly loses control of his border between dreams and reality. He first has a daydream about winning a chest of drawers at a lottery that he could give to his daughter as part of her dowry. When his daughter comes to tell him her marriage is in trouble, he thinks about taking his wife away from the asylum to hide her existence. Finally, he fantasizes about killing the head doctor, but that reverie goes out of hand as a bearded inmate is seen marrying his daughter. The janitor finally dreams of distributing masks to the inmates, providing them at last with happy faces. He returns to work mopping the floors, no longer able to visit his wife's ward because he had lost the keys (picked up by the doctor). He sees the bearded inmate pass by, who bows to him for the first time, as if bowing to his father-in-law. ===== Bill "Stoker" Thompson (Robert Ryan) is a 35-year-old has-been boxer about to take on an opponent at the fictional Paradise City Arena. His wife, Julie (Audrey Totter), fears that this fight may be his last and wants him to forfeit the match. Tiny (George Tobias), Stoker's manager, is sure he will continue to lose fights, so he takes money for a "dive" from a mobster, but is so certain of Stoker's failure that he does not inform the boxer of the set-up. The beginning of the film shows Stoker and Julie in their room at the Hotel Cozy, passionately debating whether he should participate in the fight. Julie tells him that she has a headache and won't attend the match. Stoker claims the $500 prize could allow them to buy a cigar stand or invest in another boxer, Tony Martinez, and start a new life. Julie says she cares more about his well-being than money, but Stoker responds: "If you're a fighter, you gotta fight." After Stoker departs for the arena, Julie continues to struggle with her fear and desire to support him, but ultimately ends up not using her ticket to the event and instead roams the streets surrounding the arena. At the beginning of the fourth and last round of the vicious match with the much younger and heavily favored Tiger Nelson (Hal Fieberling), Stoker learns about the fix. Even though he is told that Little Boy (Alan Baxter), a feared gangster, is behind the set-up, he refuses to give up the fight. Stoker wins the vocal support of blood-thirsty fans who had at first rooted against him and ends up defeating his opponent. He pays for his decision with a beating in an alley outside the arena from Little Boy, Tiger Nelson, and their cronies. The group irreparably damages Stoker's hand with a smash from a brick. The story closes with Julie meeting Stoker as he staggers out of the alley and collapses into her arms. "I won tonight," he tells her. "Yes," she answers. "You won tonight. We both won tonight." ===== Sam (Caleb Roehrig) is one of the freshman on the baseball team who are being hazed by upperclassmen, including his friend Jack (Matthew Linhardt). Because Sam needs a scholarship to attend college, Jack gave him a urine sample so that no one would know he was diabetic and he would make the team, thus giving him a chance at a scholarship. Although Jack promises his coach that there will be no hazing, the rest of the team (and some girls) go to the haunted corn field and continue the hazing. The hazing ritual comes to a bitter end in a haunted cornfield when the baseball players mistake one of Sam's diabetic attacks with Sam trying to start a fight. They tie him up to the scarecrow and leave him for dead. Sam becomes the evil Scarecrow who decides to seek bloody revenge on his tormentors and pretty much everyone else in the film. The only way for Jack and his friends to stop the scarecrow is by getting their friend out of his coma, a task which proves to be near impossible since the nearest hospital is conveniently under construction. After a series of attacks by the scarecrow the students finally figure out how to stop him and bring back their friend. The movie skips to 3 weeks after the attacks, and show Jack and his new girlfriend (a survivor of the scarecrow's attack) getting ready to pick the coach up to take him to his red-eye flight, and Sam and baseball jock, Mike getting ready to attend a sorority party. Just as things are beginning to look up for our protagonists, Sam murders Mike and the coach. He then chases Jack and his girlfriend into a chapel where they battle for the final time. Suddenly the scarecrow (Sam) also has the power to shoot what looks like electrical currents out of his hands. Through their epic battle Jack somehow becomes the scarecrow and does the logical thing, impaling himself on a nearby cross. ===== The suburban Carter family is traveling on vacation towing a travel trailer from Ohio to Los Angeles. Parents Bob and Ethel are driving, accompanied by their teenage children Bobby, Brenda, eldest daughter Lynne, Lynne's husband Doug, Lynne and Doug's baby daughter Katy, and the family's dogs, Beauty and Beast. In Nevada, they stop at Fred's Oasis for fuel, and Fred urges them to stay on the main road as they leave. Fred's truck suddenly explodes. Dismissing Fred's warnings as a crazy person's ramblings, the Carters skid off a desert road and crash. The dogs become very panicky and start barking at the hills. Beauty then runs off into the hills. Chasing after her, Bobby finds her mutilated body. Frightened, he runs, falls, and knocks himself unconscious. Bob walks back to Fred's Oasis to get help. As night falls, he finds Fred, who tells him about his son Jupiter. As a child, Jupiter killed the family's livestock and later murdered his sister. Fred attacked Jupiter with a tire iron and left him in the hills to die. However, Jupiter survived and had children with a depraved, alcoholic prostitute known as Mama. Together, they had three sons – Mars, Pluto and Mercury – and an abused daughter, Ruby. The family led by "Papa Jupiter" survives by cannibalizing travelers and stealing supplies. Papa Jupiter suddenly crashes through a window, kills Fred with a tire iron, takes Bob prisoner, and crucifies him. Brenda finds Bobby, still shaken up about Beauty, and the two return to the trailer. Bobby does not mention Beauty's death to avoid frightening the rest of the family. Pluto sneaks to the trailer and signals Papa Jupiter to set Bob on fire as a distraction. Brenda stays in the trailer with Katy while Ethel, Lynne, Doug, and Bobby rush out to save Bob. The Carters eventually extinguish the fire, but Bob dies shortly afterwards. As the Carters extinguish the fire, Pluto and Mars ransack the camper and Mars rapes Brenda. When Ethel and Lynne return, Mars shoots them both. Pluto abducts Katy and the brothers flee, intending for the family to eat her. Hearing their screams, Doug and Bobby rush back only to find Lynne dead, Ethel mortally wounded and Brenda traumatized. Mars and Pluto return to their home, a cave. The Beast pushes Mercury off a hilltop to his death. Mama chains Ruby outside the cave, torments her and forces her to eat Beauty as punishment for sympathizing with the Carters. The next morning, shortly after Ethel dies, Doug sets out to find Katy while Papa Jupiter and Pluto set out to kill the remaining family members. The Beast tears Pluto's throat out. Brenda and Bobby use Ethel's corpse as a trap to kill Papa Jupiter. Doug gets to the cave, where he sees Ruby knocking out Mama and carrying Katy away. Doug catches up with Ruby, but Mars follows and attacks Doug. Mars gains the upper hand, but Ruby interferes, enabling Doug to overpower him. Doug then savagely stabs Mars and continues long after he is dead, whilst Ruby weeps and the screen fades to red. ===== The plot of Front Mission 2 revolves around three individuals from the OCU - Corporal Ash Faruk, Captain Thomas Norland, and intelligence officer Lisa Stanley. On June 12, 2102, the Alordeshi Armed Forces overthrows the pro- OCU government and subsequently declares independence from the OCU. Through a well-orchestrated plan, Alordeshi troops overwhelm the local OCU garrisons at their military bases in the country. In the midst of the chaos, Ash Faruk and members of the Muddy Otters unit attempt to flee the country. Along the way, they come across some OCU survivors led by Thomas Norland of the Dull Stags unit. Thomas leads the survivors to the estate of Saribash Labra, the CEO of the transport business Burg Transportation. Saribash offers to help them escape by the seashore, the only part of Alordesh not controlled by the coup d'état forces. As the survivors head for the seashore, an OCU regiment lands in the country. Tasked with freeing POWs, Stanley leads a small unit to investigate the movements of the coup d'état forces. Upon intercepting a transport helicopter, she learns of a detention center where OCU POWs are being held. Lisa succeeds in liberating the inmates and begins preparing for an operation to rescue Alordeshi government officials in Dhaka. A major battle breaks out in the city. The operation succeeds with some help from Thomas and his subordinates, who opted to stay in the country and fight the coup forces. Meanwhile, aboard the OCU aircraft carrier Monto, Ash is confronted by an officer from the OCU's Central Intelligence Unit. He reluctantly agrees to return to the country when the officer, Pike Reischauer, reveals that some of his colleagues in the Muddy Otters are still alive. Upon returning to Alordesh, they are pursued by coup leader Ven Mackarge. A link between Ven's pursuit of them, the OCU's liberation attempts, and Burg Transportation's involvement in the war is eventually formed when it is revealed that the coup forces are receiving support from an unknown third party, and are in possession of a device codenamed "FENRIR". ===== Kyle has tickets to The Lion King on Stage, but Cartman tells him that the HBC crime show Cop Drama is going to use the word "shit" uncensored. The broadcast of the show leads to widespread acceptance of the word, even in schools, causing people to use it constantly, in casual and often out of context during conversations. Furthermore, Ms. Choksondik is forced to clarify the acceptable context of the wordas a noun or adjective meaning bad, or as an exclamation of disappointment, the word is acceptable, but as a noun or adjective referring to feces, it is apparently unacceptablethoroughly confusing the children (a reference to the real-life FCC standards of indecency). A strange illness that causes people to spew up their intestines and die suddenly rises in South Park, so action is taken. Meanwhile, Mr. Garrison teaches the kindergartners not only about the word "shit," but also about the word "fag," which he is allowed to say uncensored because he is homosexual. Later, in the local bar, he demonstrates this when he says the word uncensored, but any heterosexual who attempts to say the word is censored. Finally, Jimbo also says the word, but is not censored. The boys ask Chef to take them into the HBC Head Office to sort it out. Research proves that the word is actually a literal "curse word," and its constant utterance has caused a resurgence of the Black Death. "Must Shit TV", a special live event in which episodes of existing shows are taped live with almost every word of dialogue replaced with the word "shit", goes ahead anyway until the Knights of Standards and Practices enter the studio and begin killing the actors (Drew and Mimi from The Drew Carey Show). In a fit of anger over the Knights trying to stop his TV special, the head of HBC says the word "shit" repeatedly, causing Geldan, a monstrous dragon, to awaken. After the dragon murders several on the set, Kyle destroys it with an ancient magical rune stone belonging to a knight in the mystical Order of Standards and Practices. The moral of the story is not that saying "shit" in itself is wrong but saying it in excess leads to boredom with the word. Cartman tells everyone to watch their language, which Kyle and Stan agree on. The episode ends with Kenny accidentally saying "shit", spewing up his intestines and dying; Stan almost says "Holy shit!" once more but replaces it with "poop". ===== Robert Montgomery and Carole Lombard Ann (Carole Lombard) and David Smith (Robert Montgomery) are a married couple living in New York City who, though in love, have disagreements that last for days before they reconcile. One morning, Ann asks David if he would marry her again if he had it to do over. Although he says he is very happy with her now and wouldn't marry anyone else, he says he would not, because it meant the loss of his freedom and independence. Later that day, Harry Deever (Charles Halton), an Idaho county official, informs David at work that due to a jurisdictional mishap, their three-year-old marriage in Idaho was not valid. Since Deever is a family acquaintance of Ann's from Idaho, he stops by their apartment to tell Ann and her mother (Esther Dale) the same thing. Ann does not mention this to David. She believes he will remarry her that very night when he invites her to a romantic dinner at the restaurant they frequented before they were married. When they arrive at the restaurant, it has declined in quality and become rundown, and they return home. Ann grows impatient and confronts David, accusing him of not wanting to marry her again. David protests and claims he was going to ask her shortly, but Ann dismisses him and kicks him out of their apartment. David spends the night at his club, but when he goes home after work the next day Ann's maid refuses him entry. David waits in the lobby and sees Ann return with an older gentleman. Believing the man is her suitor, David becomes angry and disheartened. He intercepts Ann and threatens to withhold financial support. He gets her fired from her new job (the older gentleman is both her suitor and her new boss). Ann tells David she has no intention of ever marrying him again. David's friend and law partner, Jefferson "Jeff" Custer (Gene Raymond), tells David he will talk to Ann and persuade her to remarry. However, when David arrives that evening, he finds that Jeff has instead agreed to legally represent Ann and goes through the various legal outcomes. Jeff asks Ann to dinner the following night in David's presence. David tells Ann that if she agrees to the date their marriage is over, but Ann accepts the invitation. After dinner, Ann and Jeff go to the 1939 New York World's Fair, but they become stuck on the parachute ride and are exposed to hours of rain many feet up in the air. When they get back to Jeff's apartment, he plans to put on dry clothes and return to the fair, but Ann feeds the teetotaler "medicinal" liquor ostensibly to prevent a cold, and he becomes drunk. Ann returns home. Ann and Jeff continue to date and meets Jeff's parents. They decide to take a vacation with Jeff's parents at a Lake Placid skiing resort; the same resort where Ann and David had earlier been planning to holiday. Upon arriving at the resort, they find that David has rented a cabin next to theirs. When confronted, David faints. David pretends to be sick and delirious while Ann fawns over him. When Ann discovers his deception, she becomes furious. While they argue heatedly, Jeff walks in. He knows Ann and David are meant for each other when Ann tries to manipulate Jeff into fighting David. Ann decides she wants to get away to the lodge by ski, even though she does not know how to ski. David offers to help her put on her skis, but instead places her in a position that prevents her from standing up. As she struggles and threatens him, she frees one foot, but then feigns helplessness by reattaching the ski. David realizes her pretense, and silences her ranting by kissing her. ===== Arya, elf princess of Ellesméra, flees with a strange stone, pursued by Durza, a dark sorcerer under king Galbatorix. When Durza corners Arya, she uses magic to send the stone away. Eragon, a farm boy living in the country of Alagaësia with his uncle, is hunting for food when he witnesses the stone appearing. Hoping to trade it for food, Eragon brings the stone home, and finds a blue dragon hatching from it. As he touches the dragon, a magical mark is burned into his palm. A few people are shown reacting to this incident, including Arya, an old man named Brom, and Galbatorix himself. Eragon shelters and feeds the dragon and teaches her to fly as she gradually grows to full size. She speaks to him through their thoughts and calls herself Saphira. When they are out, Durza's monstrous minions, the Ra'zac, arrive at the village to look for the dragon and the rider, killing Eragon's uncle in the process. Blaming Saphira for his uncle's death, Eragon sends her away. Brom shows up, takes Eragon away from the village, warns him of Saphira's importance, and urges him to call her back. Eragon calls Saphira with his thoughts, she hears everything that Eragon says and comes back, forgiving him for what he previously said. Brom is leading the group to the Varden, rebel freedom fighters opposing Galbatorix. On the way, Brom fills Eragon in on the knowledge of dragon riders, Galbatorix, Durza and the Ra'zac. He also trains Eragon's sword-fighting. In a small village Eragon meets a fortune-teller named Angela who tells him of a girl awaiting his help, and of his dangerous path ahead. When Brom and Eragon are attacked by Galbatorix's servants, the Urgals, Eragon attempts to mimic Brom and wipes out the whole group with a magic attack of blue fire, then falls unconscious from the strain. Saphira saves him. Brom teaches Eragon to control his magic and bond his powers with Saphira. After flying for the first time Eragon and Saphira help Brom kill the Ra'zac, and Brom reveals he was once a rider before his dragon was killed by Morzan, a rogue rider allied with Galbatorix. Durza sets a trap for Eragon, using Arya as bait. Hearing her telepathic calls, Eragon finds her, but is ambushed by Durza. Eragon is outmatched, and Brom arrives to help him, getting mortally wounded in the process. Eragon vengefully shoots an arrow into Durza's head, causing him to disappear. The trio escapes, and Brom dies of his wounds while flying on Saphira. Eragon confronts a hooded figure that has been following them. He reveals himself to be Murtagh and guides them to the Varden. Soon after, Durza and his men surround the rebel camp. Eragon, Saphira, Arya, and the Varden prepare for battle. Arya, Murtagh and the Varden fight Galbatorix's forces as Eragon and Saphira duel in the skies with Durza who rides his own beast. Eragon and Saphira kill Durza, but Saphira is heavily injured. Eragon uses magic to heal her and once again passes out from the strain. The following morning, Eragon awakes with Murtagh at his side. He fears Saphira may be dead but finds her fully healed. They catch up with Arya, who is on her way to Ellesméra to lead the elves in the coming war against Galbatorix's revenge. She calls Eragon "The great Shadeslayer" and they part ways promising they'll meet again. Meanwhile, in his castle, a furious Galbatorix slashes at his hanging map of Alagaësia, revealing his immense pitch black dragon, Shruikan. ===== The story is complex and is told in 12 chapters. The basic plot involves a corrupt banker named Favraux, who is the target of Judex's revenge. It is eventually revealed that Judex's real identity is Jacques de Trémeuse, a man trying to avenge his family ruined by Favraux. Complicating matters is Favraux's beautiful and innocent daughter Jacqueline, with whom the avenger has fallen in love. A final element comes in the form of Diana Monti and her criminal gang who are working at cross purposes with Judex. ===== That is the backstory. When the novel opens, Crimond has resurfaced, book nearly finished. His sudden appearance sets off a chain of events that nearly destroys the lives of everyone in the story. ===== Detective Sergeant Walter Brown (Charles McGraw) of the Los Angeles Police Department and his partner are assigned to protect a mob boss's widow, Mrs. Frankie Neall (Marie Windsor), as she rides a train from Chicago to Los Angeles to testify before a grand jury. She is also carrying a payoff list that belonged to her murdered husband. On the way to pick her up, Brown bets his partner and friend, Sergeant Gus Forbes (Don Beddoe), what she will be like: "She's the sixty-cent special. Cheap. Flashy. Strictly poison under the gravy." As the detectives and Mrs. Neall leave her apartment, they are waylaid by a mob assassin named Densel (Peter Virgo). Forbes is shot to death, but Densel, although wounded by Brown, escapes. At the train station, Brown discovers that he has been followed by gangster Joseph Kemp (David Clarke). Kemp identifies Brown as the detective even before they board the train. Each man knows the other is a mortal enemy. With the help of a conductor, Kemp comes into Brown's room while Brown is there, under the pretense that he is looking for lost luggage. Meanwhile, an overweight man confronts Brown in front of other passengers as to why Brown is holding a two room compartment, while he is in the upper berth of a section. Kemp tries to open the door to the next compartment, where Mrs. Neall is hiding, but Brown tells the conductor that the room is empty, and Kemp and the conductor leave. Brown knows that Kemp will come back to Mrs. Neall's room, so he hides Mrs. Neall in the ladies room with all of her luggage, and goes to the dining car so Kemp will know that the room is unguarded. Kemp then goes back and searches both rooms, finding nothing. After Kemp returns to the dining car, Brown leaves the dining car to escort Mrs. Neall back to her room. Later, mobster Vincent Yost (Peter Brocco) meets Brown and unsuccessfully tries to bribe him into pointing out Mrs. Neall and abandoning her, appealing to both his greed and his fear. He even suggests that Brown could use the bribe to help the family of his murdered partner, Gus Forbes. Brown's relationship with Mrs. Neall is caustic. She is a cynical and flashy brunette, who flirts with him while expressing doubt about his integrity and commitment to protecting her. She doesn't seem to care that Brown's partner was murdered. On the train, she insists on playing records on her portable record player and endangering both of them, angering Brown. By chance Brown makes friends with an attractive blonde train passenger he meets, Ann Sinclair (Jacqueline White), and her too- observant young son Tommy (Gordon Gebert). When Kemp spots Brown with her, he mistakes Sinclair for his target. After Brown beats him up in a fight and questions him, the policeman learns of the mistake. He turns Kemp over to railroad agent Sam Jennings (Paul Maxey) and hurries to warn Ann Sinclair. Densel, however, has boarded the train during a brief stop at La Junta, Colorado, and waylays Jennings, freeing Kemp. Brown tries to explain to Ann Sinclair that mobsters on the train plan to kill a Mrs. Neall and that they mistakenly think that she is Mrs. Neall. But she stuns him by revealing that she is the real Mrs. Neall. The woman he has been protecting is an undercover policewoman, and Brown was not told of either woman's true identity in case he might be corrupt. Plus, Ann Sinclair had earlier mailed the payoff list to the Los Angeles District Attorney. Meanwhile, Densel and Kemp enter Brown's compartment to search for the payoff list and discover the fake Mrs. Neall in the next compartment; the music from her record player gives her away. They enter her room through trickery, and Densel shoots her dead as she tries to sneak her gun out of her purse. Then Kemp discovers a badge and police identification, identifying her as Chicago PD policewoman Sarah Meggs, hidden within her record player. Densel, deducing the truth, goes for Ann Sinclair. Her door is locked, but he knocks on the next door and Ann's son Tommy opens the door and Densel enters, grabbing Tommy. Densel knocks on the interior door to Ann Sinclair's room and threatens to kill Tommy if she doesn't open her door, which she does. He pushes Tommy away and locks himself in with Ann Sinclair and demands the payoff list. Then Brown and Jennings arrive and Densel is trapped, but he has Ann Sinclair as hostage. Brown uses the reflection from the window of a train on the next track to see into Ann Sinclair's compartment, and he shoots Densel through the door without endangering her, then enters the compartment and finishes him off with more shots. Kemp jumps off the stopped train and heads for accomplices in a car which has been following the train, but they are all quickly arrested. The movie ends with the train arriving in Los Angeles and Brown escorting Ann Sinclair from the train station toward the court house. ===== Stanton Carlisle watches the geek show at a Ten-in-One where he has recently begun working. He later asks the carnival's talker Clem Hoately where geeks come from. Clem explains that geeks are "made": a sideshow owner finds an alcoholic bum and offers him a temporary job with a steady supply of liquor. Initially, the bum is only asked to pretend to be a geek, using a razor blade to slice chickens' necks and then faking the drinking of the blood. After a few weeks, the owner threatens to end the job and replace the bum with a "real" geek, and the fear of sobering up terrifies the bum into actually biting the chickens. Thus, a geek is made. Stan performs sleight of hand tricks in the sideshow but studies under the carnival's mentalist Zeena to learn a refined "code" act, where performers memorize verbal cues that allow them to appear psychic by accurately answering written audience questions. Stan also begins to pick up Zeena's talent for cold reading. He eventually leaves the carnival with beautiful and naïve electric girl, Molly Cahill to perform a team code act. Their act becomes very successful, but Stan grows bored and transforms himself into Reverend Carlisle, an upstanding Spiritualist preacher offering séance sessions with the help of his medium (Molly, appearing as "Miss Cahill" to obfuscate their relationship). Stan gains a devoted following, but the stress of leading a false life leads him to seek the help of a psychologist named Lilith Ritter, who seduces and then begins controlling him. Stan pleads constantly for them to go away together, and Lilith eventually agrees, suggesting the Rev. Carlisle swindle a rich man for the getaway money. They settle on Ezra Grindle, a ruthless auto tycoon with a skeptical interest in the occult. Stan manages to convince Grindle of his powers, and the businessman becomes a devoted spiritualist. Stan keeps Grindle hooked by promising to reunite him with his deceased college sweetheart Dorrie, who died in a botched back-alley abortion Grindle convinced her to seek. A reluctant Molly plays "Dorrie" in a series of sessions but eventually breaks character, destroying the illusion, and Grindle vows revenge for Stan's lies. Stan tells Molly to go back to carnival life. At Lilith's suggestion he decides to go into hiding with Grindle's money but later discovers that Lilith has stolen a majority of it by replacing the five hundred dollar bills with singles. When he confronts her, she tells him that he is deluded and attempts to have him committed to a mental institution, and he narrowly escapes. He flees and resorts to performing as a mentalist at increasingly shoddy venues, barely evading the men Grindle continually sends after him. Eventually he becomes a hobo, staying afloat by giving Tarot readings and selling horoscopes. He descends into alcoholism and depression when he discovers through a newspaper article that Lilith has wed Grindle. His life in shambles, Stan finds a carnival owner and asks to join the sideshow as a palm reader. The owner gives Stan some whiskey but refuses his proposal, saying the show is full. But as Stan begins to drunkenly stumble out, the owner changes his tune and invites Stan back in with a job offer: "Of course, it's only temporary – just until we get a real geek." ===== The Deep Range follows the career of former astronaut Walter Franklin in the Marine Division, rising from trainee, to game warden, and eventually to Director of the Bureau of Whales. A spacewalking mishap had left Franklin floating in space, out of contact and isolated for an extended period. The resulting severe acrophobia (termed astrophobia by Clarke) rendered him unable to function as an astronaut and forever isolated him from his family on Mars. He is forced to turn to the sea for a final attempt at rehabilitation. The Division is a mid-21st Century sea-based organization responsible for feeding a sizable portion of the Earth's population through the farming and harvesting of plankton as well as the herding and slaughter of whales. The Whale Bureau employs wardens who in their single-person scout subs shepherd the whale herds and protect them from predatory orcas and sharks. The narrative is divided into three sections. Part I covers Franklin's training and adaptation to his new environment. Along the way he makes a lasting friend of his mentor and meets his eventual new wife. A recurrence of the astrophobia causes a breakdown and suicide attempt. An unexpected rescue convinces Franklin to commit fully to his new life. Part II details Franklin's experiences as a veteran warden from the mundane to the more exotic. Abnormally high sperm whale deaths in a specific sector point to the existence of an enormous giant squid, nicknamed Percy. Franklin is tasked with spearheading the effort to find and capture Percy. A similar attempt later to capture the elusive Great Sea Serpent goes tragically awry. Part III sees Franklin in charge as Director of the Bureau of Whales. Amid the everyday administrative and scientific challenges, the Bureau encounters a threat to its very existence. A Buddhist monk mounts a credible and effective campaign to stop the harvest of whales, even though it accounts for an eighth of the world's food supply. As Franklin struggles to counter the campaign, he finds himself inexorably drawn to the monk's viewpoint. An undersea catastrophe presents Franklin with his last opportunity to visit the depths he has grown to love. In the final chapter Franklin and his wife attend the bittersweet departure of their son into the Space Service and reunitement with his former family on Mars: To his son, he willingly bequeathed the shoreless seas of space. For himself, the oceans of this world were sufficient. ===== The poem tells how Duke Horant is sent by King Etene to Greece, probably to Constantinople, to win the hand of the princess Hilde. However Hilde's father, the fierce Greek king Hagen, is not willing to give his daughter to Etene until Horant has proved his prowess in a series of adventures. ===== ===== The film follows Pascal (Pascal Lamorisse), a young boy who, on his way to school one morning, discovers a large helium-filled red balloon. As he plays with it, he realizes it has a mind and will of its own. It begins to follow him wherever he goes, never straying far from him, and at times floating outside his bedroom window, as his mother will not allow it in their apartment. The balloon follows Pascal through the streets of Paris, and they draw a lot of attention and envy from other children as they wander the streets. At one point the balloon enters his classroom, causing an uproar from his classmates. The noise alerts the principal, who locks Pascal up in his office. Later, after being set free, Pascal and the balloon encounter a young girl (Sabine Lamorisse) with a blue balloon that also seems to have a mind of its own, just like his. One Sunday, the balloon is told to stay home while Pascal and his mother go to church. However, it follows them through the open window and into the church, and they are led out by a scolding beadle. As Pascal and the balloon wander around the neighborhood, a gang of older boys, who are envious of the balloon, steal it while Pascal is inside a bakery; however, he manages to retrieve it. Following a chase through narrow alleyways, the boys finally catch up to them. They hold Pascal back as they bring it down with sling shots before one of the boys finishes it off by stomping on it. The film ends as all the other balloons in Paris come to Pascal's aid and take him on a cluster balloon ride over the city. ===== In the opening scene, the two aliens Kang and Kodos introduce a variety show, with a live audience consisting of aliens. While they tell jokes, canned laughter is played, but the audience appears unamused. The Simpson family is then shown watching the show on the couch, with Homer appearing as the jack- in-the-box from "Treehouse of Horror II", Marge as the witch from "Treehouse of Horror VIII", Bart as the half-fly mutant from "Treehouse of Horror VIII", Maggie is the alien/human mutant from "Treehouse of Horror IX" and Lisa is the victim of an axe murder. Lisa asks "What do aliens have to do with Halloween?" to which Maggie responds by saying "Silence!" in Kang's voice, and vaporizes her with a ray gun. ===== This novel, originally by Caridad Bravo Adams is set in the Caribbean, specifically in the French colonies. The Mexican adaptation is set in the Atlantic coast of Mexico. The following plot summary is based on the 1993 version by Televisa, and is described using in- universe tone. Francisco Alcazar is a wealthy landowner, who owns sugar cane fields. Francisco is married to Sofia, a severe and uncompassionate woman, with whom he has a son named Andres. Before his marriage to Sofia, Francisco had an affair with a married woman who was physically abused by her husband. The woman became pregnant and died when the child was 3 years old. This love- child is, in fact, Francisco's true firstborn. When this woman became pregnant, her husband refused to recognize the boy as his son. He also did not allow Francisco to recognize the child as his own. Thus, the boy named "Juan", became known as "Juan del Diablo" (Juan of the Devil) because he had no last name. Juan's mother eventually died of the shame and from the physical abuse she had received from her husband. Juan was raised with no love or instruction, in poverty and neglect. In his early teens, Juan's stepfather dies. Francisco, hiding the fact that Juan is his son, decides to invite him to live at his estate with his family, on the pretext of being a playmate for Andrés. Sofia finds out the truth and tries to send Juan away, to which Francisco objects. Finally, Francisco has an accident while riding his horse before he could legally recognize Juan as his son. Francisco leaves a letter with his intentions addressed to his friend and lawyer Noel Mancera. Sofia seizes the letter and hides it. On his deathbed, Francisco sends for his son Andrés, and while not telling the truth, asks him to care for Juan as a brother. After his death, Sofía sends Juan away without saying anything to Andrés. Eventually, Sofia decides to send Andrés to boarding school in France. Juan grows up among the sailors and pirates of the port-city, earning a shocking reputation for dirty business (contraband of liquor), ruthlessness, and harboring unbound loyalty from his men. Juan is also a womanizer, his heart is still untaken. He has learned the identity of his biological father because Noel Mancera has told him. Through the years, Mancera has given Juan some education, and even offered to give him his last name. However, Juan refuses the offer because he feels that a last name is unwarranted in his chosen occupation. Meanwhile, Mónica and Aimée are two beautiful young countesses, daughters of the deceased Count of Altamira, a distant cousin of Sofia de Alcazar. The Altamira family are very respectable in high society, but they now find themselves in bankruptcy. Their only asset is their nobility and beauty, and the long promise of betrothal between Monica and Andrés. Unfortunately for Mónica, Andres has forgotten about their engagement. While visiting Mexico City, Andres meets Mónica's younger sister. Aimee is beautiful, flirty and selfish. She shows interest in Andrés because he has wealth, influence, and power. Andrés falls completely in love with Aimee, a fact he later shares with his mother when she comes to visit him. When Sofia returns home, she informs Catalina de Altamira that Andres has broken the engagement with Monica because he is now intent in marrying Aimee. Catalina is mortified at the thought of Monica's heartbreak. With her family's financial ruin in mind, Catalina reluctantly agrees to an engagement between Aimee and Andres. When Monica discovers that Andres has broken their engagement in order to marry her sister, she is immediately heartbroken. Monica decides to enter a convent to become a nun. Monica denies her feelings for Andres and tells everyone that becoming a nun is her true calling. Meanwhile, Aimee returns to her hometown with her mother. One day, while walking along the beach, she spies Juan taking a bath in his beach house. Aimee had never met Juan and is unaware of his past or his connection to the Alcazar family. She watches him from a distance, but Juan sees her. Over the next few days, Aimee returns several times to spy on Juan. He decides to confront her and catches her while she's hiding. Soon after, Juan and Aimee fall in love and become lovers. Juan goes away on a business trip and Aimee promises to wait for his return and marry him. When Andres arrives in his hometown, Aimee ignores her promise to Juan and agrees to marry Andres. Juan returns from his business trip several weeks later. Juan discovers that Aimee is now married to his half-brother and decides to kidnap her so that she carries out her promise. Andres, who knows nothing about his kinship to Juan and the affair between him and his wife, decides to employ him as the steward of Campo Real, his country estate. Meanwhile, Monica leaves the convent to spend some time in the countryside with her family. Monica quickly discovers the affair between Juan and Aimee. Monica confronts her sister, but Aimee refuses to end her affair with Juan. Since Monica decides to leave the convent, Andres attempts to redeem himself by proposing an engagement between Monica and his friend Alberto de la Serna. Meanwhile, Andres learns that Juan is actually his brother and that he had an unseemly affair with a young lady in his household. Andres immediately assumes that the lady in question is Monica. Because of this misunderstanding, Monica is pressured to get married immediately. Monica agrees to get married in an attempt to protect Andres and her sister from the impending scandal, but she refuses to marry Alberto. Instead, Monica decides to marry Juan because she believes this is the only way to prevent Aimee to continue her affair with him. In an unexpected turn of events, Juan accepts to marry Monica. Aimee is filled with jealousy and rage at the thought of Juan being married to her sister. Aimee spends all her time plotting and scheming to destroy Monica's engagement to Juan. Unfortunately for Aimee, Juan is no longer interested in her. He is now captivated by Monica's beauty and her kind demeanor. At the same time, Monica discovers a whole different side to Juan's personality. Monica learns that despite Juan's rough exterior, he can also be kind, gentle, and noble. Against all odds, Monica and Juan slowly begin to fall in love. Their happiness is short lived when Andres finds out about Juan's affair with Aimee. ===== In this alternate world, Superman remains youthful due to his superhuman physiology. The Third Reich never fell, and Europe is kept under Nazi rule. Lois Lane has visions of Superman gleefully killing people, including Lana Lang and herself. Meanwhile, the search for Lana—previously abducted—takes Lois and Superman into German soil, where Lana is being held. In flight Lois and Clark get attacked by trolls and harpies, causing the plane to crash land in Germany. Lois soon discovers that the Reich is ruled by the god Adonis while Artemis and Athena oppose him. Wonder Woman has betrayed Paradise Island and is now part of the Reich. It is also revealed that the Greek pantheon is in league with the Nazis, allowing them to employ mythological monsters to fight superheroes for world domination. A fight ensues between the German army and the Greek heroines. The sacrifice of the goddess Athena endows Lois with powers—transforming her into a new Wonder Woman. Superman is transformed into an evil centaur by Circe. Lana gifted with the power of the Oracle of Delphi persuades the centaur Superman into realizing his true identity. Superman is transformed into a woman (because his crimes as leader of the Maenads were against women, and therefore, he must take their place). The female Superman then infiltrates the Great Hall of the Reich, which is guarded by the Minotaur. She succeeds in her task due to Lana's magical knowledge. Lois, as the new Wonder Woman, defeats the Nazi Wonder Woman and ties her up with her magic lasso. Finally, it is revealed that Zeus and Hera were playing a chess game, using the world as their chess pieces. Adonis is sent to be taken care of by Hades. Superman, Lois (now the new Wonder Woman) and Lana all live together on Superman fortress on the moon in polyamorous love. ===== The story opens in a post- apocalyptic Southern California, in a hellish world shattered by nuclear war decades before. Several police states have emerged in place of the former United States. Hurricane-force winds above five hundred feet prevent any sort of air travel from one state to the next, and sudden, violent, and unpredictable "garbage storms" and giant, mutated animals and insects make day-to-day life a mini-hell. Hell Tanner, an imprisoned killer, is offered a full pardon in exchange for taking on a suicide mission--a drive through "Damnation Alley" across a ruined America from Los Angeles to Boston--as one of three Landmaster vehicles attempting to deliver an urgently needed plague vaccine. ===== After miraculously recovering from an apparently fatal bullet wound to the head, Gulf War veteran Jack Starks returns to Vermont in 1992, suffering from periods of amnesia. While walking, he sees a young girl, Jackie, and her alcoholic mother in despair beside their broken-down truck. Starks and Jackie quickly form a certain affinity; she asks him to give her his dogtags and he does so. He gets the truck started for them and continues on his way. Shortly after, a man driving along the same highway gives Jack a ride and they get pulled over by a policeman. The scene changes: Starks is found lying on the deserted roadside near the dead policeman, with a slug from the policeman's gun in his body. The murder weapon is on the ground nearby. Although he testifies there was someone else at the scene, he is not believed because of his amnesia. Starks is found not guilty by reason of insanity and is incarcerated in a mental institution. Starks is placed in the care of Dr. Thomas Becker, a psychiatrist, and his staff. In December 1992, Starks is forced to undergo an unauthorized treatment designed by Becker: he is injected with experimental drugs, bound in a straitjacket and then placed inside a morgue drawer as a form of sensory deprivation. While in this condition, he is somehow able to travel 15 years into the future and stay there for a short time. He meets an older version of Jackie at a roadside diner where she works. He suspects this happens because it is the only memory he can ever fully hold on to. She does not recognise him but seeing him standing forlornly, she takes pity on him and offers him shelter, just for the night. While in her apartment, Starks comes across his own dogtags and confronts her. Jackie, frightened, tells him that Jack Starks died on New Year's Day in 1993, and so he cannot possibly be who he says he is. She becomes upset and asks him to leave. Subsequently, Starks is transported back to the future on several occasions in the course of his treatment and, after earning Jackie's trust, they try to figure out how to make use of the time-travelling so as to remove Jack from the hospital and save his life. Early on 1 January 1993, knowing that his time is quickly running out, Starks is briefly taken out of the hospital by Dr. Beth Lorenson, who he has finally convinced of his time travel experiences and his knowledge of future events. She drives Starks to the childhood home of Jackie and her mother, where he gives the mother a letter he has written, which outlines Jackie's bleak future and warns the mother that she is fated to orphan Jackie when she falls asleep with a lit cigarette in her hand and is burned to death. When he returns to the hospital, Starks experiences a flashback to the head wound he suffered in Iraq, simultaneously slipping on the ice and hits his head. Bleeding profusely, he convinces two of the more sympathetic doctors to put him into the jacket one last time. Starks returns to 2007, where he finds that his letter to Jackie's mother has made all the difference. Jackie now has a better life than in the previous version of 2007. She is no longer a waitress, is now dressed in a nurse's uniform, and has a noticeably more cheerful outlook. They reprise their first 2007 meeting: she sees Starks standing in the snow and initially drives past him, but backs up when she notices his head wound. She stops and offers to take him to the hospital where she works. While they are in the car, Jackie receives a call from her mother — still alive and well. They drive on, the screen fades to white, and a voice-over reveals that the link to the "previous" future is not lost when Jackie says "How much time do we have?", a question she has asked him before. As the credits start to roll, the answer to the question is given by the words of the song: "We have all the time in the world" sung by Iggy Pop. ===== Most of the action takes place in an upmarket brothel in which its madam, Irma, "casts, directs, and co-ordinates performances in a house of infinite mirrors and theaters."Rosen (1992, 516). Genet uses this setting to explore roles of power in society; in the first few scenes patrons assume the roles of a bishop who forgives a penitent, a judge who punishes a thief, and a general who rides his horse. Meanwhile, a revolution is progressing outside in the city and the occupants of the brothel anxiously await the arrival of the Chief of Police. Chantal, one of the prostitutes, has quit the brothel to become the embodiment of the spirit of the revolution. An Envoy from the Queen arrives and reveals that the pillars of society (the Chief Justice, the Bishop, the General, etc.) have all been killed in the uprising. Using the costumes and props in Irma's "house of illusions" (the traditional French name for a brothel), the patrons' roles are realised when they pose in public as the figures of authority in a counter-revolutionary effort to restore order and the status quo.For the term "house of illusions" as the traditional term in French for a brothel, see Styan (1981, 149). ===== Helge (Henning Moritzen), a respected businessman and family patriarch, is celebrating his 60th birthday at the family-run hotel. Gathered together amongst a large party of family and friends are his wife Else (Birthe Neumann), his sullen eldest son Christian (Ulrich Thomsen), his boorish younger son Michael (Thomas Bo Larsen), and his well-traveled daughter Helene (Paprika Steen). Another sibling, Linda, has recently taken her life at the hotel. Helene finds Linda's suicide note, but hides it in a medicine bottle after becoming upset by the undisclosed contents. Michael fights with his wife, whom he had earlier abandoned on the roadside with their three children, and then has sex with her. He later beats a waitress of the hotel after she pulls him aside to discuss that he had impregnated her in an affair. At Helge's birthday dinner, Christian makes a toast to his father. During the toast, he publicly accuses his father of sexually abusing both him and his twin sister Linda as children. After an initial shocked silence, the party goes on as usual as guests decide to move past the moment in denial. Helge pulls Christian aside to engage in a baffled conversation about his accusations. He questions his motivations for slandering him, and Christian appears to recant his accusation. However, Christian is spurred to further action by hotel chef Kim (Bjarne Henriksen), a childhood friend who knows about the abuse. Christian then continues his toast by accusing Helge of causing Linda's death through the trauma caused from the abuse. Helge speaks to Christian alone and makes threatening offers to bring up Christian's troubled personal history including his impotence with women and his perhaps- incestuous relationship with Linda. Further exacerbating the tensions of the day, Helene's black boyfriend Gbatokai (Gbatokai Dakinah) shows up, causing the racist Michael to lead most of the partygoers in singing the Danish song "Jeg har set en rigtig negermand" to offend him. The song contains racist remarks as it describes people of varying colors with lyrics such as “a real negro man, black as a bucket of tar,” and “a Chinese man, yellow as a bottle of soda water" Else later makes a toast where she makes insulting comments towards her children. During this she accuses Christian of having an overactive imagination. With this, she asks him to apologize for his earlier statements and accusations. Christian then accuses her of knowing about the abuse yet not interfering. Michael and two other guests eject Christian from the hotel as guests are still in denial of the incident and are angered by Christian. Christian walks back in and they beat him and tie him to a tree in the woods outside of the hotel. He unties himself and returns. The waitress, Pia, finds Linda's suicide note and gives it to Christian. Christian gives the note to Helene and she reads it aloud in front of the party guests. In the note, Linda states that she is overwhelmed by trauma from Helge's abuse. Helge admits to his misdeeds and leaves the dining room. Christian has a hallucination of Linda, causing him to faint. As he awakes, he learns that Helene and Michael are missing. Michael, also drunk, calls Helge outside and beats him severely. The following morning, the family and guests eat breakfast when Helge comes in and speaks to the group. He admits to his wrongdoing and declares his love for his children. Michael tells his father to leave the table. ===== Menander with masks depicting New Comedy characters: youth, false maiden, and the old man, Princeton University Art Museum The play begins with Pan, the god who acts as the driving force behind the play's main actions. Setting the scene, he tells the audience about the farm belonging to Knemon, "the grouch" of the play, a bad-tempered and irritable old man, living with his daughter, Girl, and his servant, Simiche. He tells about the old man's past, and about Knemon's wife, who had a son with and was widowed by her first husband. She had given birth to their daughter and, not long after, she left Knemon because he treated her poorly. She went to live with her son, Gorgias, leaving Knemon with their daughter and Simiche. Pan, who feels a fondness for Girl, makes Sostratos fall in love with Girl at first sight of her. The play continues with Sostratos telling Chaireas about how he saw and fell in love with Girl. He had sent Pyrrhias to talk with Knemon, who hits him in the head with a farming tool and chases him away for being on his property. Sostratos instructs Daos to get Getas and explain what has happened, but instead Daos tells Gorgias about Sostratos as he is wary of Sostratos' intentions. Gorgias meets Sostratos, warning him to stay away and not mistreat his sister because of their class differences. Sostratos convinces Gorgias that he is in love with his sister and will do anything necessary to marry her. It is divulged that Knemon will only allow his daughter to marry someone exactly like him, presenting a problem for Sostratos. To help make his case, Sostratos puts on a rough, sheepskin coat and goes to work in the fields under Gorgias guidance. Knemon's servant cries out that her master has fallen in a well to fetch a bucket she mistakenly dropped down there earlier. Gorgias jumps in to save Knemon while Sostratos comforts and admires Girl as she cries about her father's misfortune. Sostratos pulls the rope up to bring Knemon and Gorgias out of the well. After being faced with the possibility of death, Knemon tells Gorgias to find Girl a husband, as he knows that no one will please him enough to find one for her himself. Gorgias betroths his sister to Sostratos and introduces him to Knemon, who is indifferent about the marriage. Sostratos excitedly tells his father, Kallippides, about the marriage to Gorgias' sister. He also suggests a marriage between his own sister and Gorgias. While Kallippides was content with Sostratos marrying Girl, he is not readily accepting of his daughter marrying Gorgias, to have two "beggars" in the family. Sostratos convinces him that money is an "unstable business" and it could be taken from him at any moment. Kallippides agrees with Sostratos that his money "belongs to luck" and it is better to have "a visible friend than invisible wealth which you keep buried away;" he, in turn, supports both marriages. During the weddings, Sikon and Getas go to Knemon's house to torment him when he wakes from his rest. They tease and trick him into joining the rest of the wedding party celebrations. ===== The main couple, childlike Candice Marie (Alison Steadman) and eccentric-obsessive Keith (Roger Sloman), arrive at a campsite in Dorset and pitch their tent in a quiet spot suitable for appreciating nature's wonders while keeping other human beings safely at arm's length. The couple take day trips to Corfe Castle, a quarry and a local farm to purchase some untreated milk. Their usual routine (which includes performing their own guitar-banjo compositions, preparing healthy vegetarian dinners and following the Country Code) is rudely interrupted by Ray (Anthony O'Donnell), a lone student and trainee PE teacher who camps nearby and switches on his radio: this is treated by the couple as an unforgivable crime, and they try to force Ray to turn it off. Later, on the way home after a trip to Stair Hole, it begins to rain and the couple notice a figure (which turns out to be Ray) walking along the road and give him a lift home. Their relationship becomes increasingly tense and tempers flare when Keith notices Candice Marie exhibiting an unseemly interest in Ray's well- being – "she crawls into his tent to show him stones she has collected on the beach; Keith explodes with jealous rage after spying on them from behind the bushes with his binoculars, like a character in a farce." Coveney, p.103 Later, Ray is asked to take a photograph of the couple but is patronised by Keith and Candice Marie and is forced to participate in a song at Keith's behest. As soon as some kind of order seems to have been restored, Brummie couple Finger and Honky arrive on their motorbike, equipped with an army tent, a football and a fondness for late-night drinking. Befriending Ray, who has more in common with their personalities than Keith and Candice Marie, they all get quite drunk at the local pub. After arriving back at the campsite and continuing to make a large amount of noise, Honky and Finger raise the ire of Keith who shouts at them to be quiet. Finally, Keith and Candice Marie have an intense argument with Finger and Honky over Finger's plans to light a fire to cook some sausages. Keith highly objects to this, as it contravenes the rules of the site, and resorts to violence to stop it, chasing Finger around the campsite with a branch. Eventually running out of energy, Keith bursts into tears and runs off into the woods. When he returns some time later, Keith decides that he and Candice Marie will leave the campsite but is unable to get a refund from Miss Beale, the site's owner. While searching for a new campsite (or "a bed and breakfast if the worst came to the worst" says Keith), a police car pulls up behind them. Keith provides the policeman with his documents, but is humiliated when the officer points out that the Morris Minor's spare tyre is bald, an offence. Finally finding peace, Keith and Candice Marie pitch their tent in the field of a nearby farm. While Keith looks for a suitable spot to go to the toilet, Candice Marie sings along to another composition of hers on guitar, and the film ends. ===== Fake psychic Blanche Tyler (Barbara Harris) and her boyfriend George Lumley (Bruce Dern) attempt to locate the nephew of wealthy, guilt-ridden, elderly Julia Rainbird (Cathleen Nesbitt). Julia's recently-deceased sister gave the baby boy up for adoption, but Julia now wants to make him her heir and will pay Blanche $10,000 to find the man, Edward Shoebridge. During his investigation, George discovers that Shoebridge is thought to be dead, but he tracks down another criminal, Joseph Maloney (Ed Lauter), who paid for the tombstone over an empty grave. Meanwhile, it is revealed to the viewers that Shoebridge murdered his adoptive parents and faked his own death, and is now a successful jeweler in San Francisco known as Arthur Adamson (William Devane). He and his live-in girlfriend Fran (Karen Black) kidnap millionaires and dignitaries and return them in exchange for ransoms in the form of valuable gemstones. The duo conceal an enormous diamond in plain sight in a crystal chandelier. When Adamson learns that George is investigating him, he enlists Maloney (the two had murdered Adamson's adoptive parents long ago), to kill Blanche and George. Maloney initially refuses to help, then contacts Blanche and George, telling them to meet him at a café on a mountain road. He cuts the brakeline of Blanche's car while the couple are in the café, but they manage to survive their dangerous high-speed descent. Maloney tries to run them over, but dies in a fiery explosion when he swerves to avoid an oncoming car and tumbles down the cliff. At Maloney's funeral, his wife (Katherine Helmond) tearfully confesses to George that Shoebridge's name is now Arthur Adamson. George must go to work driving his taxi for an evening shift, so Blanche tracks down various A. Adamsons in San Francisco, eventually reaching the jewelry store as it closes for the day. Arthur's assistant Mrs. Clay (Edith Atwater) offers to let Blanche leave a note. Blanche, lying that she is a friend of Arthur, convinces Mrs. Clay to give her his address instead. Arthur and Fran are bundling a kidnapped Bishop Wood (William Prince) into their car when Blanche rings their doorbell. They attempt to drive out of their garage, but Blanche's car is blocking their way. She tells Arthur that his aunt wants to make him her heir. Blanche sees the unconscious bishop, and swears she will not tell, but Arthur drugs her, leaving her in the cellar while they drop the bishop off for ransom. Searching for Blanche, George finds her car outside Arthur and Fran's house, but no-one answers the door. He breaks in and searches for her. Arthur and Fran return home; George hides upstairs. He overhears Arthur's decision to kill Blanche and frame her death as a suicide. George manages to talk to Blanche, who is faking unconsciousness in the open cellar. Arthur and Fran enter to carry Blanche out to the car, but she darts out and George locks the kidnappers in. Blanche then goes into a "trance", climbs the stairs into the house and halfway up the next stairs, where she points at the huge diamond hidden in the chandelier. Blanche then "wakes" and asks George what she is doing there. He excitedly tells her that she is indeed a real psychic. He calls the police to collect the reward for capturing the kidnappers and finding the jewels. A smiling Blanche winks at the camera. ===== A specific person is unsuspected of involvement in five murders by both the police and family of the victims. In all cases, there was a clear suspect. Four of these suspects have since died (one of them hanged); in the case of Freda Clay, who gave her aunt an overdose of morphine, there was too little evidence to prosecute. Poirot calls the recently widowed Hastings to join him in solving this case. Poirot alone sees the pattern of involvement. Poirot, using a wheelchair due to arthritis, and attended by his new valet Curtiss, will not share the name of the previously unsuspected person, using X instead. X is among the guests at Styles Court with them. The old house is a guest hotel under new owners, Colonel and Mrs Luttrell. The guests know each other, with this gathering initiated when Sir William Boyd-Carrington invites the Franklins to join him for a summer holiday stay. The five prior murders took place in the area, among people known to this group. Elizabeth Cole tells Hastings that she is a sister of Margaret Litchfield, who confessed to the murder of their father in one of the five cases. Margaret has died in Broadmoor Asylum and Elizabeth is stigmatised by the trauma. Three incidents occur in the next few days, showing the imprint of X. First, Hastings and others overhear an argument between the Luttrells. Shortly afterwards, Luttrell wounds his wife with a rook rifle, saying he mistook her for a rabbit. Mrs Luttrell recovers, and the incident has a good effect on their marriage. Next, Hastings is concerned that his daughter Judith spends time with Major Allerton, a married man. While Hastings and Elizabeth are out with birdwatcher Stephen Norton, Norton sees something through his binoculars that disturbs him. Hastings assumes it has to do with Allerton. When his attempts to persuade Judith to give Allerton up merely antagonise her, the worried father plans Allerton's murder. He falls asleep while waiting to poison Allerton, relieved he took no action when he awakes the next day. Last, Barbara Franklin, wife of Judith's employer Dr Franklin, dies the following evening. She was poisoned with physostigmine sulphate, an extract from the Calabar bean that her husband researches. Poirot's testimony at the inquest, that Mrs Franklin had been upset and that he saw her emerge from Dr Franklin's laboratory with a small bottle, persuades the jury to return a verdict of suicide. Norton is still concerned over what he saw days earlier when out with Hastings and Cole. Hastings advises Norton to confide in Poirot. They meet in Poirot's room. That night, Hastings is awakened by a noise and sees Norton entering his bedroom. The next morning, Norton is found dead in his locked room with a bullet-hole in the centre of his forehead, the key in his dressing-gown pocket and a pistol nearby. When Hastings tells Poirot that he saw Norton return to his room the night before, Poirot says it is flimsy evidence, not having seen the face: the dressing-gown, the hair, the limp, can all be imitated. Yet, there is no man in the house who could impersonate Norton, who was not tall. Poirot dies of a heart attack within hours. He leaves Hastings three clues: a copy of Othello, a copy of John Ferguson (a 1915 play by St. John Greer Ervine), and a note to speak to his longtime valet, Georges. After Poirot is buried at Styles, Hastings learns that Judith has all along been in love with Dr Franklin. She will marry him, and leave to do research in Africa. When Hastings speaks to Georges, he learns that Poirot wore a wig, and that Poirot's reasons for employing Curtiss were vague. Four months after Poirot's death, Hastings receives a manuscript in which Poirot explains all. X was Norton, a man who had perfected the technique of which Iago in Othello (and a character in Ervine's play) is master: applying just such psychological pressure as is needed to provoke someone to commit murder, without his victim realising what is happening. Norton had demonstrated this ability, with Colonel Luttrell, with Hastings, and Mrs Franklin. Poirot intervened with sleeping pills in Hastings' hot chocolate that night, to avert a disastrous rash action. Ironically, Hastings had unwittingly intervened in Mrs. Franklin's plan to poison her husband, by turning a revolving bookcase table while seeking a book to solve a crossword clue (Othello again), thus swapping the cups of coffee, so Mrs Franklin poisoned herself. Poirot could not prove this. He sensed that Norton, who had been deliberately vague about whom he had seen through the binoculars, would hint that he had seen Franklin and Judith, to implicate them in the murder of Mrs Franklin, not inadvertent suicide as it was. This explains Poirot's testimony at her inquest, to ensure the police would stop their investigation. Given his very weak heart, Poirot conceives that he must end the string of murders by killing Norton. Poirot invites Norton for hot chocolate: at their meeting, he tells Norton what he suspects and his plan to execute him. Norton, arrogant and self-assured, insists on swapping cups: anticipating this move, Poirot had drugged both cups, knowing that he had a higher tolerance for a dose that would incapacitate Norton. Poirot moves the sleeping Norton back to his room using the wheelchair: Poirot could walk all along, one reason he needed a new valet who was unaware of that for this last case. Then, being the same height as Norton, he disguises himself as Norton by removing his wig and false moustache, ruffling up his grey hair, then donning Norton's dressing-gown and walking with a limp. Having Hastings establish that Norton was alive after he left Poirot's room, Poirot shoots Norton, leaves the pistol on the table and locks the room with a duplicate key. Poirot then writes his story, and ceases to take his amyl nitrite heart medicine. He cannot say it was right to commit murder, but on balance he was sure he prevented yet more instigated by Norton. His last wish for Hastings is typical for Poirot, the matchmaker: he suggests that Hastings should pursue Elizabeth Cole. ===== In this short story, a land owner named Vasili Andreyevich Brekhunov takes one of his peasants, Nikita, for a short journey by sleigh. They are traveling to visit another landowner so that Vasili Andreyevivh can purchase a forest. He is impatient and wishes to get there more quickly before other contenders can get there. The two men find themselves in the middle of a blizzard, but the master, in his avarice, wishes to press on. Due to snow, they find themselves losing the road and getting lost. They eventually find themselves in a town and stop to rest. Vasily Andreyevich decides they must set back out. The men lose the road and the horse gets tired out, so they decide to try to sleep out the night and find their way in the morning. Nikita, who is not as warmly dressed as Vasily Andreyevich, soon finds himself about to die from hypothermia. Vasily Andreyevich decides to leave Nikita to die and sets out on his own on the horse. He wanders through the snow in circles and eventually falls off the horse, finding himself back by Nikita and the sleigh. The master attains a spiritual/moral revelation, and Tolstoy once again repeats one of his famous themes: that the only true happiness in life is found by living for others. The master then lies on top of the peasant to keep him warm through the cold night. In the morning, peasants dig out the sleigh, which was only half a mile from town. They find Vasily Andreyevich and the horse dead but Nikita is still alive. ===== The opening sequence is done as a parody of The Munsters, with Homer as Herman, Marge as Lily, Lisa as Marilyn, Bart as Eddie and Grampa as Grandpa Munster. Meanwhile, at the front of their mansion, an angry mob of townspeople attack the Munster Simpsons. They stab Marge and Grampa in the chest with stakes, set Homer on fire, and activate a bear trap on Bart's head, leaving Lisa unharmed; she then walks away from the scene while whistling, pretending as if she was never there with no connection of the monstrous family. ===== Outside Mr. Burns' manor, Smithers is standing on a ladder, trying to put up a small orange bat decoration on a weather vane. He slips on the ladder, grabs on an electric cord and slides down into an electricity box and gets zapped. A tower from Mr. Burns' mansion breaks in half, damaging a mausoleum, which opens up four caskets which in turn reveal three skeletons which all resemble Mr. Burns, dressed in various costumes. Later, we see the Simpsons dressed up in costumes, with Homer as Fred Flintstone, Marge as Wilma Flintstone, Lisa and Maggie as conjoined twins, and Bart as a hobo walking up to the mansion (with Bart and Lisa complaining that Flanders gave them toothpaste instead of candy). The family sees the building and caskets on fire, and screams in terror. They run out the gate, which as it closes, has its bars slice the family. The slices of the Simpsons continue to scream and run away. Mr. Burns, delighted, pats the orange bat as it comes to life and flies into the screen, revealing the title, "The Simpsons Halloween Special XII". ===== Much of the play is set in the locker room of a professional baseball team, and as such has an all-male cast that explores themes of homophobia, racism, class, and masculinity in sports. ===== Willis Davidge, a human fighter pilot, is stranded along with Jeriba Shigan, a Drac, on a hostile planet. Dracs are a race of aliens which are reptilian in appearance and reproduce asexually. Davidge and Jeriba Shigan, whom Davidge nicknames "Jerry", initially attempt to kill one another but quickly realize that cooperation will be the key to their survival. ===== The game opens in the Southwestern United States in an alternate history of the year 1976, in which the 1973 oil crisis was never resolved. The corrupt police force is ineffective against rampant riots, and the area devolves into lawless chaos. In an attempt to maintain order, some citizens turn to vigilantism by outfitting their vehicles with armor and weapons. One such vigilante, Jade Champion, is found murdered in a junkyard. Suspecting foul play and seeking vengeance, fellow vigilante Taurus convinces Jade's brother Groove to join him in his investigation. Although reluctant, Groove proves himself a talented driver and a capable fighter, quickly picking up on the necessary skills to survive in battle. In the course of their patrols, the two stumble upon a briefcase containing a large amount of money, and plans for a nuclear device. Taurus deduces that Jade had found out about this as well, attracting the ire of higher powers that got her killed. Further investigation clues them into spying on the deal to acquire the bomb, during which they learn of its intended delivery: an old military fort built on top of North America's largest oil reserve. Groove storms the fort, fighting against an unexpectedly overwhelming opposition that leaves him with no way out. In a desperate maneuver, he ramps over the fort's outer wall and crashes into the compound, wrecking his car in the process and knocking himself unconscious. Upon awakening, he finds himself at the mercy of Antonio Malochio, Jade's killer and the mastermind behind the plan. As he arms the nuclear bomb, Malochio openly gloats that he has been hired by OPEC to destroy America's oil reserve in order to perpetuate the crisis and keep prices high. Groove taunts Malochio into a duel, accusing him of dishonorably killing Jade. Furious, Malochio orders him to pick a car from the garage and take him on. Despite fighting an unfair battle that sees Malochio's henchmen joining in as reinforcements, Groove emerges victorious, leaving Malochio trapped in the remains of his car. As Malochio begs for his life, Groove experiences a brief vision of Jade in the distance, giving him the resolve to execute Malochio at gunpoint, and sate his revenge. ===== During the early 1960s, a British military intelligence organisation referred to as "The Department" receives dubious information from a defector that Soviet missiles are being placed at Rostock, near the West German border. Although The Department ran successful aerial reconnaissance missions against the Nazis during the Second World War, it has since slipped into irrelevance and risks being assimilated by its rival, the more experienced and professional "Circus," led by chief "Control" and his second-in-command, George Smiley. Once a thriving division of British intelligence, The Department has been diminished to a skeleton crew of its own chief, Leclerc, a once-glorious air commander now reduced to a bureaucrat; his 32-year-old aide, Avery, who only took the job because he failed as a book publisher; Taylor, an elderly man who sees his job as his last chance at glory; and Haldane, a pompous but intellectually gifted researcher whose work on East Germany and the Soviet Union has single-handedly kept the organization funded by Whitehall. Leclerc sees the missile intelligence as an opportunity to relive his glory days and regain ground in The Department's turf war with The Circus. To get aerial photographs, The Department pays a civilian pilot to "accidentally" divert his flight over the area. Taylor is dispatched to collect the film, where he's killed in a hit and run and the film is lost. Leclerc interprets the accident as a Stasi assassination and confirmation of the missile theory. Further blunders are made when Avery tries to retrieve Taylor's body in the hope that the film is still among his effects. In spite of their setbacks, The Department persuades the responsible Minister to allow them to send an agent into East Germany. Leclerc avoids involving The Circus directly, representing the operation as a training exercise in order to obtain an obsolete crystal radio from Smiley. The Department reactivates one of its wartime agents, a middle-aged, naturalised Pole named Fred Leiser. During his preparation, Haldane and Avery have Leiser believe that The Department is still the large, vital and competent organisation he remembers from the war, instilling him with false confidence. Leiser and Avery strike up a deep friendship, with each seeing the other as his last chance at redemption: Avery feels like running a successful agent will mean he's finally done something meaningful with his life, while Leiser- in the throes of a midlife crisis- simply wants to feel useful again. When crossing the inner-German border, Leiser kills a young East German guard, an outrage which is widely published in the East German media. The incident shakes Leiser. After stealing a motorcycle, he meets a young German girl who agrees to give him aid in exchange for companionship and the hope of taking her back to the West. Leiser makes radio transmissions forgetting to change frequencies as he continues to fixate on the border guard's death. The blunder − coupled with Leiser's outdated equipment − allows the Germans to quickly trace the source of his transmissions, and the hotel is raided by police. A conversation between Control and Smiley implies that the failure of the operation may have been engineered by Control. Now made aware of the full extent of the Department's plan, Smiley is sent by the Circus to round up Leclerc, Haldane and Avery, and terminate the operation. After informing them about the debacle in East Germany, Smiley tactfully convinces Leclerc to abandon Leiser, explaining that his obsolete equipment and sloppy techniques will make denials of his role as a spy more plausible. Haldane and Leclerc are mollified by their new roles within an appended Research Section to the Circus; only Avery sobs inconsolably over the futility of the operation and the loss of Leiser. The missile site, meanwhile, almost certainly never existed. The defector has a history of trying to sell fabricated "information" to Western services, the photographs he provided as evidence are dubious, and Leiser was unable to corroborate any part of his story. ===== The Federation starship Enterprise, under the command of Captain Jean-Luc Picard, receives an automated distress call from satellites orbiting a human colony on the planet Bringloid V, which is in danger from solar flares from its star. The colony turns out to have been founded by the crew of the SS Mariposa, a freighter launched from Earth several hundred years earlier. As the Enterprise approaches the planet, Worf appears to faint on the bridge and is transported to sick bay. When he regains consciousness he is embarrassed to admit suffering a Klingon equivalent of measles. Dr Pulaski agrees to protect his privacy. In gratitude, Worf later approaches her to offer a Klingon tea ceremony. He warns that the tea is deadly to humans and explains it is just a gesture which would be important in his culture. Pulaski suggests he is a romantic, and takes an antidote to allow herself to drink the tea with him safely. The "Bringloidi" colony (after , the Irish word for "dreams"), now led by an Irishman named Danilo O'Dell and his hot-tempered daughter Brenna, are followers of an early 22nd century philosopher who advocated returning to a pre-industrial agrarian lifestyle, and when taken aboard the Enterprise, must quickly adapt to the 24th century technology (this is fostered in part by Riker giving Brenna a tour of the ship, ending by washing her feet and implications of more). When the transfer of the colonists is complete, O'Dell informs Picard of another colony, also planted by the Mariposa. The Enterprise proceeds to the second colony—which has named itself "Mariposa" after their ship—half a light year away. The colony's Prime Minister, Walter Granger, is happy to see the Enterprise and welcomes them to visit, so Commander Riker beams down with Lieutenant Worf and Chief Medical Officer Doctor Pulaski. The Mariposa colony is strikingly different from the Bringloidi colony, as the Mariposa colonists have kept their advanced technology, and appear refined and cultured in contrast to the Bringloidi's relatively primitive existence. Pulaski quickly ascertains, however, that all of the inhabitants are clones. Granger reveals that their ship crashed while landing, and only five survivors were left to start the colony. As this was insufficient to establish a stable gene pool, and the survivors were all scientists, they turned exclusively to cloning instead, and consequently no longer have any desire for biological reproduction. For almost three centuries, every Mariposan has been a clone derived from one of the five original colonists, and now the colony is in danger of dying out because of replicative fading: each subsequent generation introduces additional minor flaws in the genetic code, which within only a few more generations will make further clones nonviable. The Mariposans ask the Enterprise crew for samples of their DNA to create new clones. Riker refuses, as he values his uniqueness, and Picard advises the Mariposans that the rest of the crew is likely to feel the same, so the Mariposans decide to kidnap Riker and Pulaski to steal their DNA instead. Upon discovering this, the away team beams directly to the colony's cloning labs, where they are repulsed to find copies of themselves being grown, which Riker destroys. Granger is furious, and appeals to Picard, but Pulaski argues that a new batch of clones will only delay the inevitable. Instead, she advises that they consider partnering with the Bringloidi to create a viable gene pool. Initially, each colony's leader treats the other society with disdain, but they eventually agree to merge their colonies and disparate cultures. ===== Soldier Jack Spade returns home to Any Ghetto, U.S.A. after receiving news that his brother, Junebug, died of an “OG” – an overdosing on gold chains. Surveying the old neighborhood, Jack observes the effect of gold chains on his community and desires revenge not only for his brother's death, but for the community at large. He vows to destroy Mr. Big, the neighborhood chain lord responsible for the epidemic that claimed Junebug's life. Jack asks for the aid of his childhood idol and local hero John Slade in planning the demise of Mr. Big's empire. Together, they form a team including Kung Fu Joe, Flyguy, Slammer, and Hammer. With the help of his crew, Jack sets out to take down Mr. Big and the gold trade in his streets. ===== In 1948 Egypt, an archeological dig led by Richard Turkel (Christopher Lee) reaches a tomb, identified as belonging to Talos, which is apparently cursed. The hieroglyphics at the entrance warn that all should avoid the place. Despite this, they proceed to open the chamber's door only to be blasted with a cloud of dust, which causes them to crumble apart as though they are made of fragile stone. Richard manages to blow the tomb shut, killing himself in the process. In 1999, Richard's granddaughter Sam Turkel (Louise Lombard) continues where he left off. When they break into the burial chamber, they see Talos's sarcophagus suspended from the ceiling. One of the team falls to his death, and another, Brad (Sean Pertwee), has a seizure while experiencing Talos' past atrocities. Nine months later, a power cut occurs, during which the container holding Talos' sarcophagus is broken into and a guard is killed. Detective Riley (Jason Scott Lee) warns them the killer will undoubtedly strike again. At a party, a youth is assaulted by Talos in the bathroom and dragged down the toilet. A man is attacked by Talos in a car park while Sam explains the core of Talos' myth to Riley. Talos directed that his body parts be removed by his followers; and they believed he would someday be resurrected to reclaim them, gaining physical perfection and immortality. Talos was exiled from Greece for sorcery and came to Egypt, where he fell in love, and in a pagan ceremony, married the pharaoh's daughter, Nefriama. The Pharaoh was ordered by neighbouring countries to kill Talos, as all who opposed him were struck with disease or tortured into believing his theology. To save Nefriama from death, the Pharaoh told her about Talos' upcoming execution and she in turn told Talos. When the Pharaoh's army reached Talos' chamber they saw Nefriama eating Talos' heart. They were all put to death including Nefriama. Brad surmises that the murder victims are reincarnations of the pharaoh's followers and that killing Sam (Nefriama's reincarnation) is the only way to stop Talos, who plans to be reborn when the planets align. Brad further explains that part of Talos' curse is that anyone who knows what's going on will be deemed a madman. After Riley steps out of the interrogating cell, Talos appears and kills Detective Bartone and Brad. A reborn Talos tracks down Sam to her apartment, but she manages to get away; however, Talos captures her after posing as a dog. Riley, now believing whatever Brad told him, takes part in a ceremony where Brad's dead body is used in a ritual which shows them the possible location that Sam might be held hostage, an unfinished construction site. Sam, meanwhile bound with rags, manages to free herself and stumbles upon a room where a huge nest of rags used to mummify the deceased is clumped in the form of a womb with dead bodies of Talos' victims lying around. As she watches, the water breaks from the womb and a horrifying baby creature is thrown out which quickly grows up into the true form of Talos with only the heart missing. Riley and his group arrive at the construction site with eighteen minutes remaining before the planets are supposed to align and Talos would regain his physical immortality. Riley and Claire separate from Butros and Professor Marcus. The latter encounter Talos who manipulates Marcus into killing Butros by strangling her. On the other hand, Claire falls down and gravely injures her leg which then forces Riley to go forward without her. Somewhere else Claire comes to Professor Marcus and after a brief conversation kills him by stabbing him with a scalpel which suggests Talos manipulated Claire into killing Professor Marcus. Riley finds Sam bound hands and foot and they are intercepted by Talos who is fired upon by Riley but to no avail. Sam begs Riley to kill her which he does by shooting her in order to stop Talos from achieving what he wants. But, it is shown that Nefriama's love resides within Riley and his heart is what Talos wants for which he used Sam to lure him at the right place at the right time. Claire appears and takes out Riley's heart which Talos stuffs within himself just as the planets align and begins to transform. The police arrive and pull out four dead bodies and a hysterical Claire. Elsewhere in London, Detective Riley is shown to be the reincarnated Talos. ===== Aircraft factory worker Barry Kane (Robert Cummings) is accused of starting a fire at the Stewart Aircraft Works in Glendale, California, an act of sabotage that killed his friend Mason (Virgil Summers). Kane believes the real culprit is a man named Fry (Norman Lloyd) who, during their efforts to put out the fire, handed him a fire extinguisher filled with gasoline, which he passed on to Mason. When the investigators find no one named "Fry" on the plant workers' list, they assume Kane is the culprit. Earlier, on the way to lunch, Kane and Mason had seen Fry's name on an envelope he dropped. Kane remembers the address and travels to a ranch in the High Desert. The ranch owner, Charles Tobin (Otto Kruger), appears to be a well-respected citizen but reveals that he is working with the saboteurs. Kane learns from a piece of mail he sees that Fry has gone to Soda City. Tobin has called the sheriff, but Kane escapes the police, taking refuge with a kind blind man (Vaughan Glaser) whose visiting niece, Patricia "Pat" Martin (Priscilla Lane), is a model famous for appearing on billboards. Although her uncle asks her to take Kane to the local blacksmith shop to remove his handcuffs, she attempts to take him to the police. Kane insists he is innocent and kidnaps Martin. When he takes control of the car and stops, she jumps out and tries to signal a passing car to stop. He uses her car's generator's fan belt pulley to break his handcuffs apart, causing the car to overheat and break down. As night falls, the couple stows away on a circus train. The circus performers recognize them as fugitives but decide to shield them from the police. Kane and Martin reach Soda City, a ghost town where the saboteurs are preparing to blow up Boulder Dam. Kane is discovered by the saboteurs but conceals Martin and convinces the saboteurs that he is allied with them. After foiling their plan to destroy the dam, Kane convinces them to remove his manacles and take him with them to New York. He learns of their plan to sabotage the launching of a new U.S. Navy battleship at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Kane's performance has fooled Martin as well; she contacts the authorities, hoping to get to New York to obstruct the saboteurs' plans. The saboteurs reach New York but find the phone at their office disconnected, indicating the police are on to them. They meet with New York dowager Mrs. Sutton (Alma Kruger) and other conspirators at her mansion, during a grand society party. Kane finds the captured Martin, who was betrayed by a corrupt sheriff. As Kane attempts to signal her to escape, Tobin arrives. He recognizes Kane and exposes him. Tobin has Kane knocked out and locked in the mansion's cellar. Martin is imprisoned in an office at Rockefeller Center. The next morning, Kane triggers a fire alarm at the mansion and escapes. Martin drops a note from the office window, which is found by some cab drivers. Kane reaches the Navy Yard, but only a few minutes before the launch. Rather than wait to explain to the Yard authorities, he rushes out to search for the saboteurs. He spots Fry in a fake newsreel camera truck, prepared to blow up the slipway during the launching. Their struggle prevents Fry from detonating the explosion until seconds after the successful launch of the USS Alaska battleship. Fry takes Kane prisoner, and with his two accomplices, returns to the Rockefeller Center office. The police and FBI, alerted by Martin's note, are waiting for them. The accomplices are caught, but Fry dodges into the back of an adjacent movie theater (Radio City Music Hall). He shoots a man in the audience and escapes in the panic. In front of the theater, Kane sees Fry get into a taxi. Still holding Kane in custody, the FBI refuses to follow Fry, so Kane tells Martin to shadow the saboteur. She follows Fry onto the ferry to Bedloe's Island ("Liberty Island" in the present day), attracting his attention, and then to the Statue of Liberty. She calls the FBI, and at their direction, goes into the statue to find Fry and distract him. In the viewing room in the statue's crown, she strikes up a conversation with Fry, stalling him until Kane and the FBI arrive. Kane escapes his escort and encounters Martin, who tells him that Fry is escaping. Kane pursues Fry onto the viewing platform on the torch. When Kane emerges from the tunnel, he confronts Fry at gunpoint. While backing away from Kane, Fry accidentally falls over the platform's railing and clings to the statue's hand. Kane climbs down to try and save Fry. As the police and FBI agent reach the platform, watching from the railing, Fry's grip slips. Kane grabs Fry's jacket's sleeve and tries to pull him to safety; however, the stitching in the jacket gradually tears. Helpless and terrified, Fry falls to his death despite Kane's effort to rescue him. Kane climbs back up and embraces Martin. ===== Demea, father to Aeschinus and Ctesipho, decides to separate his children and raises Ctesipho while allowing his brother Micio to raise Aeschinus. Demea is a strict authoritarian father, and Micio is permissive and democratic. Ctesipho falls in love, but is afraid of exposing his romantic interest due to the strict and cold education he's received from Demea. Therefore, Aeschinus, in order to help his brother, decides to steal the girl away, accepting all blame for the affair. Demea and Micio spar over who did a better job at raising their sons. After a long monologue comparing his methods with his brother's, Demea decides to emulate his brother's urbanity and openhandedness as a means of critique. In the last hundred lines of the play, Demea gives away a great deal of money and a large estate, convinces his brother to marry against his will and free two of his slaves, and then finally delivers a closing speech decrying all such liberality: "I will tell you: I did it to show you that what they think is your good nature and pleasantness did not happen from real goodness nor from justice and goodness, but from flattery, indulgence, and largess, Micio." ( dicam tibi: / ut id ostenderem, quod te isti facilem et festivom putant, / id non fieri ex vera vita neque adeo ex aequo et bono, / sed ex adsentando, indulgendo, largiendo, Micio. lines 985-988) He then offers to his sons that he will be their strict father if they so desire him to be, but if they prefer to stay with Micio, they can. Both boys choose to submit to Demea, with Micio's approval. At the end of the play, Ctesipho is going to marry his loved one, Micio marries Sostrata and Aeschinus marries Pamphila, Sostrata's daughter. ===== A boy is approached by numerous strange creatures with enormous gloved hats on their heads. Each "hunch" points out a different possible course of action with each hunch contradicting the others. ===== , one of the eldest sons of the moderately wealthy Tenge family, has become an agent working for the United States, and his secret murders are discovered by , his youngest sister. This problem is aggravated by her discovery of terrible incestuous affairs in her own family; the wife of her older brother is actually her mother, who has to frequently have sex with Ayako's father, the family patriarch Sakuemon. To hide these secrets, the family—under pressure from Sakuemon and his eldest son Ichiro—decides to keep Ayako locked up in the basement for the rest of her life. Despite the efforts of her mother and younger brother Shiro, she lives for nearly two dozen years under the family's house, while great political and social changes occur above her. Ayako eventually leaves the basement after growing into a beautiful and attractive woman, and seeks affection from others while remaining terrified of the outside world. This sets off a chain reaction of events which spells tragedy for the Tenge family. ===== In 1958 post-war Britain, Stevens, the butler of Darlington Hall, receives a letter from Miss Kenton, a former colleague employed as the housekeeper some twenty years earlier, now separated from her husband. Their former employer, The Earl of Darlington, has died a broken man, his reputation destroyed after he was exposed as a Nazi sympathizer, and his stately country manor has been sold to a retired United States Congressman, Mr. Jack Lewis. Stevens is granted permission to borrow Lewis' Daimler, and he sets off to the West Country to see Miss Kenton, in the hope that she will return as housekeeper. The film flashes back to Kenton's arrival as housekeeper in the 1930s. The ever-efficient Stevens manages the household well, taking great pride in and deriving his entire identity from his profession. Miss Kenton, too, proves to be a valuable servant, and she is equally efficient and strong-willed, but also warmer and less repressed. Stevens and Kenton occasionally butt heads, particularly when she observes that Stevens's father (also a former butler but now in the employ for Lord Darlington) is in failing health and no longer able to perform his duties, which Stevens stubbornly refuses to acknowledge. Stevens' professional dedication is fully displayed when, while his father lies dying, he steadfastly continues his butler duties. Relations between Stevens and Kenton eventually thaw, and it becomes clear she has feelings for him. Despite their proximity and shared purpose, Stevens' outward detachment remains unchanged; his first and only loyalty is to his service as Lord Darlington's butler. In a scene of agonised repression, Miss Kenton embarrasses Stevens when she catches him reading a book. Curious, she forces it out of his hand, and finds to her disappointment it is an ordinary romance novel; Stevens explains to Miss Kenton he was reading it only to improve his vocabulary, and asks her not to invade his private time again. Meanwhile, Darlington Hall is regularly frequented by politicians of the interwar period, and many of Lord Darlington's guests are like-minded, fascist-sympathizing British and European aristocrats, with the exception of the more pragmatic Congressman Lewis, who does not share the "noble instincts" of Lord Darlington and his guests. Lewis informs the "gentleman politicians" in his midst that they are meddling amateurs and that "Europe has become the arena of Realpolitik" and warns them they are "headed for disaster." Later, one of Lord Darlington's aristocratic guests, Geoffrey Wren, directs a series of political and economic questions to Stevens, questions that the butler cannot answer. The episode demonstrates to Wren and to the other aristocratic guests present that the lower classes are too ignorant and unworthy to have an opinion. Wren then says, "Q.E.D." Darlington later meets Prime Minister Chamberlain and the German Ambassador, and uses his influence to try to broker a policy of appeasement towards Nazi Germany, based on his belief that Germany had been unfairly treated by the Treaty of Versailles following the First World War and only desires peace. In the midst of these events, and after overhearing Sir Geoffrey Wren praising Nazi racial laws, Darlington suddenly requests that two newly-appointed German-Jewish maids, both refugees, should be dismissed, despite Stevens's mild protest that they are good workers. Nevertheless, Stevens carries out Lord Darlington's command, despite a horrified Miss Kenton threatening to resign in protest. Miss Kenton later confides in Stevens that she has no family and nowhere to go should she leave Darlington Hall, and is ashamed to not follow up on her threat to resign. Stevens does not mention that he disagreed with Lord Darlington's order and leaves Miss Kenton with the impression that he didn't care about the girls' fate. Later, Lord Darlington expresses regret for having dismissed Ilsa and Irma, the two German-Jewish maids. He asks Stevens to locate them and Stevens questions Miss Kenton as to the maids' whereabouts, whose whereabouts remain unknown. Lord Darlington's godson, journalist Reginald Cardinal, is appalled by the nature of the secret meetings in Darlington Hall. Concurring with Congressman Lewis' earlier protestations, Cardinal tells Stevens that Lord Darlington is a pawn, being used by the Nazis. Despite Cardinal's indignation, Stevens does not denounce or criticise his master, feeling it is not his place to judge his employer's honorable intentions, even if they are incorrect. Eventually, Miss Kenton forms a relationship with a former co-worker, Tom Benn, who proposes marriage and asks Miss Kenton to move away with him to run a coastal boarding house. Miss Kenton mentions this proposal to Stevens, in effect offering him an ultimatum, but Stevens will not admit his feelings, offering Miss Kenton only his congratulations. Miss Kenton leaves Darlington Hall prior to the outbreak of the Second World War. Before Miss Kenton's departure, Stevens finds her crying in frustration, but the only response he can muster is to call her attention to a neglected domestic task. En route to meeting Miss Kenton in 1958, when asked by locals about his former employer, Stevens at first denies having served or even having met Lord Darlington, but later admits to having served and respected him, making an apology for Lord Darlington, the butler stating that the Lord has admitted in later years regarding his Nazi symphathies that "...he had been too gullible". He says that, while Lord Darlington was unable to correct his terrible error, he is now on his way in the hope that he can correct his own. He meets Miss Kenton (though separated, still Mrs Benn), and they reminisce. Stevens mentions in conversation that Lord Darlington's godson, Reginald Cardinal, was killed in the war. He also says Lord Darlington died from a broken heart after the war, having sued a newspaper for libel, losing the suit and his reputation in the process. Stevens reveals that in his declining years, Lord Darlington at times failed to recognise Stevens and carried on conversations with no one else in the room. Miss Kenton declines Stevens's offer to return to Darlington Hall, wishing instead to remain near her grown daughter, whom she has just that day learned is pregnant. She also implies that she will go back to her husband, because, despite being unhappy in their marriage for many years, in all the world he needs her the most. As they part, Miss Kenton is emotional, while Stevens is still unable to demonstrate any feeling. Back at Darlington Hall, Lewis asks Stevens if he remembers much of the old days, to which Stevens replies that he was too busy serving. A pigeon then becomes trapped in the hall, and is eventually freed by the two men, leaving both Stevens and Darlington Hall far behind. ===== Lisa makes an elaborate decorative centerpiece for the Thanksgiving dinner table. While Homer is picking up Grampa from the retirement home, Patty and Selma arrive bearing Swedish meatballs and insinuate Marge's turkey is dry, much to her consternation. The sisters' mother Jaqueline Bouvier arrives complaining of laryngitis and tells Marge she never does anything right. Once they are assembled, the Simpsons sit down to Thanksgiving dinner. When Lisa places the centerpiece on the table, she fights with Bart about where it should go since there is no room left for the turkey. In the ensuing scuffle, Bart throws the centerpiece into the fireplace and it burns to ashes. Devastated, Lisa runs to her room crying. Bart is sternly scolded, sent to his room and told he will not be allowed to eat dinner until he issues a sincere apology to Lisa. Bart stubbornly refuses and insists the incident is Lisa's fault, not his. After Homer expels Santa's Little Helper from the house for stealing a turkey drumstick, Bart and the dog run away from home. Bart tries to steal a pie cooling on a window sill at Mr. Burns's mansion, but Burns's hounds chase him away. While wandering the streets, Bart uses Homer's ID to sell his blood and visits a breadline that is serving Thanksgiving dinner to homeless people. Kent Brockman interviews Bart for a human interest story at the soup kitchen. The family sees the report on television and call the police, hoping they can help find Bart and bring him home. When the police fail to locate Bart, Homer and Marge regret saying stern things that drove him away. Bart returns home feeling remorseful after seeing the meager lives of the homeless men at the breadline. Before he enters the house, he imagines his family scapegoating him for all their problems if he apologizes for ruining Thanksgiving. Realizing this scenario is all in his mind, he climbs onto the roof of the house to ponder his choices. When he hears Lisa crying because she misses him, Bart invites her to join him on the roof. He finally realizes what he did was wrong and apologizes to her. Bart and Lisa rejoin the family to enjoy a meal of Thanksgiving leftovers. ===== Tom Witzky is a phone lineman living in a working-class neighborhood in Chicago with his pregnant wife Maggie and his son Jake, who possesses the ability to commune with the dead. At a party one evening, Tom challenges Maggie's sister, Lisa, who is a believer in paranormal activity, to hypnotize him. After putting him under, Lisa plants a post-hypnotic suggestion in Tom urging him to "be more open- minded". Tom then begins experiencing visions of a violent scuffle involving a girl who he later learns is Samantha Kozac, a 17-year-old that disappeared from the neighborhood six months prior. While Tom and Maggie attend a high- school football game, Jake is overheard by his babysitter, Debbie, as he speaks with Samantha. Debbie gets upset and snatches Jake, running off with him in the night. Meanwhile, Tom senses Jake is in danger and rushes home but finds him gone. Tom then sees strange flashes of red light that eventually leads him to the Metra station where Debbie is speaking with her mother about Jake. When Tom and Maggie confront her, Debbie angrily questions them about her sister Samantha, explaining that she had an intellectual disability, with the mental capacity of an eight-year-old and thus a child's tendency to trust strangers. Tom denies knowing her to Debbie but admits to Maggie that she is the girl in his visions. Tom becomes obsessed with Samantha and begins probing members of the community about her disappearance. This attracts the attention of his landlord Harry Damon, Tom's friend, Frank McCarthy and their respective sons Kurt Damon and Adam McCarthy, who all dismiss Samantha as a runaway teen. After another prophetic vision in which Frank tells Tom that 'they're going to kill you and Maggie both', Tom finds that Adam has shot himself in Frank's home and is in critical condition. Meanwhile, during an afternoon walk, Jake and Maggie encounter a funeral where Chicago policemen are saluting in a ceremony; here a policeman named Neil immediately recognizes Jake's unique talent and invites Tom to a private gathering of like-minded people to learn more about what is happening to his son. Maggie withholds her conversation with Neil from Tom and goes to the meeting herself, and Neil tells her the spirit that contacted Tom has asked for something and will grow upset if it does not get done. As predicted, Samantha begins plaguing Tom, eventually leading to his insomnia. He goes back to Lisa and demands she undo what she did, but when she hypnotizes him, Samantha tells him to dig. Tom complies and digs holes in the backyard and eventually tears up the house in a desperate attempt to appease Samantha. While Maggie and Jake attend her grandmother's wake at a relative's house, Tom inadvertently knocks down a shoddy brick wall in the basement and discovers Samantha's mummified remains. He receives a vision showing him that before his family moved in, Adam and Kurt lured Samantha into the house to rape her. When she resisted, they unintentionally suffocated her and hid her body. Tom brings Frank back to the basement to disclose to him the crime. Frank breaks down and admits that Adam and Kurt had already confided their secret to him and Harry. Frank pulls out a gun and demands to be alone. As Tom leaves the basement, he hears a single shot. Harry and Kurt suddenly show up. Harry, in his capacity as landlord, voices displeasure with the torn up house. They corner Tom with the intention of killing him, but Maggie interrupts them when she arrives back home. As Harry takes her hostage, Frank emerges from the basement and fatally shoots both Kurt and Harry to save Tom and Maggie. Tom notices Samantha's spirit put on her glasses and coat, smile as she walks down the road, and disappears. Afterwards, the family packs up a U-Haul and moves out of the house. Meanwhile, Samantha's mother and sister are finally able to give her a proper funeral and burial. Tom and Maggie smile happily as they drive away to a new neighborhood, but Jake covers his ears as they approach their new home, overwhelmed by the spirits that linger in all of the houses they pass by. ===== Set in the early 1970s in the suburban town of Savannah, Georgia, the film follows the lives of protagonist Francis Doyle, and three of his friends, Tim Sullivan, Wade Scalisi and Joey Anderson. The four boys all attend a private Catholic school named St. Agatha's, which they detest. The boys rebel by smoking pot, drinking, obsessing over girls, listening to hard rock music and playing pranks on their teachers, such as stealing their school's statue of St. Agatha and keeping it in their clubhouse. The four friends dedicate much of their time to a comic book of their own creation titled The Atomic Trinity in order to escape the monotony and avoid the difficulties in their own lives. After receiving a love note from Francis, which was actually written by Tim, Margie Flynn becomes a major presence and weaves her way into the lives of these four friends. She and Francis have an obvious connection that progresses into much more. At times, Francis must choose between his friends and Margie, which causes the group of friends to fall apart. The boys' lives are also translated into segments of animation based on the characters of The Atomic Trinity: Brakken, The Muscle, Captain Asskicker and Major Screw; Nunzilla, based on their peglegged, overly repressive Catholic school teacher Sister Assumpta; and Sorcerella, based on Margie Flynn. After a school field trip to the zoo, Tim and Francis have the idea of playing another prank on Sister Assumpta. They decide to drug the cougar at the local zoo and then transport it to Sister Assumpta's office to scare her. When they learn how serious Tim and Francis are, the other half of the Atomic Trinity wimp out, which leaves an unlikely group of friends consisting of Margie, Tim and Francis. Francis soon learns that Margie had been sexually assaulted by her own brother. During gym class, Donny, Margie's older brother, bullies Tim during class. Tim, out of pressure and his own impulsive nature, insults Donny for molesting his own sister. He regrets telling Donny, who beats him up, and then tells Francis who becomes angry with him. Donny takes Tim and Francis's comic, The Atomic Trinity, and gives it to the nun. The violent, blasphemous and inappropriate drawings in the notebook cause Tim and Francis to be suspended, pending expulsion from the school. In an act of final retribution, Tim, Francis, Wade and Joey attempt to steal a cougar to place inside the school to cover up a wrecking of the school they did that night. At the zoo, a makeshift tranquilizer created from several narcotic drugs is used to put the cougar to sleep. The other three boys go down to the gate to retrieve the cougar in a cage, while Tim impulsively climbs over the fence into the cougar's den. He checks to see if the cougar is alive, and happily replies that it is. When the other boys reach the gate to retrieve the cougar, another cougar leaps at Tim, mauling him to death. At Tim's funeral, Francis quotes the poem "The Tyger" by William Blake, whom Sister Assumpta earlier condemned as a "dangerous thinker". Francis places the book at the stolen statue of St. Agatha in their hideout, and starts a new comic series dedicated entirely to the character based on Tim, Skeleton Boy. ===== The story is set in West African Igbo rural community. The protagonist, Efuru, is a strong and beautiful woman. She is the daughter of Nwashike Ogene, a hero and leader of his tribe. She falls in love with a poor farmer called Adizua and runs away with him, upsetting her people as he did not even perform the traditional wine carrying and pay her bride price. She supports her husband financially and is very loyal to him, which makes her mother-in-law and aunt by marriage very fond of her. At this point, she accepts to be helped around her house by a young girl named Ogea in order to help her parents who are in financial difficulty. However, Adizua soon abandons Efuru and their daughter Ogonim as his own father has done in past. After her daughter dies, Efuru discovers that he has married another woman and had a child with her. Her in-laws try to convince her to stay with him, i.e. remain in waiting in their marital house. Efuru then tries to look for him, but after failing, she leaves his house and goes back to the house of her father who receives her happily as she can care for him better than others. Efuru then meets Gilbert, an educated man in her age group. He asks to marry her and follows traditions by visiting her father, and she accepts. The first year of their marriage is a happy one. However, Efuru is not able to conceive any children, so this begins to cause trouble. She is later chosen by the goddess of the lake, Uhamiri, to be one of her worshipers, Uhamiri being known to offer her worshipers wealth and beauty but few children. Efuru's second marriage eventually also fails as her husband mistreats her in favor of his second and third wives. ===== The story begins when the American Minister to the Court of St. James's, Hiram B. Otis, and his family move into Canterville Chase, an English country house, despite warnings from Lord Canterville that the house is haunted. Mr. Otis says that he will take the furniture as well as the ghost at valuation. The Otis family includes Mr. and Mrs. Otis, their eldest son Washington, their daughter Virginia, and the Otis twins. At first, none of the Otis family believe in ghosts, but shortly after they move in, none of them can deny the presence of Sir Simon de Canterville. When Mrs. Otis notices a mysterious bloodstain on the floor, she simply replies that "She does not at all care for bloodstains in the living room". When Mrs. Umney, the housekeeper, informs Mrs. Otis that the bloodstain is indeed evidence of the ghost and cannot be removed, Washington Otis, the eldest son, suggests that the stain will be removed with Pinkerton's Champion Stain Remover and Paragon Detergent. When the ghost makes his first appearance, Mr. Otis promptly gets out of bed and pragmatically offers the ghost Tammany Rising Sun Lubricator to oil his chains. Angrily the ghost throws the bottle and runs into the corridor. The Otis twins throw pillows on him and the ghost uses the fourth dimension of space to flee. Disappointed with his first attempt to scare the family, he starts wondering what went wrong. He thinks of his previous successful appearances when he was in his prime form. The Otis family witnesses reappearing bloodstains on the floor just by the fireplace, which are removed every time they appear in various colors. But, humorously, none of these scare the Otis family in the least. Despite the ghost's efforts to appear in the most gruesome guises, the family refuses to be frightened, and Sir Simon feels increasingly helpless and humiliated. Wilde describes Mrs. Otis as "a very handsome middle-aged woman" who had been "a celebrated New York belle". Her expression of modern American culture surfaces when she immediately resorts to giving the ghost ’Doctor Dobell's tincture’, thinking he was screaming due to indigestion at the family's second encounter with the ghost. She expresses an interest in joining the Psychical Society to help her understand the ghost. Mrs. Otis is given Wilde's highest praise when he says: "Indeed, in many respects, she was quite English...." The most colorful character in the story is undoubtedly the ghost himself, Sir Simon, who goes about his duties with theatrical panache and flair. He assumes a series of dramatic roles in his failed attempts to impress and terrify the Otis family, making it easy to imagine him as a comical character in a stage play. The ghost has the ability to change forms, so he taps into his repertoire of tricks. He takes the role of ghostly apparitions such as a Headless Earl, the Strangled Babe, the Blood-Sucker of Bexley Moor, Suicide's Skeleton, and the Corpse-Snatcher of Chertsey Barn, all having succeeded in horrifying previous castle residents over the centuries. But none of them works with these pragmatic, unsentimental Americans. Sir Simon schemes, but even as his costumes become increasingly gruesome, his antics do nothing to scare his house guests, and the Otis beat him every time. He falls victim to tripwires, toy peashooters, butter slides, and falling buckets of water. In a particularly comical scene, he is frightened by the sight of a "ghost" rigged up by the mischievous twins. During the course of the story, as narrated from Sir Simon's viewpoint, he tells us the complexity of the ghost's emotions: he sees himself brave, frightening, distressed, scared, and finally, depressed and weak. He exposes his vulnerability during an encounter with Virginia, the Otis's beautiful and wise fifteen-year-old daughter. Virginia is different from everyone else in the family, and Sir Simon recognizes this. He tells her that he has not slept in three hundred years and wants desperately to do so. The ghost reveals to Virginia the tragic tale of his wife, Lady Eleanor de Canterville. Unlike the rest of her family, Virginia does not dismiss the ghost. She takes him seriously, she listens to him and learns an important lesson, as well as the true meaning behind a riddle. Sir Simon de Canterville says that she must weep for him, for he has no tears; she must pray for him, for he has no faith; and then she must accompany him to the angel of death and beg for death upon Sir Simon. She does weep for him and pray for him, and she disappears with Sir Simon through the wainscoting and goes with him to the Garden of Death and bids the ghost farewell. Then she reappears at midnight, through a panel in the wall, carrying jewels and news that Sir Simon has passed on to the next world and no longer resides in the house. Virginia's ability to accept Sir Simon leads to her enlightenment. The story ends with Virginia marrying the Duke of Cheshire after they both come of age. Sir Simon, she tells her husband several years later, helped her understand what Life is, what Death signifies, and why Love is stronger than both. ===== Mr. John First (Johnny) is a cinematographer traveling to Santa Carolina when he is stopped by a band of robbers, headed by Black Jack. Johnny is the only one who does not pull out a gun and fight during the midst of the action and is thus questioned by Black Jack as to why. He then takes the book which Johnny is so fervently looking through and ends up mistaking it for a Bible, until he notices that it contains several blank pages. Johnny explains that it is a book of World Cinema History. Black Jack quickly loses interest and rides away. When Johnny arrives in Santa Carolina, he comes to the local bar, where a rowdy brawl is in progress. This is an everyday occurrence, as it is how Harry, the owner of the bar, makes a living by making a few hundred a day from damage. Johnny befriends a cowboy named Billy upon entering, and, while watching the dancers, completely falls in love with one named Diana. Billy laughs at him and warns him that "the heart of Miss [Diana] Little is locked tighter than Fort Knox".Fort Knox was built in 1918, much later than the events of this film. When Johnny stands up and asks the crowd if anyone has a white sheet, it is but Diana who is in possession of one. What happens next shocks everyone including Diana. Johnny, in all his gentlemanly ways, comes up to Diana, and respectfully kisses her hand. To a girl used to nothing like that, Diana is so pleasantly appalled that she adds that she has two white sheets, and both of them belong to Johnny. It all goes downhill from there. When Johnny shows his movies, with the gentlemen who take ladies for walks and tip their hats and say "please" and "thank you", the unruly cowboys begin to change their ways. The only two who do not benefit from this are Harry, who has lost significant profit, and the local pastor, who wants Diana to love him. The latter is in a much worse position, for since Johnny had begun doting on Diana, being the first man in her life to bring her flowers or treat her like a lady in any way, she had completely fallen in love with him and said that her heart will always belong to him. Although Harry does everything he can, from burning the shed where the films are, to asking Black Jack to murder Johnny, to stealing the white sheet on which the movies were shown, it all seems to slide off the cinematographer's back, until he leaves to find a wedding gift for his beloved Diana. When he returns, he finds all the cowboys reverted to their old ways, due to the coming of Mr. Second, who is also a cinematographer, who shows the cowboys movies with violence (similar to what was later named "splatter film"). Johnny, with a heavy heart, leaves for the prairie, as he is under the impression that even Diana has left him for the pastor. However, on the way there, he is met by Black Jack, who had seen Johnny's movies through the window and has changed his ways, and Diana, who had captured the pastor and put him at gunpoint and managed to escape. Johnny then leaves with them, determined to help more people see the beauty and new worlds which movies allow us to be in. The film is a comedy critique of the wild west myth. Just as Buffalo Bill mythologized his exploits and later Hollywood elaborated the image, a Soviet film (i.e. the other side of the Cold War) deconstructs and satirizes it, both through the film and the film within film that Johnny First shows. It is a self-reflexive fable documenting its own evolution. ===== The story is set in 1911, at the end of the Edwardian period. Jessica Medlicott is an aging grande dame, formerly an actress of the London theatre, accused of having met, courted, promised marriage to, and then jilted and abandoned her suitor. The much-younger ex-fiancé then files suit, seeking £50,000 in damages for the breach of promise by her. She retains the greatest barrister in the empire, Sir Arthur Granville-Jones, to defend her. He is incidentally also a man she seduced and abandoned 40 years earlier, but who has remained hopelessly in love with her ever since. ===== Some six months after the events of "Mission to the Unknown", the TARDIS arrives on the planet Kembel, and the First Doctor leaves the TARDIS to try to find medical aid for the wounded Steven, leaving him with the Trojan servant girl Katarina. Meanwhile, a Space Agent, Bret Vyon is also on the planet trying to find out what happened to Agent Marc Cory. After a less-than-amicable meeting with the TARDIS travellers in which he holds them at gunpoint and demands to be taken away from the planet, Vyon cures Steven and agrees to work with them to escape and warn Earth of the massive Dalek-led alliance that is amassing on the planet. Part of this alliance is the treacherous Guardian of Earth, Mavic Chen, who has brought a sample of the extremely rare Taranium, which will become a part of the Daleks' ultimate weapon, the Time Destructor. The Daleks soon learn of their presence on the planet and the Dalek Supreme gives the command that Operation Inferno is to be carried out- burning down the jungle. The travelers shelter at the Dalek city. The Doctor manages to steal the Taranium by impersonating delegate Zephon, and he, his companions and Bret escape on Chen's ship, termed a Spar. The Daleks exterminate Zephon for allowing the Doctor to impersonate him and they cause the Spar to crash on Desperus, a penal planet where prisoners are left to fend for themselves. Mavic Chen also departs for Earth in a temporary ship, wanting to find out exactly who the people who stole the Taranium are. On Desperus, the Doctor is able to effect repairs, and they manage to escape when the pursuing Dalek ship itself crashes upon arrival. However, a convict named Kirksen sneaks aboard the Spar prior to take-off and holds Katarina hostage in the airlock once the ship has left Desperus. He demands to be taken to Kembel or else he will kill Katarina, but she sacrifices herself by opening the airlock, blowing the two out into space. The Daleks warn Chen that the fugitives will be heading for Earth to inform them of their presence on Kembel, and order him to kill them on sight and snatch the Taranium core himself. Chen worries that that would make the Space Security Service realise he is a traitor, so he instead tells everyone on Earth that the Taranium core is actually a vital substance needed to keep the peace. Space Security Agents patrol all corridors and guard all offices, and all landing bays are monitored for the arrival of Chen's Spar. After mourning Katarina's loss, the party arrives on Earth and meets a contact of Vyon's, who turns out to be in league with Chen. Bret kills him but seconds later another Space Agent, Sara Kingdom arrives and kills Vyon (who it later transpires is actually her brother) and attempts to get the Taranium from the Doctor and Steven but they are able to escape the office. She pursues them to a laboratory, where the three are caught in the middle of a molecular dissemination experiment and are inadvertently transported to Mira, a planet populated by savage invisible creatures, where the three enter into an uneasy alliance. They are constantly attacked by the creatures, the Visians, and try to take shelter. On Earth, Mavic Chen stresses out, believing that the Taranium was destroyed during the transportation. However, the scientists carrying out the Dissemination inform him that the computers are registering that the matter that has been transported (a cage of mice) has successfully arrived on Mira. Chen angrily says that this is no evidence that the taranium wasn't broken up into pieces. He believes he will be exterminated by the Daleks for his failure, so when he makes his report to them, he says he lured the fugitives into the laboratory, as their presence on Earth would have caused suspicions of the Dalek plan, and tells them to pick up the Taranium from Mira whilst he returns to Kembel. When the Daleks arrive they too are attacked by the invisible creatures, and the Doctor, Steven and Sara are able to commandeer the Dalek ship and escape. It turns out that the Daleks can pilot the ship remotely and bring it back to Kembel, but the Doctor is able to create a fake Taranium core, which they hand over to the Daleks before escaping Kembel in the TARDIS. After a brief interlude in which the Doctor and his companions journey to a police station in 1960s England and then a silent film set in America, the trio toast Christmas, and the Doctor breaks the fourth wall by wishing a happy Christmas to the viewers at home. On Kembel, the Daleks test the Time Destructor on delegate Trantis. It has no effect, and the Daleks realise it is a fake. A taskforce of Daleks disembarks to chase the travellers, intending on recapturing the real core. Meanwhile, The TARDIS next arrives on a volcanic planet where the Doctor has a run-in with his old enemy, the Meddling Monk, who attempts to sabotage the TARDIS in revenge for the Doctor previously stranding him in 11th century England. The Doctor is still able to fly the TARDIS to Ancient Egypt, though he has to stop there for repairs. The Monk follows him, as does the taskforce of Daleks and Mavic Chen. The Monk, Sara and Steven end up being captured and used as hostages, and without time to create another fake, the Doctor is forced to hand over the real Taranium core. They are only able to escape with their lives when some Ancient Egyptians attack the Daleks which they describe as 'war machines'. Knowing that the Daleks will now carry out their invasion, the Doctor steals the directional control from the Monk's TARDIS, so that they can return to Kembel and stop the Daleks. The Monk, meanwhile, unwittingly ends up on a desolate, icy planet, and realises he can no longer control the destination of his TARDIS. The Doctor is able to return the TARDIS to Kembel, where Steven and Sara (who get briefly separated from the Doctor) discover that the Daleks have turned on their allies, including Chen, and imprisoned them before apparently leaving the planet. The two TARDIS travellers free the alien leaders, and they leave to persuade their governments to ally against the Daleks, though Chen appears to die when his Spar explodes during take-off. Steven and Sara then find an underground base being used by the Daleks, only to be captured and held at gunpoint by a delusional Chen, who marches them into the base and the Dalek control room. He tries to proclaim himself the leader of the Daleks, but they dismissively kill him. Now reunited with his companions, the Doctor activates the fully assembled Time Destructor. Knowing that the device will quickly begin ageing anything in its vicinity, the Daleks allow the Doctor to escape with Steven and Sara. Steven goes ahead back to the TARDIS, but Sara insists on accompanying the Doctor. The two are unable to get back to the TARDIS before the Time Destructor reaches full power, and Sara is aged to death and reduced to dust metres away from the TARDIS. Steven helps the Doctor back inside and, freed from the Destructor's influence, the two are left weakened, but alive and back to their original ages. The Daleks try to destroy the Time Destructor, but instead cause it to run out of control, resulting in it destroying the Daleks and all life on the planet. The Doctor and Steven emerge from the TARDIS, and Steven is distraught over the deaths of Bret, Katarina and Sara, while the Doctor can only contemplate the "terrible waste" that has taken place. ===== In the howling, snowy north, a young kestrel named Skarlath is lost in a snowstorm after leaving the nest, and is captured by the cruel ferret Swartt Sixclaw and his group of vermin. They also have captured a young badger who they torment mercilessly. The two young beasts help each other escape from the vermin camp. In the scuffle that ensues, the badger creates a massive hornbeam limb club. The ferret and the badger both vow to extort revenge, each declaring the other to be his mortal enemy. As the young badger could not remember his name, Skarlath dubs him Sunflash after the distinctive golden stripe running down his snout. The two young beasts quickly become inseparable friends and travel throughout Mossflower Woods together, defending the weak and helpless and quickly growing older. Sunflash's reputation quickly spreads throughout the land. He eventually moulds his hornbeam limb into a fearsome, stone-spiked warclub, calling it his mace. Meanwhile, Swartt also grows older, stronger, and wiser. He travels the northern lands with his vixen seer Nightshade and his horde and eventually ends up at the camp of Bowfleg, a fat ferret with a large horde who has settled down in a plentiful land. As an earlier leader of Swartt's, his captains are suspicious, and rightly so: with the help of Nightshade, Swartt executes a cunning trick that kills Bowfleg. Swartt takes over his large horde and marries his daughter, Bluefen. At this point, Sunflash and Skarlath have spent several seasons in the Lingl-Dubbo cave, the home of the families of Tirry Lingl the hedgehog and Bruff Dubbo the mole. Sunflash is eventually called to the mountain Salamandastron in his dreams, and so he travels there to become Badger Lord. He and Skarlath part ways, and Sunflash becomes Lord of the Mountain; this section quotes Sunflash's arrival at Salamandastron from the epilogue of Mossflower. By this time, Swartt Sixclaw and his large horde have passed through the Redwall region of Mossflower, which is efficiently defended by the resident squirrels and otters. However, the nursemaid of Swartt's infant son was trampled, and the infant ferret is dropped in a ditch. He is retrieved by the good-hearted woodlanders and taken to Redwall Abbey. At the abbey, the young ferret's fate is determined. Abbess Meriam and Bella of Brocktree decide to entrust the baby to the care of Bryony, a young mousemaid, and Togget, her sensible mole friend. The ferret is named Veil, and as the seasons turn he grows into a young adult in the abbey. As a youngster he is naughty and mischievous, but as a young adult his true vermin nature begins to show through, as the ferret would steal, lie, and be generally unpleasant to all, especially his adopted mother, Bryony. He is eventually banished, by Bella, from the Abbey when he attempts (and fails) to poison Friar Bunfold. Bryony, feeling his banishment was unjust, leaves the abbey to track the ferret down. Her molefriend Togget accompanies her, and together they follow Veil as he wanders through Mossflower. The young ferret, remaining unapologetic and as mean as ever, makes life difficult for the mousemaid and her friend. Leagues away, Swartt comes upon Salamandastron and launches an attack. Together with a smooth- talking ferret corsair named Zigu, an attack is mounted and war begins. Zigu is eventually killed by a skilled hare of the Long Patrol named Sabretache, and Swartt's horde grows once more. With the help of neighbouring woodlanders, the vermin attack is deflected. Sunflash and Skarlath go hunting after them, and Nightshade lays an ambush with poison arrows. In the ensuing attack, Nightshade kills Skarlath with a poison arrow, only to be slain by Sunflash seconds later. Swartt and his depleted horde flee to the mountains east of Salamandastron. Veil, Bryony and Togget reach the same mountains from the east, and Veil meets his father for the first time. Neither is impressed by the other. Sunflash is stunned and captured by Swartt, and Bryony encounters the evil Swartt Sixclaw. The ferret warlord tries to kill her by throwing a javelin; Veil, in a moment that portrays his true emotions toward the mousemaid, saves her life by taking the javelin, dying in the process. Sunflash then kills Swartt by throwing him from the mountain. Sunflash, Bryony and Togget return to Redwall. Bryony, unsure if Veil really meant to save her, accepted that the young ferret she always defended had always been evil. She is later made Abbess and Togget is made Foremole. Sunflash meets Bella, his mother, for the first time since he was a child. He stays with her until her death many seasons later, and he then returns to the western coast to rule at Salamandastron. ===== The play is composed of three acts, each involving different characters but all set in Suite 719 of New York City's Plaza Hotel. The first act, Visitor From Mamaroneck, introduces the audience to not-so-blissfully wedded couple Sam and Karen Nash, who are revisiting their honeymoon suite in an attempt by Karen to bring the love back into their marriage. Her plan backfires and the two become embroiled in a heated argument about whether or not Sam is having an affair with his secretary. The act ends with Sam leaving (allegedly to attend to urgent business) and Karen sadly reflecting on how much things have changed since they were young. The second act, Visitor from Hollywood, involves a meeting between movie producer Jesse Kiplinger and his old flame, suburban housewife Muriel Tate. Muriel - aware of his reputation as a smooth-talking ladies' man - has come for nothing more than a chat between old friends, promising herself she will not stay too long. Jesse, however, has other plans in mind and repeatedly attempts to seduce her. The third act, Visitor from Forest Hills, revolves around married couple Roy and Norma Hubley on their daughter Mimsey's wedding day. In a rush of nervousness, Mimsey has locked herself in the suite's bathroom and refuses to leave. This is the most comic of the acts, filled with increasingly outrageous slapstick moments depicting her parents' frantic attempts to cajole her into attending her wedding while the gathered guests await the trio's arrival downstairs. The scene ends and they finally get married. ===== The story begins in a different place for each playable character. With the exception of Charlotte, the main character is soon told (or otherwise decides) to seek the advice of the Priest of Light in the Holy City Wendel. They arrive at the city of Jadd soon after the Beastmen have invaded. Due to the Beastmen's werewolf powers, they are able to make an escape by night. The main character—now including Charlotte—on the way to Wendel stays overnight in Astoria where they are woken by a bright light. Following it, it reveals itself to be a Faerie from the Sanctuary of Mana, exhausted by her journey. Out of desperation, the Faerie chooses the main character to be her host, and tells them to get to Wendel. There, while they explain their grievances to the Priest of Light, the Faerie interrupts and explains that the Mana Tree is dying and that the Sanctuary is in danger. The Priest explains that if the Tree dies, the Benevodons will reawaken and destroy the world. He goes on to explain further that, because the Faerie has chosen the main character as its host, they must travel to the Sanctuary to draw the Sword of Mana from the foot of the Mana Tree. They can then restore peace to the world, and have their wishes granted by the Mana Goddess if the sword is drawn before the Tree dies. A great deal of power is needed to open the gate to the Sanctuary. The Faerie does not have the strength to do it, and the ancient spell which would do so by unlocking the power in the Mana Stones also takes the caster's life. The Stones' guarding elemental spirits, however, will to be able to open the gate if their powers are combined. After journeying across the world to get the spirits, meeting the other two members of the party, thwarting the invasion attempts of Nevarl and Altena, discovering the powers of the Fire and Water Mana Stones, and learning the disappearance of the Mana Stone of Darkness along the way, the main character tries to open the gate to the Sanctuary of Mana with the spirits' assistance. The first attempt fails, but the second succeeds; the Faerie realizes that it was opened because someone else released the power from all the Mana Stones. The characters travel into the Sanctuary and the main character claims the Mana Sword. It is then discovered that the main character's adversaries—the Crimson Wizard and the Darkshine Knight for Angela and Duran; Malocchio and Isabella for Riesz and Hawkeye; or Goremand and a mind-controlled Heath, for Kevin and Charlotte—have defeated the other two sets of primary enemies. The remaining adversaries capture the Faerie and will only release her in exchange for the Mana Sword. The trade is made, and once the enemy receives the Sword, the Mana Stones shatter and the Benevodons are released. The characters must then defeat the Benevodons before they can gather and destroy the world. However, after doing this they realize killing the Benevodons has given more power to their main enemy, who their personal enemies were working for—the Dragon Lord for Duran and Angela, the Dark Majesty for Hawkeye and Riesz, and the Masked Mage for Kevin and Charlotte. The already powerful villain absorbs the power of the Sword of Mana and the Benevodons in order to become a god, but is halted by the Mana Goddess blocking some of its power. After defeating the villain's minions, the characters go and defeat their main enemy, but are unable to stop him from destroying the Mana Tree and eliminating all Mana from the world. The Faerie then fuses with what is left of the Mana Tree; she will be reborn as the Mana Goddess in a thousand years, but until then Mana will not exist in the world. As the game ends, the characters go back to their homelands. ===== Jaroslav Vozáb decides to find a place where the story of the novel The Castle of Otranto took place, as he believes it is based on a true story. He finds similarities between the ruins of Czech Castle Otrhany and the castle in the novel, which leads him to believe that Otrhany is the castle he is seeking. A television reporter, Miroslav Frýba, makes a reportage with Vozáb, who tells him about his research and the story of book. The film also features a storyline from the book told through animation. It starts with Conrad, the son of Lord Manfred, being crushed by a giant helmet on his way to his wedding with Isabella. Manfred is devastated by the fact that he has lost his only heir and decides to marry Isabella himself, which horrifies her and she runs away. Manfred pursues her but is stopped by a giant knight and Isabella is then saved by Theodore. Manfred then imprisons Theodore, while Isabella hides. A knight from another kingdom comes to Otranto Castle wanting to deliver Isabella. Theodore in the meantime is freed by Manfred's daughter Matilda, who loves Theodore and is saddened by the fact that he loves Isabella. Theodore then goes to find Isabela, who hides in a mountain cave. Theodore meets the knight there and they fight for Isabella. Theodore eventually wins the fight but the knight is revealed to be Isabella's father Frederic. Frederic is healed in Otranto Castle, while Theodore hides in forest. Manfred makes a deal with Frederic that they both will marry each other's daughter. Frederic then goes to propose to Matilda but is stopped by the giant knight and realises his mistake. He decides not to marry Matilda and not to give his daughter to Manfred. Angered, Manfred decides to kill Isabella but accidentally kills his own daughter. The Giant Knight then ruins the castle and kills Manfred in the process. Theodore and Isabella are then seen happily together. When Vozáb finishes his talk Frýba begins to question the possibility of supernatural elements being part of the story but suddenly grit and pieces of stone start to fall from the castle and the giant knight's hand is seen on the top of a tower as the film ends. ===== Raju (Anil Kapoor) is the only son of his rich landlord father Prem (Akash Khuranna). Raju had lost his mother at birth and feels deeply deprived of a mother's love. On Raju's 5th birthday party, as a promised birthday gift, Prem brings home a new mother Laxmi (Aruna Irani), hoping that she will be a doting and caring mother for Raju. However, Laxmi turns out to be greedy, shrewd and cunning. She married Raju's father only for his vast fortune, money and property. Joining with her brother Totaram (Anupam Kher) and his wife Mynavati (Bharati Achrekar), they conspire on how to transfer all property to Laxmi's name. However, Laxmi and Totaram are enraged when they find out that Prem's first wife had prepared a will before her death transferring all property to Raju. And that Prem is only a trustee to all the wealth. In the will, it has been written that Raju will have full control of his property only after marriage and unless his wife jointly consents with him, he will not be able to transfer his wealth and property to another name. Laxmi begins her vile schemes. On the front, she puts up an act of being a very loving mother for Raju, who exhilarated for a mother's love, becomes a devoted son. He showers Laxmi with love and respect, ever-ready to obey her every word. In the process, unknowingly, he allows Laxmi to manipulate him. She very cunningly misleads Raju to give up his education. When his father finds out that Raju stopped going to school at Laxmi's instructions, he called out to her to question her. Laxmi and Totaram, hearing Prem, pours oil on the steps causing him to fall down the flight of stairs and hurting his head severely. Using this opportunity, they proved that Prem had become mentally unstable and locked him up in a corner room of the house. Raju being naïve and uneducated, believed every word of his step-mother and her brother. Over the years, Laxmi increasingly isolated his aging father from the family and mainly Raju. One day, Raju meets Saraswati (Madhuri Dixit) at a wedding and falls head over heels in love with her. After some pursuing and an intense incident in her village, Raju and Saraswati gets married. In the meantime, Laxmi fixes an alliance for Raju with an equally uneducated girl from their own village, so that she too can be manipulated and can finally succeed in transferring the property in Laxmi and her son, Ramesh (Adi Irani), Raju's step brother's name. Laxmi is shocked to learn about Raju and Saraswati's marriage. Because Laxmi knew that Saraswati was not only educated but also a very intelligent girl. As usual, Laxmi puts on an act of a doting mother in front of Saraswati also. But Saraswati soon discovers that Laxmi, Totaram, Mainavati, Ramesh and his wife Kunika (Kunika) are all scammers and that their love for Raju is only a ruse. She challenges to expose their deceit to Raju. First thing, Saraswati takes Prem to the temple thus releasing him from the confined room of 20 years. This bold step of Saraswati antogonised Laxmi. Laxmi clearly disapproved of her guts. But Saraswati successfully proved to all that his father was normal. Initially, Saraswati had to bear the brunt of Raju's anger when she tried to convince him of his mother's conniving intentions. After which, Saraswati cleverly exposed every one who had been cheating Raju over the years. For every attempt of Laxmi's schemes, Saraswati wittingly played and backfired their plans ensuring that Raju gets the message and yet not offended. In one incident, Saraswati, along with Prem and their faithful servants Pandu (Laxmikant Berde) and Champa (Priya Arun), planned for Laxmi to slip and fall, forcing her to be bedridden. Promptly, the responsibility of the entire household is handed over to Saraswati. Laxmi is infuriated and plots to get rid of Saraswati for good. When Saraswati becomes pregnant, her father, Shyamlal (Satyen Kappu) comes home with hoards of sweets for her in-laws and a box of saffron. He requests that a pinch of saffron be mixed with milk and be given to Saraswati. Laxmi, adds poison to the box of saffron. She prepares the milk and tells the unaware Raju to give Saraswati the milk along with a pinch of the poisoned saffron. Champa, who witnessed Laxmi mixing the poison, runs to Saraswati's rescue, narrating everything that happened and warns her against drinking the poisoned milk. A devastated Saraswati informs Raju the same. But blinded by Laxmi's love, Raju not only refuses to believe her, he even accuses her of conspiring stories against his mother. In defense, Raju drinks the poisoned milk to prove to Saraswati her error. Raju's world comes crumbling down when he coughed up blood. He, then recollected and realised that everything he had heard about Laxmi all these years from others were eventually true. Yet, Raju could not bring himself to hate Laxmi. His words to Laxmi before dying touched her deeply. Laxmi repented that her greed for wealth stretched a bit too far this time to the point of killing a son who had loved her with a true heart. Saraswati, in the meantime, rushed to get a doctor. On returning she is told that if she wants Raju alive she will have to sign the property transfer papers. Saraswati agrees immediately. However, Laxmi forbids Saraswati from signing it and apologizes to her. A fight ensues between Laxmi and Ramesh. Totaram and Mynavati also joins with Ramesh. Ultimately, it required Raju himself to come forward to save Laxmi from being killed by Ramesh. Eventually Raju recovers and hands over the signed property papers to Prem. He bids good-bye to his father, Pandu and Champa. He boards the vehicle with Saraswati to leave his home for good, when Laxmi begs him not to leave. To prove her remorse she rips up the papers and tells him that all she wants is nothing more than "her son". The family is happily reconciled. ===== The setting is at a lakeside summer vacation house in Dutchess County, two hours north of New York City where eight gay friends spend the three major holiday weekends of one summer together for Memorial Day, Independence Day, and Labor Day. The house belongs to Gregory, a successful Broadway choreographer now approaching middle age, who fears he is losing his creativity; and his twenty-something lover, Bobby, a legal assistant who is blind. Each of the guests at their house is connected to Gregory’s work in one way or another – Arthur and longtime partner Perry are business consultants; John Jeckyll, a sour Englishman, is a dance accompanist; die-hard musical theater fanatic Buzz Hauser is a costume designer and the most stereotypically gay man in the group. Only John's summer lover, Ramon, and John's twin brother James are outside the circle of friends. But Ramon is outgoing and eventually makes a place for himself in the group, and James is such a gentle soul that he is quickly welcomed. ===== Anthony "Tony" Manero, a former disco king, acts on his brother's advice and his own dreams of dancing professionally. He is now living in a Manhattan flophouse (dosshouse), working as a dance instructor and waiter at a dance club, searching for a big break in the modern dance productions on Broadway. The break from his Brooklyn life, family, and friends seem to have somewhat matured Tony and refined his personality, including his diminished Brooklyn accent, an avoidance of alcohol, and less use of profanity. Other attitudes remain unchanged, such as his disregard for his girlfriend, the forgiving Jackie, who is a dancer and rock singer. Still acting immature, Tony maintains some of his other macho and childish double standards, such as seeing other women but being offended if he sees Jackie with other men. Tony watches a show, which features Jackie as a dancer in the chorus, but focuses on the lead, a seemingly wealthy English dancer, Laura. Tony pursues her with seduction in mind, and spends the night with her. He is annoyed when she dismisses him afterward, not understanding that she intended their encounter to be a one-night stand. Laura coldly justifies her treatment of him by saying that "Everybody uses everybody", and implies that Tony used her in order to get a dance role in her upcoming show. Unable to trust Tony, Jackie breaks up with him. Jackie, Tony and Laura then all audition for the Broadway production Satan's Alley. Jackie and Tony land small roles, and Laura is cast as the lead female dancer. Tony begins to realize how callous he has been to Jackie, and walks all the way from Manhattan to his old Bay Ridge neighborhood in Brooklyn in the middle of the night. It's only when Tony walks past the 2001 Odyssey, he sees that the discotheque, which was his hangout six years earlier, is now a gay nightclub, which makes him take stock of how much his life has changed since he left Brooklyn. When Tony goes to visit his mother, and apologizes for his selfishness and the troublemaking ways of his youth, she points out that his selfish behavior as a teen was what helped him escape a dead-end life in Bay Ridge. Tony feels better after this and heads back to Manhattan to repair his relationship with Jackie. His hostility and distance from the arrogant Laura increase as the production progresses. Tony decides to take a shot at replacing the male lead of Satan's Alley, and requests Jackie to help him practice the number. Laura is disgusted when Tony succeeds and openly displays her resentment at having to partner him in the show. They cannot hide their chemistry on stage despite her animosity, which pleases the show's director. Satan's Alley sells out, and the cast takes the stage to a standing-room-only crowd. The first act is a success despite Tony's brash disregard for the script when he kisses Laura at the end of their number. Laura furiously retaliates by clawing Tony's face. The director blasts Tony backstage, telling him to take his personal war away from the production. Laura seems to offer a truce when she asks to see him after the show to "clear things up". Now fully aware of her manipulative ways, Tony coldly tells her that he has other commitments, and Laura snidely responds that he lacks star quality. The second act is a dazzling display of dance and special effects, and Tony suddenly abandons the script near the end of the show. He hurls Laura away and gives way to his frustration in a solo dance. He finishes and holds out his hand to Laura with a command to jump. She halts amid Jackie's and the director's commands, but finally leaps in his arms for a climactic finish to the show. The thrilled audience gives a standing ovation. Tony celebrates with his jubilant castmates and reconciles with Jackie. He says that what he really must do is "strut" in celebration. He leaves the theater and struts through Times Square, beaming with his newfound success in a scene echoing the opening of Saturday Night Fever. ===== Francis Sandow is the last surviving human born in the 20th century. An early space colonist, he spent long centuries of space travel in suspended animation. After his last such trip, he woke in the 27th Century, where everything had changed. Desperate for something to hold to, he sought out a mentor, who happened to be a member of a very long-lived and slowly dying alien race, the Pei'ans. Under this tutelage, Sandow eventually became a telepath and "worldscaper". Worldscapers have the ability to create and/or terraform planets. The process of becoming a worldscaper culminates in a mystic rite called Naming that binds the mortal to one of the gods in the Pei'an pantheon, and it is believed that the worldscaper is actually acting as an avatar for the god. There are only twenty-seven existing worldscapers; Sandow, bound to Shimbo of Darktree, Shrugger of Thunders, is the only non- Pei'an among them. Outworlders are welcome to practice the religion, which is called Strantri. Sandow opines it will be the first major religion to outlive its founders. Unlike most of the Pei'an deities, who tend to be chimeras like Egyptian gods, Shimbo is also unmistakably human, showing that the Pei'ans had visited Earth in the distant past. The rite of Naming was once reserved for the high priests of the Pei'an religion. Sandow is a confirmed agnostic as far as the objective existence of the gods is concerned. However, whenever he sits for a time in a Strantri shrine, the icon of Shimbo always lights up, and this happens simultaneously in every shrine in the galaxy. At the beginning of the novel, Sandow is one of the most famous men in the Galaxy, wealthy beyond imagination, living a life of seclusion and luxury in worlds he fashions according to his taste. But he is lured into action by a series of photographs sent to him anonymously, showing him old enemies, old friends, and old lovers—most of whom should be dead, but appearing in the photographs to be alive. The novel is partly a tribute to Ernest Hemingway and some of its meditative sequences are written in a Hemingway-like style. Through Sandow's narrative, Zelazny presents observations on 20th-century American culture and how it has changed as other planets are created or discovered. An episode in a luxurious city of an earth colony leads to a rant on gratuities, for example. Eventually Sandow makes his way to Illyria, a world he created as an idyllic paradise, but finds it has been severely damaged. The enemy is a Pei'an rival who as an orthodox member of the faith feels that Sandow's Naming was sacrilege. The ultimate conflict takes place on the Isle of the Dead, at the center of a great lake. It is a replica of Arnold Böcklin's famous Isle of the Dead painting. Sandow also appears as a character in To Die in Italbar (1973) and the short story "Dismal Light" in the collection Unicorn Variations. =====