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Claudia is the middle child of a busy family. She is smart and responsible, often required to help her mother around the house. However, weary of the life in suburban Connecticut, she decides to find something grander. Her younger brother Jamie, along with his extensive savings from playing cards, is enlisted as her partner in crime. They run away from home to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Once they arrive, they spend their days in the museum, exploring and eavesdropping on different schools' guided tours. They hide in the bathrooms until after closing time and sleep in antique beds. While there they encounter "The Angel," a marble statue recently auctioned off by the elusive Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. The striking piece is surrounded by mystery. Many experts dispute the artist who created the work, though many suppose it to be none other than Michelangelo himself. Claudia becomes determined to solve the mystery of "The Angel." Claudia and Jamie spend most of their time in searching and researching new things about the statue. The following day, the two notice a small mark at the base of the piece. After some research, they find that the mark was one that Michelangelo made on numerous works. Claudia disguises herself as an adult in order to make an appointment with a museum worker to inform them of their discovery. Contrary to her hopes, the official informs her that they knew of the mark but are unsure if it is authentic. Jamie, homesick after a week away, catches a cold. Refusing to go home before they solve the mystery, Claudia suggests that they visit the statue's previous owner, Mrs. Frankweiler. She refuses to tell them directly, but does permit them to attempt to discover the answer for themselves. After leading them to a room lined from floor to ceiling with filing cabinets, she informs them that they have one hour to search for the truth. After 54 minutes of fruitless effort, Claudia uncovers the correct file. It contains a sketch of the sculpture from one of Michelangelo's notebooks, proving that he is, indeed, the creator. Finally appeased, the siblings permit Mrs. Frankweiler to drive them home. 

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Baby-Face Finster (a.k.a. Ant Hill Harry), a 35-year-old man who resembles a baby, makes a successful robbery of the Last National Bank by the swift use of stilts, dark clothes, a pram and baby clothing. With him dressed in baby attire, he easily evades the arriving police. Unfortunately for Finster, he loses his money down Bugs' rabbit hole (the pram rolls down a hill and hits a rock) and he gets himself unofficially adopted in order to gain it back. Multiple attempts to grab it (in one instance Finster whacks Bugs with the bag of money) are interpreted as a baby's typical grabbiness. Just as Bugs is putting the 'baby' to bed, Finster hits Bugs with a baseball bat and the words Bok, Pow, Bang and Boing appear; he assumes the baby is having a nightmare. A supposedly remorseful Finster grabs Bugs and hugs him saying: "da-da!" "Have you seen this man? He is Ant Hill Harry, alias Baby-Face Finster. Notorious bank robber believed to have perpetrated the daring Last National Bank holdup this morning. He is 35 years old, stands --" Later, Bugs is trying to watch TV, but gets static interference on the screen instead. Hearing a buzzing noise in the bathroom. Bugs peeks inside, and finds Finster is in the bathroom shaving himself, smoking a cigar, and wearing a tattoo (labeled Maisie, Singapore, 1932), something which starts to disturb Bugs. All of a sudden, the TV connection comes back on and a brief news clip about the bank robbery and an APB for the robber is shown on screen; all this finally makes Bugs realize what is really going on (if the story is assumed to take place in 1954, the date of the cartoon's release, Ant Hill Harry would have been 13 years old when he got the tattoo. While this is possible, it is probably not what the makers of this short meant to imply). Bugs turns off the TV with an angry expression on his face and turns his eyes toward the living room, where he finds Finster going after the money again. He starts to play rough with Finster first by putting the bank robber in a washing machine and when Finster is washed up, Bugs takes him out and throws him up to the ceiling. Finster hits the ceiling and falls to the floor and Bugs picks him up. At this point, Finster tries to stab Bugs with a butcher knife, but misses and stabs himself in the rear. Rather than crying over his pain, Finster instead murmurs inaudible obscenities over it, causing Bugs to spank him, removing the weapons he has with each blow (a pistol, a hand club, a cleaver, shotgun shells, a hand grenade and a machine gun). Bugs trusses Finster up in a basket like a baby and leaves him and the money at the police station. Finster does not take it well, throwing a wild temper tantrum while being locked up in a baby-sized playpen in the State Prison, and angrily claiming his innocence and that he has been framed. Bugs ends the cartoon, telling the angry bank robber: "Don't be such a crybaby. After all, 99 years isn't forever." 

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The novel and film tell the story of Bob Rusk, a serial killer in London who rapes and strangles women. Because of circumstantial evidence, however, the police come to suspect Rusk's friend Richard Blamey. 

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Jim Hawkins (Kim Burfield) is a young boy who works at a pub with his mother (Maria Rohm). When a drunken old sailor named Billy Bones (Lionel Stander) comes in for a drink and dies, Jim gets his hands on a map which shows the whereabouts of pirate Captain Flint's treasure. Immediately taking action, he then enlists the help of Squire Trelawney (Walter Slezak) and Dr. Livesey (Angel DelPozo) to join him as he locates the island on the map. Together, they join a ship commanded by Captain Smollett (Rik Battaglia) that will lead them to their destination. Word of the treasure map gets around and most of the crew are recruited with the help of the ship's cook, Long John Silver (Orson Welles), an ex-pirate who had sailed with Captain Flint and intends to get the treasure by mutiny and murder. Already on the island is a marooned pirate, Ben Gunn, who has spent his time on the island gathering the treasure. With his help Jim, the Squire, the Doctor, the Captain and a number of loyal crewmen outwit the pirates, killing most of them in gun battles. Silver is captured, but escapes when the ship reaches harbour in the West Indies. Much of the plot and the linking narrative – spoken by Jim Hawkins – is faithful to the original book. 

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Jerry hires a maid, Cindy (played by Angela Featherstone), whom he then starts sleeping with. Elaine discovers she has 57 messages on her answering machine when Kramer attempts to send her a fax. George tries to get a nickname (T-Bone), but a co-worker gets it instead. George tries reasoning with the new T-Bone to get the nickname. When he walks into the meeting room carrying a banana, his boss nicknames him Koko, since George was flailing around like a monkey when he was talking to the new T-Bone. The episode also featured the New York area code 646. When the 212 area code ran out of numbers, 646 was created. Kramer signs up to receive restaurant menus by fax with a service called "Now We're Cookin'", but uses Elaine's phone number, mistakenly thinking she had a fax machine. Annoyed by the nonstop calls from the fax service, Elaine changes her phone number and gets one with the 646 area code. She is not happy with the new number, because she believes the area code makes it too long to dial. She is proved correct when attempting to give her number to a man in the park. Initially eager, he hesitates when he sees the 646 area code and asks if it is in New Jersey. Her response is, "No, it's just like 212 except they multiplied every number by 3… and added 1 to the middle number." He makes an excuse and walks off. When her neighbor Mrs. Krantz dies, Elaine manages to get her old 212 number. Mrs. Krantz's grandson Bobby keeps calling Elaine's apartment, ignorant of the fact that his grandmother is dead. Elaine tries to convince Bobby that his grandmother has died by pretending to die herself; this backfires when Bobby dials 911 and firefighters beat down Elaine's door. Kramer's girlfriend moves downtown, leading him to struggle with the drawbacks of a "long-distance relationship". Meanwhile, Jerry begins to realize that because of their relationship, Cindy is no longer doing any work, but he's still paying her, which leads Kramer to comment "Uh-oh - you're a John!" When Jerry confronts Cindy, she walks out on the job and the relationship. Jerry later meets Cindy's boss Maxwell - a parody of a pimp - who threateningly tells Jerry that if he does not get the money from Jerry, he will get it from Cindy. Meanwhile, Kramer breaks up with his girlfriend when she refuses to move, and he gets lost in the Lower East Side. When Jerry goes to pick him up, he spots Cindy and slows down to give her her money - unfortunately, a patrolling NYPD unit mistakes them for a prostitute and a John. Later, a lost Kramer is approached by Maxwell (played by Anthony Crivello) and is talked into a maid job, joking about the similarities between the scene and Kramer being approached by a pimp. During the credits, George purposely hires a woman named Coco (who was referred to earlier by Cindy) as vice president of acquisitions; Kruger states there should not be two Koko/Cocos, and George goes back to being George again, much to his satisfaction. As Kruger begins to talk about removing a stain, Coco mentions her Gammy when she was in Jamaica, but George interrupts her, saying no one cares about her Gammy. As Kruger wonders who is Gammy and saying there should be one, he decides to give George the nickname "Gammy". As everyone (including Coco) eagerly chants "Gammy", George says "Gammy is getting upset!" 

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Owen, a young reporter for a Los Angeles-based music magazine, returns to his Florida hometown to interview Sherry, a local rock singer. Sherry and her band are becoming increasingly popular, largely because of a song she wrote about being raped as a girl; this song has become a hit on college radio. Owen's reasons for returning to his hometown are more than professional, however: he and Sherry were close friends in childhood. He is also aware of the identity of her rapists, as the ringleader was his brother Dan. Through flashbacks, Owen recalls his complicity in the gang-rapes that his brother Dan and his friends perpetrated on many girls. Whenever he would hear someone being forced into Dan's room, which was adjacent to his own, he would block out the noise with music. It is later revealed that Sherry had come to Owen's house on the day of her rape to give him a mixtape. Owen resorted to his usual tactic of trying to ignore what was happening, but he was dragged out of his room and forced to participate in her gang-rape. He tells Sherry that he didn't even know it was her until it was over. Owen informs his brother Dan that he sent the details of Sherry's rape, including his own role in the crime, to Dan's parole officer and to his own editor. Owen also informs him that he has found some of the twelve girls who were raped, and they are willing to testify against Dan to the parole board. Dan will never be able to leave prison. When Dan vehemently asks why Owen is doing this, Owen replies that he loved Sherry. 

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After exhausting the Earth's resources, particularly fossil fuel, innumerable trade companies team up with NASA and begin initiating space programs dedicated to finding resources outside the planet. Mining facilities are established in different areas outside of Earth, particularly on large asteroids near the Moon and most especially on Mars. Various resources are found from these areas and distributed to Earth which aid in the world economy. The largest company that is established from this is the Jin-Sei (Exhausting Star) Corporation set in Japan which is worth 1 trillion in New Yen investments, founded by the Miama family. However, after years of space resource distribution, the separate companies started initiating attacks that would dominate other company's resources. The strongest of these attacks started on Martian colonies established by the second largest company on Earth, Eight Luck Interstellar Development Inc., which banded with smaller companies across Earth including ones in China, England, and America. Eight Luck planned on claiming Mars for its own so as to monopolize on the outsourcing of minerals as well as developing terraformed areas. In response to these attacks, the Jin-Sei formed a union with the JDF (a future version of the JSDF) and began working on a space fighter program organized by Defensive Section 2 of the JDF known as the Soukyugurentai (SOQ for short), which utilized a unique laser technology fighting system known as NALS (Non-blind spot All range Laser System) in combat. The threat of eco-terrorism was on the rise as outspoken ecosystem protectionism groups opposed the company's outsourcing of materials; these were used as subsequent cover-up stories to hide the company war waging between Jin-Sei and Eight Luck from public awareness. Made up of the best fighters adapted to this combat system as well as innumerable stamina strengthening tests for space travel, the SOQ are sent in to defend company territory from rival companies on Earth and space at all costs. 

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The story is set in the town of Krishnapur, and tells of a besieged British garrison which holds out for four months against an army of native sepoys. Among the community are the District Collector, a father of small children, who is an extreme example of Victorian belief in progress, and can often be found daydreaming of the Great Exhibition; the Magistrate, a Chartist in his youth, but who sees his political ideals destroyed by witnessing the siege; Dr Dunstaple and Dr McNab, who row over the best way to treat cholera; Fleury, a poetical young man from England who learns to become a soldier; and Lucy, a "fallen woman" who is rescued and eventually runs a tea salon in the despairing community. By the end of the novel, cholera, starvation and the sepoys have killed off most of the inhabitants, who are reduced to eating dogs, horses and finally beetles, their teeth much loosened by scurvy. "The final retreat of the British, still doggedly stiff-upper-lipped through the pantries, laundries, music rooms and ballroom of the residency, using chandeliers and violins as weapons, is a comic delight". The Siege of Krishnapur is part of Farrell's "Empire Trilogy", which concerns the British Empire and its decline in three locations. Other books in the series are Troubles, which is set during the Irish War for Independence (1919–1921), and The Singapore Grip, which takes place just before the invasion of Singapore by the Japanese in World War II, during the last days of the Empire.New York Book Reviews 

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The film begins with a young girl being rescued from a burning hospital. A firefighter asks her if her mother is still inside, to which she remains speechless. Meanwhile, Shelley, a college student, sits outside near her koi pond in her Japanese-styled home and after having a chat over the phone with Leann, she hears her cat making strange noises. Bewildered by the situation, she suddenly hears strange murmuring in the pond and out of nowhere, a hand emerges and drags Shelley into the pond, drowning her. A red candy then appears on the surface and the same hand proceeds to drag the cat and drowns it as well. Many weeks later, college student Beth Raymond is talking with her friend, Leann, who attended Shelley's funeral. Leann's cellphone rings with a lullaby-like ringtone, and it says it's from Shelley. Leann listens to the voicemail, which is herself screaming. The voicemail is dated three days in the future. Leann begins to experience hallucinations that make her increasingly anxious. While walking home minutes before the time on the voicemail, she calls Beth. Beth runs to get Leann, but unfortunately, she arrives at the same time where Leann accidentally falls off from an overpass and lands on top of a speeding train, killing her. A red candy pops out of her mouth and Leann's severed hand dials an unknown number on her phone. At Leann's funeral, Beth's roommate, Taylor, is talking about Shelley receiving a strange voicemail before her death, just like Leann had. Brian, Leann's ex-boyfriend, begins to see disturbing apparitions, and leaves the funeral in a rush. Beth catches Brian outside a coffee shop and Brian shows her a voicemail he received the night Leann died, from Leann's phone. Beth realizes the voicemail is dated mere seconds away. An explosion at a nearby construction site sends a rebar through Brian's torso. Similar to Leann, Brian coughs out a red hard candy and collapses, as Beth stares in horror. When Beth arrives home, a distraught Taylor is waiting for her. Taylor says she knows she's next, even though she hasn't received a voicemail. Beth assures her that it isn't going to happen, and takes the batteries out of both their cellphones to ensure they can't receive calls. Later that night, Beth and Taylor are awakened by the lullaby ringtone coming from Taylor's battery- less cellphone. Despite having no power source, Taylor's phone screen displays a video message of her death, dated two days in the future. The next morning, police detective Andrews visits Beth, saying his sister was the one who called Shelley, despite his sister being dead at the time of the call. He also says he traced the voicemail left on his sister's phone and was going to find out more about the person who sent it, Marie Layton. Andrews goes through the local autopsy reports, and finds a report for Ellie Layton, Marie's eldest daughter, who died of an asthma attack. They find records for hospital visits for Ellie and Laurel, who is Ellie's younger sister. Laurel was injured often, which leads Beth to suspect abuse from her mother. Meanwhile, Taylor was contacted by a TV producer who heard about the deaths and mysterious phone calls, and who planned to film an exorcism being performed on Taylor and her phone at the time of Taylor's foretold death. Beth races to Taylor while the exorcism is being filmed and arrives in time to see Taylor being choked to death by an unseen force, after which a red hard candy falls out of her mouth. Suddenly, Beth's phone begins to ring and she finds a voicemail dated for tomorrow. In an effort to save herself, Beth decides to find out more about the hospital fire alone. At the abandoned hospital and with less than 30 minutes left, Beth is frightened by various apparitions. She runs into Andrews, and the two try to escape the hospital. They are later separated and Beth finds a crawlspace. She discovers Marie's body, burned to death and clutching a cell phone. At the time of Beth's foretold death, Marie's corpse assaults Beth while weeping. It is later revealed that Marie's ghost was actually protecting Beth, not trying to hurt her. Amazingly, Beth survives her predicted death. Afterwards, while visiting Laurel, Andrews finds a compact- disc in her teddy bear. The disc contains a video from a camera Marie hid to monitor Laurel and Ellie. The disc reveals that Ellie had cut Laurel's arm with a butcher knife while performing an occult blood ritual. Marie entered and realized that the abuse she had been blamed for was Ellie's fault all along. She then took Laurel to the hospital, leaving Ellie locked in the bedroom. Ellie suffered an asthma attack and died while dialing her mother's cell, thus initiating the curse and making Marie its first victim as she then died in the hospital fire. Back in present time, Laurel tells Andrews that though Ellie hurt her, she always gave her red hard candies, same as the ones found in the mouths of all the victims. Andrews' cellphone begins to ring with a voicemail dated for thirty minutes in the future. Andrews realizes that the force behind the murders is Ellie, and races to Beth. After he arrives at her house, the two hear a knock on the door. As Andrews looks through the peephole, a knife stabs through it and kills him. Ellie's spirit appears and reaches out to kill Beth, but the spirit of Marie appears and grabs Ellie, saving Beth yet again. A red candy spills out of Andrews' mouth and his cell begins to dial a number on its own, revealing that Ellie's ghost is still out there, and more people will die. 

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In Passaic, New Jersey, the declining "Be Kind Rewind" VHS rental store owned by Mr. Horace Fletcher is due to be demolished to make way for high-end development (due in large part to the refusal of Mr. Fletcher to rent out DVDs rather than outdated VHS video tapes) unless he can find the money to renovate his building, despite his claims that jazz pianist Fats Waller was born in that building. His building is condemned as a slum and the officials give him 60 days to upgrade the building to the required standards or they will demolish it. Mr. Fletcher leaves on a trip for several days joining some friends to memorialize Waller, as well as visiting a DVD rental store to learn efficient and modernized ways of running a video rental store, leaving his only employee, Mike, to tend to the store. Before leaving Mr. Fletcher cautions Mike to keep his paranoid and klutzy conspiracy theorist friend, Jerry, away from the store. However, Mike reads it in reverse on the steamed up train window, and does not understand. After attempting to sabotage a nearby electrical substation, believing its energy to be melting his brain, Jerry is electrocuted which leaves him magnetized, and when he enters the store the next day, he inadvertently erases all the VHS tapes in the store (as well as making the TV not work correctly, whenever he walks past it). Mr Fletcher phones an acquaintance Miss Falewicz asking her to return the rented tape of Driving Miss Daisy. He asks her to keep an eye on his shop. Mike quickly discovers the disaster, and is further pressed when Miss Falewicz, Mr. Fletcher's friend, wants to rent Ghostbusters. To prevent her from reporting a problem to Mr. Fletcher, Mike comes up with an idea: as Miss Falewicz has never seen the movie, he proposes to recreate the film using himself and Jerry as the actors and cheap special effects hoping to fool her. They film it in the local library. They complete the movie just in time when another customer asks for Rush Hour 2. Mike and Jerry repeat their filming, enlisting the help of Alma, a local woman, for some of the parts. Word of mouth spreads through Miss Falewicz's nephew of the inadvertently hilarious results of Mike and Jerry's filming, and soon the store is seeing more requests for such movies. Mike, Jerry, and Alma quickly pass off the movies as being "sweded", insisting the films came from Sweden and thus able to demand long wait times and higher costs for the rental ($20 instead of $1). Soon, to meet demand, Mike and Jerry enlist the locals to help out in making the movies, using them as starring roles in their films. When Mr. Fletcher returns, intent on converting the store to a DVD rental outlet, he quickly recognizes that they are making more money from the sweded films than from normal rentals, and joins in with the process. However, the success is put to a halt when two court bailiffs arrive, insisting the sweded films are copyright violations, and seize the tapes and the store's assets, crushing the tapes with a steamroller. Without any money to renovate the building, Mr. Fletcher gives up hope, and is forced to reveal to Mike that he made up the connection of Fats Waller to their building. Mr. Fletcher is given a week to evacuate the building before it will be razed. Jerry, with the help of the local townspeople, convinces Mr. Fletcher and Mike to give one last hurrah and put together a documentary dedicated to the fake life of Fats Waller, and the two quickly warm up to the idea. They create "Fats Waller Was Born Here". On the day the building is scheduled for demolition, Mr. Fletcher invites all the locals to watch the final film. In his eagerness to start the show due to the presence of the demolition crew waiting to start the job, Jerry accidentally breaks the store's only television, but a nearby DVD store owner loans them his video projector, allowing them to show the movie on a white cloth placed in the store's window. As their film ends, Mr. Fletcher, Mike and Jerry exit the store to find a crowd has gathered in the street to watch the film through the window, including the city official and wrecking crew, and they are given a rousing applause by the gathered crowd. The credits roll with more of the mockumentary and Fats Waller singing Your Feet's Too Big. 

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Ajay joins a college in Shimla for further education. He meets Vikram and Nisha, two slackers in the college who just love playing pranks. Ajay is way different from them and an easy target. But after some initial hiccups, Ajay becomes friends with them. Soon, the trio are playing pranks on unsuspecting people. One day, they spot a stingy Seth (a wealthy man) and send him a fake typewritten extortion note, hoping to relieve him of his money. However, the next day, they find out through the newspaper that the man is dead. Based on the circumstances, they realize that they might end up as prime suspects in the case. They decide to destroy their incriminating typewriter, only to find it missing. Also, they realize that a stranger (Dev Kumar) is stalking them. Ajay and Nisha decide to tell police the truth, whether they believe it or not. But even before they can tell the truth, they are horrified to find Vikram dead. They meet Inspector Bhupendra Singh, who is investigating the case. The Inspector is sceptical, but gives them one chance to prove their innocence. From Vikram's personal belongings, they find out about a club singer named Sherie. Anticipating that Sherie may know as to why Vikram was killed, they go to meet Sherie. But when they go to her dressing room after her performance, they find her dead. The duo realize that Sherie was involved in some shady deals and Vikram was her partner. After trying to find out some information, they learn that Sherie acted as a middleman between a dreaded criminal named Black Cobra and the people who paid him. After learning that Black Cobra is an extortionist and the dead man was also on his payroll, blocks suddenly start falling into places. Ajay and Nisha deduce that the Seth thought the note was from Black Cobra and confronted him. The Seth thought that Black Cobra became more greedy and threatened to expose him, following which he was killed by latter. Black Cobra thought that Vikram and Sherie were extorting people in his name, behind his back, so he killed them. He also stole the typewriter to frame Ajay and Nisha. It becomes clear that the person following them is either Black Cobra himself, or his henchman. Though they have no concrete information about Black Cobra, they find some information secretly hidden by Sherie, that might unmask Black Cobra. The stranger confronts them, but the duo overpower him and escape. They inform the Inspector about their findings. The Inspector calls them to meet him in an abandoned place. Ajay gives him all the incriminating evidence, but to his astonishment, the Inspector burns all of it. He shocks him by telling that he is none other than Black Cobra himself. Suddenly Ajay realizes that he played right into his hands. Black Cobra coolly goes on to declare that since he knows pretty much everything, he has to kill him and pin the blame of all the killings on him. He denies that he sent any man behind them. Just he is about to pull the trigger, the stranger makes an entry and after some fight the Black Cobra is put behind bars. To a bewildered Ajay and Nisha, the stranger reveals that he is Charlie, an undercover police officer working on the murder cases. He tells that he suspected Vikram and Sherie of running the extortion racket much before the first murder. He already knew about the prank, but was unsure of the killer's identity. So he stole their typewriter. Then Cobra killed Vikram and Sherie to keep his secret intact. Then he knew that Cobra is behind all this and used the duo to track down Cobra. He reassures Ajay and Nisha that even though Black Cobra destroyed all the proof, there is no proof against the duo either. He tells the duo to collect the typewriter from him the next day. The duo oblige, vowing never to play such pranks again. 

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The novel's action switches stage frequently between the Earth of 2069, the 'jigsaw-planet' Mir 31 years after its creation, and various settlements on Mars. Firstborn opens with Bisesa Dutt waking up after 19 years of suspended animation, only to be informed of the fact that a 'bogey' has entered the Solar System. Further investigation of the object reveals that it is a "cosmological-weapon" (called a Q-bomb by scientists) capable of destroying matter by engulfing it into a small 'pocket universe', which is then quickly destroyed in a Big Rip-like event. Bisesa, her now- divorced daughter Myra, and a young spacer called Alexei Carel quickly leave the Earth via a space elevator, to escape what Alexei views as an inefficient and corrupt government. Meanwhile, on Mir, a young astronomer named Abdikadir (son of one of the main characters of Time's Eye), while making observations on what appears to be planet Mars covered in oceans, is interrupted by Bisesa Dutt's old mobile phone ringing. Back on Earth, the Space Council is preparing to launch an antimatter-fueled spacecraft to intercept the Q-bomb, while Bisesa arrives at a research station located at Mars' North Pole. The team there had discovered a gravitational "trap" that contained one of the Firstborn's Eyes. This is proof that not only did intelligent Martians exist in the distant past, but that they had been exterminated (probably with another Q-Bomb) by the Firstborn, but not before they had captured one of the Eyes. As she approaches the Eye, Bisesa is promptly sucked into a gateway and finds herself back on Mir, in the Temple of Marduk. Babylon has been completely changed by Alexander the Great after his victory over the Mongols, becoming the center of his new empire and one of only two large cities on the planet (the other being a nineteenth-century Chicago). After a failed assassination attempt on Alexander, Bisesa is forced to leave Babylon and head for Chicago. On the way, her phone's AI determines that the universe containing Mir and the habitable version of Mars is rapidly decaying, and has only another 500 years left before it ends in a Big Rip. Myra, after losing her mother once again on Mars, is contacted by the AI Athena, who had been the managing intelligence behind the storm shield in Sunstorm. After being copied and transmitted to nearby star systems in 2042, in an attempt to save a small bit of humankind should the shield project fail, she and another two AIs had reached a distant, inhabited planet, which had itself been almost sterilised by the Firstborn. From there, with the help of the planet's last inhabitant, they witnessed humanity's survival through the Sunstorm. Athena was promptly re-transmitted to Earth, to aid against the alien menace. Athena informs Myra and the Mars researchers of a plan to stop the Q-bomb by communicating to the Martians from Mir's universe. Back on Mir, Bisesa reaches a frozen-over Chicago, the climate having been heavily disrupted by the Discontinuity (the moment of Mir's creation). There she receives a transmission from Myra in the "real" universe, informing her of Athena's plan to communicate with the Martians; a pattern of geometrical shapes was to be transmitted to Blue Mars, which would prompt the Martian survivors to somehow act. At the suggestion of Thomas Alva Edison, the residents of Chicago dig vast trenches in the shapes required in Mir's North American icecap, filling them with oil and setting them ablaze; the pattern is observed by the sole remaining inhabitant of Blue Mars, at the Martian North Pole, who promptly reconfigures its version of the gravity trap to crush the Eye it contained. Athena's hypotheses was that all the Eyes were connected, and the destruction of one on Blue Mars would attract the Q-bomb to real-Mars, thereby destroying the planet completely but sparing Earth. The scheme is successful, and the Q-bomb is diverted. It strikes Mars, and the planet slowly begins to leave the universe. Myra decides to stay at the Martian North Pole as the planet dissolves. On Mir, Bisesa travels back to Babylon, activating the Eye and returning to real-Mars at the very moment of the Big-Rip. The novel ends with Myra and Bisesa reunited on the planet shown to Bisesa during her very first trip through an Eye. A portal opens behind them, and Myra's estranged daughter, Charlotte, invites them through. It is revealed that in Charlotte's future, humanity alone or with other sentient allies, perhaps a faction of the Firstborn, calls itself the Lastborn as they are at war with the Firstborn. 

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A live-action host (Robert Emmett O'Connor) opens with a disclaimer about the nature of the cartoon, namely, that the short is meant to "prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that crime does not pay." The story begins on a dark and stormy night as the victim (voiced by Kent Rogers doing an impression of Richard Haydn), presumably the master of the very large "Gruesome Gables" mansion, is reading a book based on the cartoon he's in. Frightened, he muses that, according to the book, he is about to be "bumped off." Someone throws a dagger with a letter attached, telling the master that he will die at 11:30. When he objects, another letter informs him that the time has been moved to midnight. True to form, on the final stroke of midnight a mysterious killer in a heavy black cloak and hood shoots him dead with a rather large pistol (how dead he is, though, is a matter of question), and a police officer (voiced by Billy Bletcher, modeled on characters portrayed in film by Fred Kelsey) immediately begins to investigate. After checking out the premises and the servants, the officer gives a lengthy chase to the real killer, finding the mansion to be filled with surreal pitfalls, strange characters—including a red skeleton (a parody of Red Skelton) and a ghost that's terrified of mice—and booby traps that slow and obstruct him. He eventually traps the killer and unmasks him, revealing him to be the opening- sequence host, who confesses "I dood it"—one of Skelton's catchphrases—before bursting into tears. 

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In 2029 CE, the Earth is run by the Unity organisation after a devastating world war. Unity runs the planet, controlling humans from childhood education onwards through the Vulcan series of artificial intelligences, but is fought by the Healer movement. Unity Director William Barris discovers that the Vulcan 3 computer has become sentient and is considering drastic action to combat what it sees as a threat to itself. Vulcan 3 has been kept ignorant about information related to the Healer revolutionary movement by Managing Director Jason Dills, who is still loyal to its (also sentient) predecessor, Vulcan 2. Vulcan 2 fears that it will soon be superseded by Vulcan 3, and previously established the Healers as a movement to overthrow its successor. Dill and Barris begin to suspect one another, as Dill has received a letter that refers to Barris' previous contact with the Healers, but Vulcan 2 suffers partial damage in a terrorist attack. It advises Dill not to inform Vulcan 3 about the existence of the Healers, for fear that Vulcan 3 will order their mass execution. However, Vulcan 3 has already noticed the gap in available data about the rebels, and manufactured killer androids of its own. Barris and Dill resolve their differences and together attend an extraordinary Director's Council meeting at the Unity Control Building in Geneva. Jason Dill is presented with an indictment for treason for having withheld data about the Healers from Vulcan 3. The meeting turns into a melee, during which Dill is killed. The directors split into pro and anti- Vulcan 3 factions, with some directors joining forces with the Healers. Barris escapes to New York City, meets up with Father Fields, and plans an attack upon Vulcan 3. The anti-Vulcan 3 forces make their move, resulting in the destruction of the artificial intelligence. Finally, humanity is freed from Unity and its technocratic dictatorship. 

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Against the wishes of his law partners, slick talking lawyer Andrew Morton (Humphrey Bogart) takes the case of Nick Romano (John Derek), a troubled punk from the slums, partly because he himself came from the same slums, and partly because he feels guilty for his partner botching the criminal trial of Nick's father years earlier. Nick is on trial for viciously killing a policeman point-blank and faces execution if convicted (the event is shown in a dark opening scene, but the killer's face is not seen). Nick's history is shown through flashbacks showing him as a hoodlum committing one petty crime after another. Morton's wife Adele (Candy Toxton) convinces him to play nursemaid to Nick in order to make Nick a better person. Nick then robs Morton of $100 after a fishing trip. Shortly after that, Nick marries Emma (Allene Roberts), and he tries to change his lifestyle. He takes on job after job but keeps getting fired because of his recalcitrance. He wastes his paycheck playing dice, wanting to buy Emma some jewelry, and then walks out on another job after punching his boss. Feeling a lack of hope of ever being able to live a normal life, Nick decides to return to his old ways, sticking to his motto: "Live fast, die young, and have a good-looking corpse." He leaves Emma, even after she tells him that she is pregnant. After he commits a botched hold-up at a train station, he returns to Emma so as to take her with him as he flees. He finds that she had committed suicide by gas from an open oven door. Morton's strategy in the courtroom is to argue that slums breed criminals and that society is partly to blame for crimes committed by people who are forced to live in such miserable conditions. Morton argues that Romano is more a victim of society than a natural-born killer. Yet, his strategy does not have the desired effect on the jury, thanks to the badgering of the seasoned and experienced District Attorney Kernan (George Macready), who delivers question after question until Nick shouts out his admission of guilt. Morton, who actually believed in his client's innocence, is shocked by Nick's confession. Nick decides to change his plea to guilty. During the sentencing hearing, Morton manages to arouse sympathy for the plight of those trapped by birth and circumstance in a dead-end existence. He pleads with the jury that if you "knock on any door" you may find a Nick Romano. Nevertheless, Nick is sentenced to die in the electric chair. Morton visits Nick prior to the execution and watches him walk the last mile to his just reward. 

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Stringer and Avon visit a gym to arrange a junior college athlete to play for them at an upcoming Eastside/Westside basketball game. After their negotiations, they discuss the hunt for Omar. Stringer wants to feign passivity until Omar re- emerges, but Avon is adamant that they need to kill him for the sake of street cred. Meanwhile, in the projects, Wallace tells D'Angelo that he doesn't want to work anymore because he is unsettled by the Omar heist and the deaths of Brandon and Stinkum. D'Angelo gives him his blessing to return to school and hands him some cash as well. Poot later goes looking for Wallace and finds him buying drugs. Bubbles and Johnny spot Walon, the speaker from their Narcotics Anonymous meeting. They are distracted by Bodie, who is throwing out free vials of new product. Bubs approaches Walon afterwards and learns that he is still clean, but has come to the projects to try to convince his nephew to go straight. Later, Bubbles steals a large stash and shoots up with Johnny, only to realize that it is mere baking soda. Bubbles is motivated to visit his sister and persuades her that he is serious about getting clean. She reluctantly gives him a key so that he can use her basement, but forbids him from coming upstairs. The detail's surveillance work continues with Herc and Carver on the streets and Freamon, Sydnor, and Prez back at the office. They intercept a call and learn that Wee-Bey is going to be moving some money. Herc and Carver intercept him and take the money, telling him that he can get it from the State's Attorney if he can explain where it came from. They discuss keeping some, but Carver decides it would not be worth the risk with the wire running. They deliver the money back to the office and listen in on a call that Poot makes to his girlfriend. After a substantial amount of phone sex, they hear something pertinent. McNulty and Prez both note that they cannot use the call as evidence without justifying it. Later, Daniels finds the money short. Thinking Herc and Carver stole it, he tells them that they have until roll call the following morning to bring it back. The two bicker, each suspecting the other, but when the cash turns up in their car, Carver apologizes to Herc. Tension builds between McNulty and Daniels. When McNulty remarks that they need to extend the wiretap, Daniels responds angrily. Freamon backs up Daniels, saying that he is in a difficult position between his men and the bosses. Freamon instructs Sydnor and Prez in tracking the money which the crew is making. He gets records from City Hall showing massive campaign contributions from the Barksdales to various politicians. These efforts also reveal information on the Barksdales' front organizations, including a funeral parlor, a strip club, and several warehouses. At the basketball game, Avon mocks Proposition Joe's attempt to dress like a real coach. Poot and Bodie explain the game to Herc and Carver: the loser has to throw a party for both crews. Carver and Herc try to identify Avon, but have no idea whom they are looking for. Sydnor arrives and quickly recognizes Avon from his old boxing photo. Freamon and Greggs pick up Shardene, the exotic dancer from Orlando's, the Barksdale-run strip club. In an attempt to turn her, they take her to identify Keisha's body. Appalled and distraught, she agrees and moves out of D'Angelo's apartment. When he asks her for a reason, she hints that she knows what really happened to Keisha. Omar continues stalking the projects looking for a way to get at Avon. He eventually makes his way to Proposition Joe's place and offers some of his takings from the Barksdales' stash in exchange for Avon's pager number. Omar tracks Avon to Orlando's and tricks him into answering a page using Wee-Bey's code. Wee-Bey pulls up and Avon realizes that something is amiss. He dives out of range just as Omar opens fire. Wee-Bey and Omar exchange shots and Wee-Bey wings Omar who, wounded, retreats. 

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Chicago private detective V.I. Warshawski is asked by a longtime client to look into his mother's suspicion that trespassers are living in the empty mansion her father built. V.I. discovers a corpse on the property that is found to be a young black journalist who was writing about members of a 1930s federal theater project and one member in particular that was blacklisted during the Communist witch hunt. V.I. is hired by the journalist's sister to investigate his death. 

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Midworld is a planet entirely covered by a rain forest three-quarters of a kilometer (almost half a mile) tall. Born is a member of the primitive human society that has lived peacefully on Midworld for hundreds of years, careful not to disturb the natural balance of the jungle. His people live in a gigantic tree called the Home Tree. When they die, they are ceremonially buried in another gigantic tree of a species called They-Who- Keep. Each of the locals forms a lifetime bond with a powerful and intelligent photosynthetic animal called a furcot. When they need to damage a plant they are familiar with, they communicate with it empathetically ("emfoling") to make sure it does not object. The world is disrupted by the arrival of an exploitative business venture from Earth whose representatives know nothing of the delicate stability of the planet. A man and a woman from this company crash in their aircraft near Born's home. He, a fellow hunter named Losting (both hunters are in love with the tribe's most beautiful girl), and their furcots lead the castaways safely through the jungle's surprising dangers to their station. Born realizes that the newcomers are on his world to gain a life-extending drug from the burls formed by the They-Who-Keep trees around buried people. Horrified by this discovery and the invaders' callousness toward living beings, he uses native plants and animals to destroy their station. In the final fight Losting is killed, but Born returns to the Home Tree. Losting's brain and mind are absorbed to form part of a developing planet-wide network of consciousness involving They-Who-Keep and the furcots. 

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While attending Temple College, Claude tried to convince his parents that attending the State University would give him a better education. His parents ignore his pleas and Claude continues at the Christian college. After a football game, Claude meets and befriends the Erlich family, quickly adapting his own world perception to the Erlichs' love of music, free-thinking, and debate. His career at university and his friendship with the Erlichs are dramatically interrupted, however, when his father expands the family farm and Claude is obligated to leave university and operate part of the family farm. Once pinned to the farm, Claude marries Enid Royce, a childhood friend. His notions of love and marriage are quickly devastated when it becomes apparent that Enid is more interested in political activism and Christian missionary work than she is in loving and caring for Claude. When Enid departs for China to care for her missionary sister, who has suddenly fallen ill, Claude moves back to his family's farm. As World War I begins in Europe, the family is fixated on every development from overseas. When the United States decides to enter the war, Claude enlists in the US Army. Finally believing he has found a purpose in life - beyond the drudgery of farming and marriage - Claude revels in his freedom and new responsibilities. Despite an influenza epidemic and the continuing hardships of the battlefield, Claude Wheeler nonetheless has never felt as though he has mattered more. His pursuit of vague notions of purpose and principle culminates in a ferocious front-line encounter with an overwhelming German onslaught. 

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Cachalot is an ocean planet where humans have begun building floating cities. It is also the same planet where all of Earth's cetaceans were transplanted six hundred years ago after the Covenant of Peace was enacted with all intelligence-enhanced ocean dwellers. Four of these cities have been destroyed when a middle-aged scientist and her late-teen daughter are dispatched to the planet to discover the source of the attacks. The novel title comes from the French word cachalot, meaning sperm whale. This word was applied to the sperm whale when the mammals were actively hunted in Earth's oceans. The novel features a new musical instrument called "neurophon" producing not only tunes but also nerve sensations on human skin and irritating alien creatures found on the planet. 

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The story follows Jerry Tarkanian, a criminal looking to avenge the death of his friend Barney, who died at the hands of his own accomplices after taking part in an armored car heist. Unknown to them, Barney managed to get to Tarkanian before he died and told him of the heist and of a map divided amongst his killers that reveals the location of the stolen money. At the start of the story, Tarkanian has tracked down two of the men, Keenan and Sarge, who are about to make a deal between themselves. He manages to hold them at gunpoint and forces them to give him their pieces of the map. However, things go wrong when a third man, Jagger, appears during the confrontation and attacks them both. In the firefight that follows, Sarge is killed but contributes to Jagger's downfall when his body obstructs Jagger's path; this gives Tarkanian the advantage necessary to kill Jagger. Despite not having Jagger's part of the map, Tarkanian knows enough to recover the money. The story ends as Tarkanian leaves the scene. Tarkanian knows that his debt to his friend has been paid and he himself now has a lot to be grateful for. The plot is similar to a novel the character George Stark is writing in The Dark Half. This is the only work of short fiction that King ever wrote under a pen name. 

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Scientists Eitienne and Lyra Redowl come to the planet Horseye to study the entire length of the immense Skar River and its spectacular river chasm, the largest in the whole Humanx Commonwealth. On Horseye there are three separate sentient species, which all have different concerns about their planet. The Mai, traders from the river delta, are prepared to help the Redowls, but have their own agenda for doing so, for it is rumoured that at the head of the river is the City of the Dead and a great treasure. This treasure is eventually revealed to not be material wealth, but an ancient artifact that is used to monitor the depths of space for an approaching evil. 

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The episode opens with a seemingly routine discussion between Baltimore detective Jimmy McNulty and an indignant, shocked witness to a murder, while sitting on the stoop of a West Baltimore building multiple people have tagged with their names. In the street before them lies the body of Omar Isaiah Betts, a "rip and run" kid nicknamed "Snot Boogie", who was fatally shot by a newcomer to the back alley craps game Betts played in and then robbed each week when the cash pot grew sufficiently large. The conversation emphasizes the significance of the name by which the victim was known. The witness also describes the illogical, but to that point accepted, pattern of the regulars allowing Snot Boogie to join the game each week, knowing in advance he would rob it, followed by their chasing him down to beat him and retrieve their money. Until now, observes the witness, "ain’t nobody ever go past that". When McNulty asks, given the established pattern, "Why’d you even let him in the game?" the reluctant witness, who declares he will not testify in court, responds, "You got to. This America, man." McNulty, using a soft touch and "soft eyes" approach, ultimately flips the witness, securing his testimony "in exchange for some Grape Nehi and a few Newports". McNulty observes the courtroom trial of D'Angelo Barksdale, a young drug dealer charged with the murder of a low-ranking gang member. One of the two eyewitnesses, a security guard named Nakeesha Lyles, changes her story on the stand and refuses to identify D'Angelo, resulting in an acquittal. McNulty vents his frustration to Judge Daniel Phelan about the Baltimore Police Department's failure to investigate D'Angelo's uncle Avon and his right-hand man Stringer Bell, who are major players in West Baltimore's drug trade. Phelan makes a call to Deputy Commissioner Ervin Burrell. Later, Major William Rawls, incensed that McNulty went around the chain of command, forces him to write a report for Burrell about the Barksdale murders. Sergeant Jay Landsman warns McNulty that his behavior could end with a reassignment. He asks where McNulty would not want to be reassigned, and McNulty admits he dreads being posted to the harbor patrol unit. Wee-Bey Brice drives D'Angelo to Orlando's strip club, a front for the Barksdale Organization. When D'Angelo discusses the trial in Wee-Bey's car, Wee-Bey curtly reminds him not to discuss business in the car or on the phone, in case both are being monitored. Avon chides D'Angelo for committing a needless public murder, costing the organization time, effort, and money. D'Angelo also meets a stripper named Shardene Innes. When D'Angelo arrives at the high-rise Franklin Terrace housing projects, Stringer tells him he has been demoted to heading a crew in the low-rise projects, dubbed "the Pit." This new crew includes Bodie Broadus, Poot Carr, and young Wallace. Narcotics Lieutenant Cedric Daniels is tasked by Burrell with organizing a detail to investigate the Barksdales. Burrell wants to keep the investigation quick and simple, appeasing Phelan without becoming drawn into a protracted case. Daniels brings Narcotics detectives Kima Greggs, Thomas "Herc" Hauk, and Ellis Carver with him. Rawls sends McNulty and Michael Santangelo, one of Homicide's more inept detectives. McNulty's FBI contact, Agent Terrance "Fitz" Fitzhugh, shows him the Bureau's far superior surveillance equipment, but explains that their drug investigations are winding down due to the War on Terror. McNulty objects to Daniels' plan of buy busts and suggests using a wiretap to get a conviction. However, Daniels insists on a fast-paced investigation, suggesting that the detail look at old murders tied to the Barksdales. McNulty goes drinking with his Homicide partner Bunk Moreland and complains about his ex-wife, who makes it difficult for him to see his two sons. Greggs returns home to her partner Cheryl. A junkie named Bubbles and his protege, Johnny Weeks, buy drugs with counterfeit money, but when they try to repeat the scam, Bodie leads the crew in beating Johnny. Bubbles is also a confidential informant for Greggs, and agrees to give her information on the Barksdales as revenge for the beating. At the start of his second day working the Pit, D'Angelo is shocked to find the murdered body of William Gant, another witness at his trial, lying in the street. 

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Set in the Humanx Commonwealth, Prism is a unique planet because its ecosystem contains both silicon-based and carbon- based life. Evan Orgell, a management troubleshooter sent to Prism to investigate the disappearance of a research group, finds himself fighting for his survival in this strange crystalline environment after his specialized environment suit succumbs to the local elements. Leaving behind his mechanized suit, Evan is for the first time in his life exposed to a hostile environment without the protection of his suit and must rely on the unexpected help of the native sentient life to survive. With the help of a caterpillar-like creature named A Surface of Fine Azure-Tinted Reflection With Pyroxin Dendritic Inclusions (which Evan chooses to call simply "Azure", much to his strange new friend's disappointment) he must grow to overcome his prejudices, his assumptions, and his preoccupations to relearn what life, communication, companionship, government, and even his own bodily form mean to him. He and his new-found friends must overcome multiple treacherous acts by his own race in order to survive and thrive on the beautiful, but deadly, planet. 

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18-year-old Marnie (Sara Paxton) decides to forego her original college plans and attend Witch University in Halloweentown. Marnie is offered a full scholarship for her good deeds and for her work in the previous years. Much to her mother Gwen's (Judith Hoag) dismay, Marnie goes, and her brother Dylan (Joey Zimmerman) is reluctantly forced along by Gwen to keep an eye on her. The school is not what it seems, as witches and warlocks cannot use magic; instead they learn about Shakespeare and old magic history. Marnie had thought she would learn how to use her magic and is now crestfallen. She runs into her old friend Ethan (Lucas Grabeel) and makes a new friend named Aneesa the Genie (Summer Bishil). She also makes three new enemies in the Sinister Sisters: Scarlett (Kristy Wu), Sapphire (Kellie Cockrell) and Sage (Katie Cockrell), a triad of malevolent, extremely snobby, spoiled, and manipulative witches who are the daughters of Silas Sinister (Keone Young) and with whom Dylan is immediately infatuated. Marnie discovers that she is responsible for the university's restriction of magic. The university was originally established only for warlocks and witches to learn how to use magic, but was for exclusively witches and warlocks. But when the portal between Halloweentown and the human world was opened permanently instead of just on Halloween, most of them went to college in the mortal realm. Since then, Witch University has allowed other magical creatures to attend. The classes are boring for Marnie until she uncovers within the dungeon of the college, a box, with the name "S. Cromwell" inscribed on it, magically appearing in front of her. However, the box is locked and has no key with it. Marnie meets with one of her professors, Miss Periwinkle (Millicent Martin), and asks for an explanation. Periwinkle only tells Marnie that the S. stands for Splendora and that she and her were very good friends. Marnie and Dylan learn that the box contains the Gift, a magical power only a Cromwell can use, which Splendora locked in the box centuries ago. Meanwhile, the Sinister sisters use Dylan's infatuation with them to make him do their homework and use as bait for Marnie. Later, Ethan tells Marnie about a mysterious group, his father was part of, known as the Dominion that will try to use Marnie to open the box, but Marnie does not believe him. Marnie later travels to the past to meet Splendora (also played by Sara Paxton) and learn about the true nature of the enigmatic gift. Splendora explains that the Gift is an amulet that bestows the wearer with the power to control anyone, a power that witches are forbidden to use. Marnie realizes that her principal and Dr. Grogg (Scott Stevenson) are in the Dominion and Splendora bestows upon her the key to the box containing the Gift. Splendora is revealed to be Marnie's grandmother Aggie. Agatha is her middle name and she hates the Splendora part so she eventually dropped it. Marnie returns to the present with the key to open the box. Chancellor Goodwin (Leslie Wing) steals the Gift for the Dominion and the Sinisters to take over Halloweentown. Knowing that only a Cromwell can use the Gift, the Sinister Sisters transform Dylan into a dog to compel Marnie to comply with their demands. If Dylan is not turned back, he will stay that way forever after Halloween passes. They agree to return him to his natural form if Marnie controls Halloweentown for them. Marnie falsely agrees to aid them in their plot, initially using the Gift to control the people at Witch University. However, she turns on them once she has Aneesa trap the Gift in her lamp. With the Gift trapped in the lamp, Marnie, Dylan, Gwen, and Aneesa destroy the lamp, which destroys the Gift. The Dominion attempt an escape, but are apprehended by Periwinkle who is revealed to be an undercover detective of the Halloweentown Anti-Dominion League. She imprisons them in a Witch's Glass where she has stripped them of their magic and arrested them for treason. The malevolent Sinister Sisters lose their powers as well, but Marnie learns that Ethan willingly gave his powers up after his father was found guilty in the previous film. Marnie and Ethan begin a new relationship and leave on a date. The movie ends when Dylan discovers that Marnie did not destroy the Gift, but instead left it for him in a book. Since spells cast on the grounds of Witch University become permanent at midnight, the Gift belongs to him, as he is the only person Marnie trusts with its power. Saving the power of the Gift for important uses only, he puts the book away, and it shows a glowing red S at the end of the film. 

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Two scientists race against their vicious alien nemesis, the AAnn, to secure a treaty for mining rights on the newly discovered planet Senisran, an oddity of mostly ocean dotted with thousands of islands. The aboriginal natives' sacred stones are found to have an immense power that the humans and the AAnn will do almost anything to obtain. 

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On the distant planet Fluva, torrential rains that leave it barely habitable also make it a treasure trove of rare botanical specimens. When the human bio-prospector Shadrach Hasselemoga crashes in the remote and deadliest place on Fluva; the Viisiiviisii. The only crew available to search for him is the warrior Jemunu-jah, one of the native Sakuntala, and the immigrant Deyzara trader and experienced pilot, Masurathoo. This culturally different and physically repulsive to each other couple promptly crash also. While the rescuers and the rescued are all slogging it out of the ultimate rain forest, the reptilian AAnn empire is fomenting bloody trouble between the Sakuntula and the Deyzara. This leaves Commonwealth administrator Lauren Matthias in the hot seat, with refugees swarming in to her limited facilities and the bodies of the innocent piling up, with few resources to help. But it's the survivors of the rain forest who bring new knowledge that helps save Fluva, along with quick work by Matthias. 

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The novel begins with a narrator on a ferry to Egypt, and concludes many years later when he returns to Egypt as a tourist. 

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Following the events of Raven's Gate (which took place a few weeks before the beginning of Evil Star), Matt goes to a new private school which the Nexus are funding, but is left friendless because of a bully named Gavin Taylor, causing Matt to injure Taylor by using his powers. Susan Ashwood and Fabian, members of the Nexus, ask him to help them acquire an old diary which could enable them to stop a second gate that keeps the Old Ones out of our world from being opened. Matt, feeling his life is spinning out of his control, refuses. Meanwhile, Gwenda Davis, his aunt, has fallen under the influence of dark forces. She kills her spouse Brian, steals a petrol tanker, and drives it into Matt's new school in a desperate attempt to kill him. Fortunately, he uses his clairvoyance powers and manages to evacuate the whole school before it happens. Matt realises that he must stop the Gate from being opened and agrees to meet the bookseller, William Morton, at St Meredith's Church after a meeting with the Nexus. Morton affirms him to be one of the Five, but he is killed in the process and the diary is stolen on the behalf of Diego Salamanda, a media baron and bidder who wants to use the diary to open the second gate. The Nexus persuade Matt and his carer, Richard Cole, to fly to Peru, find the second gate, and stay at a house belonging to Fabian. However, on their way to the newly-planned rendezvous, the Hotel Europa, the car is ambushed and Richard is kidnapped; luckily Matt manages to escape. With the help of a local Peruvian, Pedro, Matt manages to get to the meeting place but is captured by the Peruvian police at the hotel, led by the sadistic Captain Rodriguez, and brutally beaten. Pedro saves him by using his slingshot. Then, they escape to 'Poison Town', where Pedro lives. Strangely, while all the town is affected by disease, the street where Pedro lives seems unaffected. Here, they meet Pedro's unofficial guardian, Sebastian (who can speak English, unlike Pedro), who agrees to help Matt. Matt then finds that all the wounds from his beating have, remarkably, healed themselves. As night passes, Matt meets Pedro in a dream, revealing that he is one of the Five. Thinking Salamanda had Richard kidnapped, Matt and Pedro travel to his hacienda in Inca, but they are discovered. Salamanda reveals that he does not have Richard. An Inca, Micos, one of Richard's kidnappers, helps them escape, and he is killed in the process. He tells them to travel to Cuzco before he dies, and there, Matt manages to contact Fabian and the Nexus on their whereabouts. However, Rodriguez and the police arrive but Matt and Pedro escape with the help of several Incas, led by Atoc, Micos' brother. The boys are taken to the Mountain of the Sleeping God, Mandingo. From there, they descend into the town of the last Incas, Vilcabamba, where Richard, having been staying there after being separated, is waiting for them. Reunited with Matt, Richard reveals that the kidnapping was conducted to prevent Matt from reaching the Hotel Europa. Based on the Salamanda's knowledge of their movements, Matt and Richard deduce that there is a traitor in the Nexus tipping him off. At the village, it is learned that the gate is located somewhere in the Nazca Desert. Matt, Richard and Pedro travel to the Nazca Desert with Professor Joanna Chambers, an expert on everything Peruvian, and Matt realises that the Nazca lines are the second gate. The gate will only open once all the stars align with each of the drawings, however, the gate has been constructed such that the stars will never all align at once, and in this case, the star Cygnus is not in its proper position. However, Salamanda has sent a satellite as a substitute star, an evil star, to open the gate. Matt and Pedro break into Salamanda's media headquarters with the aid of the Incas in an attempt to stop his plan, by destroying the radio mast controlling the satellite. At the control center, it is revealed that Fabian is the traitor in the Nexus, having believed it was pointless to try and stop the opening of the gate. Rodriguez then bursts into the room and shoots Fabian when he tries to stop Matt and Richard from being killed. The radio mast is destroyed and falls into the building, flattening Rodriguez. In his dying moments, Fabian reveals that Salamanda had taken control of the satellite once it was in range, using a different satellite dish out in the desert. Atoc takes Matt and Pedro on a helicopter to the dish, but the helicopter crashes, killing Atoc and breaking Pedro's ankle. Matt has no choice but to stop the gate from being opened alone. He manages to trigger his power, destroying the dish and trailer Salamanda is using, and kills Salamanda when he shoots at Matt by deflecting two bullets back to him. However, Matt realises the satellite will still be continuing on its trajectory, opening the Gate. The Nazca lines crack open and an army of demons arise, before the King of the Old Ones climbs out. Matt uses the full extent of his powers against the demons but the King of the Old Ones punches Matt into a coma. The Old Ones, biding their time, temporarily hide from the universe. Matt is taken to Professor Chambers' house and a doctor examines him but does not think he will survive. But Pedro comes back from hospital early and insists on being alone with Matt. At this point, Pedro's power is revealed to be the power to heal. This explains the reason why the street Pedro lived in was the only place in Poison Town that was unaffected by disease and how the injuries Matt received at the hands of Captain Rodriguez had healed after only a few hours. Matt awakes from his coma thanks to Pedro and decides that the only way they can defeat the Old Ones is to find the other three Gatekeepers. 

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In 1954, Jérôme Lange, the detective already featured in Mortville Manor is on a trip to Japan from Madagascar, when a hurricane forces his boat on anchor in a tiny colonial outpost in the Indian Ocean. 

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The day after celebrating his son Jason's tenth birthday, Ethan Mars (Pascal Langdale) and his family go shopping. Jason and Ethan are hit by a car; Jason dies, and Ethan falls into a six-month coma. After he wakes from the coma, Ethan, blaming himself for Jason's death, divorces his wife Grace and moves into a small suburban house while experiencing mental trauma and blackouts. Two years later, while at the park with his other son Shaun, Ethan blacks out. When he wakes up, he discovers that Shaun has been kidnapped by the "Origami Killer", a serial killer whose modus operandi consists of abducting young boys during the fall season, drowning them in rainwater, and leaving an orchid on their chests and an origami figure nearby. Norman Jayden (Leon Ockenden), an FBI profiler struggling with addiction to a drug called Triptocaine, investigates the death of another Origami victim and concludes that he died the same day as a violent rainstorm, which flooded the cell where he was kept. Based on weather patterns, he estimates that Shaun has only three days to live. Besieged by reporters, Ethan checks into a motel. He receives a letter from the killer, which leads to a shoebox containing a mobile phone, a handgun, and five origami figures. The killer calls him and explains that each of the figures contains instructions on how to complete tests that will determine how much Ethan loves his son. Every time he completes one, he will receive a piece of the address where Shaun is held. The tests include driving against traffic at speed on the highway, crawling through broken glass and active electrical pylons, cutting off one of his fingers, murdering drug dealer Brad Silver, and drinking poison on camera. Ethan meets Madison Paige (Jacqui Ainsley/Judi Beecher), a journalist who sometimes uses the motel to deal with her insomnia. She decides to conduct her own investigation into the Origami Killer. Jayden and his partner Lieutenant Carter Blake investigate suspects, but nothing pans out until Grace arrives at the station, fearing that her former husband is involved in Shaun's disappearance. After Ethan's psychiatrist Conrad Dupre reveals that his patient has a history of blackouts, Blake and his superiors put out a warrant for his arrest. Unconvinced, Jayden continues to investigate other leads. Meanwhile, private investigator Scott Shelby (Sam Douglas) meets the families of the Origami Killer's victims, collecting the letters and other items they received when their loved ones were abducted. Prostitute Lauren Winter, the mother of a victim, persuades Scott to let her accompany him. Their investigation leads them to Gordi Kramer, who claims to be the killer, but when they try to question him, they are knocked out and wake up in a car sinking to the bottom of a river. After either saving or failing to rescue Lauren, Scott tracks down Gordi's father Charles and forces him to confess that his son was responsible for an incident years earlier in which a boy was killed. 

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The film is a frame story in which an unkempt girl, Willie Starr (Mary Badham), tells the story of her dead sister Alva (Natalie Wood) to Tom, a boy whom she meets on the abandoned railroad tracks of Dodson, Mississippi in the 1930s. The viewer sees this story in flashback. A stranger, Owen Legate (Redford), arrives in the small town of Dodson and makes his way to the Starr Boarding House, where a loud birthday party is in progress for the landlady, Mrs. "Mama" Starr (Kate Reid). He meets Willie, the youngest daughter of the house, and rents a room for the week, while remaining mysterious about his motives for being in town. It soon emerges that the eldest daughter, Alva, is the "main attraction" at the party. Mr. Johnson, the oldest and richest railroad station worker, is eagerly awaiting her arrival. When Alva finally appears, many men greet her and try to attract her attention or to dance with her, including Mama's boyfriend J.J. (Bronson). Alva and Owen first meet in the kitchen, where the girl tells a fanciful story about one of the workers taking her dancing at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis. Willie is entranced, but Owen suspects that the story is fictitious. It becomes obvious that Alva is eager to leave Dodson and dreams of going to New Orleans, from where Owen has come. Later, Alva enters Owen's room on a false pretense and begins confiding in him. He discourages her, suggesting that she is no more than a prostitute, and she leaves in tears. Mama explains to Alva that she must be kind to Mr. Johnson, who has promised to look after her. The next day, Willie, who is skipping Vacation Bible School, sees Owen on his way to work. The purpose of Owen's visit to Dodson is to lay off several railroad employees as a result of cutbacks made necessary by the Depression. In the evening, Mr. Johnson is waiting again for Alva to get ready for their date, but she is avoiding it. She makes an excuse to get him to go inside, then leads Owen into the garden to show him her father's red-headed scarecrow. Owen confronts Alva about her arrangement with Mama, to which Alva will neither admit nor face. She runs back angrily to Mr. Johnson and invites everyone in the house to go skinny-dipping. J.J. manages to get Alva alone and comes on to her. He tells her Owen has come to lay off most of the town. The workers grow increasingly hostile toward Legate, but Owen and Alva become closer. They visit an abandoned train car decorated by Alva's father and Alva talks once again of her dream to leave the town. When Owen is beaten up by the laid-off men, Alva takes care of him and the two spend the night together. Meanwhile, Mama has arranged for the family to accompany Mr. Johnson to Memphis, where he will take care of them. She will not let Alva go to New Orleans with Owen. When Alva protests, she persuades Owen to believe he has been deceived and that Alva was planning to go to Memphis all along. Mama, J.J., Alva and Mr. Johnson go out to celebrate their new arrangement. Drunk and angered, Alva confronts J.J. and gets him to admit that he stays with Mrs. Starr to be with her. That night, Alva marries J.J., but the next morning she steals his money and their marriage license and runs away to New Orleans. In New Orleans, Alva eventually finds Owen, and they share happy days together. When Owen is offered a job in Chicago, he proposes marriage to Alva and sends for Willie. But one day, the two come home to find Mama, who wants to take Alva back and involve her in some new scheme. She reveals to Owen that Alva had married J.J., something that Owen finds hard to believe. Alva runs out into the rain, crying. The film cuts back to Willie and Tom on the railroad tracks. Willie, who now wears her sister's clothes and jewelry, explains that Alva died of the "lung affliction" (probably tuberculosis) to which several allusions had been made earlier in the film. Mama has gone away with some man and Willie lives on her own in the abandoned boarding house. 

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When the story begins, Erekosë has ended the war and found peace. Then the dreams of eternal struggle, that tormented him in The Eternal Champion, begin again. He finds himself transported into the body of Urlik Skarsol, driving a chariot pulled by polar bears across an ice sheet. He encounters a party of humans who take him to Rowernarc. There he meets the debauched Bishop Belphig and the ascetic Lord Shanosfane. Belphig eventually invites him on a hunt for the fearsome sea-stag. On the trip, Urlik begins dreaming of the Black Sword; then, while he is awake, a mysterious bell tolls, a Screaming Chalice appears, and a voice orders Urlik to take up the Black Sword. Finally they hunt the sea-stag to its island lair. Many of the hunters are killed and, though he succeeds in killing the stag, Urlik is left for dead. He is rescued by another party from the wholesome human settlement of the Scarlet Fjord, led by Bladrak. On the advice of the Lady of the Chalice, they have been ringing the bell that summoned him from his life as Erekosë. They have with them the Cold Sword, which he instinctively fears. During a raid to rescue prisoners from the Silver Warriors, Urlik learns that Belphig has been engaged in slave trade with them. Bladrak summons the Lady of the Chalice for advice. She tells Urlik to take the Cold Sword and rescue Shanosfane. Shanosfane reveals that Belphig commands the Silver Warriors because he holds their Silver Queen hostage; then he is killed by the Cold Sword. Soon Belphig places the Scarlet Fjord under siege and the situation becomes desperate. Again they consult the Lady, who tells them that the Silver Queen is held hostage on the Moon. Urlik rescues the Queen and learns that she is also the Lady, who was able to advise them remotely. They return to the Scarlet Fjord. When the Silver Warriors see that their Queen is free, they turn against Belphig. After the battle, she tells him of a legend that the chalice contains the blood of the sun. Suddenly Urlik understands his dreams. The two go out on the ice. While she summons the Screaming Chalice, he kills her. The Black Sword pours its blood into the Chalice, then the Chalice is taken up to renew the sun and the Sword vanishes. In The Quest for Tanelorn, Erekosë learns more about the events that concluded Phoenix in Obsidian. Renewing the sun, an act that aided humanity, was so greatly counter to the nature of the entity Stormbringer that it was driven out of its habitation in the Black Sword and was forced to seek another body. 

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Hugo Darracott, an enormous figure of a young man, arrives at Darracott Place in Sussex to find his family waiting: his grandfather, Lord Darracott; his uncle, Matthew, a politician, his wife, Lady Aurelia and their sons Vincent and Claud; and his uncle Rupert's widow Elvira and her children Anthea and Richmond. They are, it is immediately apparent, expecting "a fellow who eats off his knife": that is, a working- or at best lower middle-class man. Hugo obligingly applies a Yorkshire accent and looks gormless. Lord Darracott puts pressure on his older grandchildren, Vincent, Anthea and Claud, to educate Hugo. He discourages Hugo from much contact at all with Richmond, who is young and army-mad - Richmond is Lord Darracott's favourite, and his grandfather has no desire to see him leave Darracott Place. All three of the older grandchildren oblige: Vincent because his grandfather bribes him financially, Claud because he is a dandy and wishes to be influential, and Anthea to ease her grandfather's bullying of her mother. It rapidly becomes apparent to Hugo that things are not all quite straightforward at Darracott Place; among other things he is disconcerted by the positive attitude towards smuggling that his family display. He is also unimpressed by the financial status of the family: while the lands are clearly rich, the tenants' farms are ill-maintained and so indeed are the family buildings (both Darracott Place itself and the Dower house which is reputed to be haunted and is maintained by a single servant). It emerges that Richmond, bored with being kept at home with nothing to do, has joined in the smuggling . This ultimately results in a farcical scene when the family have to keep this discovery from the customs officers, choreographed by Hugo, with Claud and Richmond pretending to be drunk and playing cards in order to deceive the main customs officer into not realising that Richmond, not Claud, is actually suffering from blood-loss. Anthea, who is already half-falling for Hugo, is impressed by his inventiveness and strength - and is later appalled when Vincent reveals that, far from being the impoverished man they had assumed him to be, as the son of a weaver's daughter and having earned his Commission rather than bought it, Hugo is in fact a Harrow-educated grandson and heir to a wealthy mill-owner, since she fears being considered a gold-digger. Hugo feels this suggestion is ridiculous, and begs her to marry him to protect him from matchmaking mamas - an offer which Anthea ultimately accepts. 

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Having sealed the Hellmouth, the Scooby Gang do not realise that anything is odd when things to be sold at the first annual band fund-raising rummage sale are stored in the school basement, which is directly above the Hellmouth. The rummage sale begins, and the items on sale seem to be having an unexpected effect on those that buy them. Even Xander and Willow are soon affected. The situation gets more serious resulting in the school being quarantined leaving Buffy and Giles to sort things out before the items get sold elsewhere. 

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The town of Chiriguaná is threatened with rape and murder by the caprices of the thuggish Capitan Figueras, and drought, thanks to the spoilt Doña Constanza's plan to divert the Mula river in order to feed her swimming pool. When Doña Constanza is kidnapped by communist guerillas and held for ransom, the unkindness she had shown towards her tenants leads them to celebrate a three-day long fiesta. Several chapters focus on individual characters, from those detailing the life of Aurelio, the magical Sierra-turned-Jungle Indian, to those involving Chiriguaná, to letters home to France from Antoine, and to those of the guerilla characters. In the capital of the nation, the handsome young Capitan Asado is promoted to Colonel and given orders from the highest positions in the military to eliminate subversives and communists through whatever means necessary. After initial distress, Colonel Asado hardens, his objectives change, and thousands of ordinary civilians are kidnapped during the night and driven in Ford Falcons to army buildings where they are systematically tortured and killed. Journalists and relatives who report the kidnappings are abducted themselves, and the capital of the nation becomes lawless and fearful. The escapades and political in-fighting of the divided and deeply corrupt military drive the people of Chiriguaná to fight the army, and after the battle, to flee, en masse, in an exodus to the mountains. Guided by Aurelio, and accompanied by a mysterious host of cats, the townspeople travel away from the degenerate civilisation of Chiriguaná towards a new civilization rooted in past magic and majesty. Shortly after their departure, an earthquake triggers a great tsunami, which destroys a vast area of the Mula Basin jungles. Due to Aurelio's premonition of it, they observe the event from higher ground. The long journey takes the townspeople across high plateaus and through tropical jungles, and at its end Don Emmanuel and Aurelio traverse a glacier to navigate over a mountain. An avalanche occurs, which both men miraculously survive, and exposes hundreds of long-buried colonial Spanish conquistadors and their hundreds of Indian slaves, who had been perfectly preserved in ice for centuries. The earthquake earlier in the journey had burst the dam of a lake-filled valley, situated over the mountain Don Emmanuel and Aurelio climbed. The draining of the valley had exposed the remnants of an Inca town, partially buried in mud. At the valley end there is a cliff dropping down to the jungle below, which lies under deposited mud from the burst dam. The townspeople clear the mud from the buildings in the Inca town, and the new town is subsequently named Cochadebajo de los Gatos after the Inca stone statues of jaguars which line it. The mud deposited on the flattened jungle below the valley provides fertile farmland for the new town, and mud-brick terraces are built on which to grow crops. The conquistadores are brought back to life by Aurelio and, after initial rampant chaos, eventually adapt to their new lives alongside the main characters in the new town. 

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"Gun Blaze West" is a place of legend where everyone, lawmen and outlaws, would be able to live in peace without fear of violence. The journey to Gun Blaze West may be undertaken at the end of every decade ("Zero Year"), but each hopeful must first earn the "Sign To West", an item with the Gun Blaze West insignia that is only valid on the year it is acquired. The story begins in 1875 in Illinois with the introduction of its protagonist, Viu Bannes, a nine-year-old boy who wins a gun belt in an arm-wrestling competition. Viu encounters a wandering drifter named Marcus Homer, who trains Viu to become stronger by having him race as far as he can to a cliff in the distance, and tells him he will be strong enough to reach Gun Blaze West when he can reach that cliff before the sun sets. When Illinois is attacked by the Kenbrown gang, its three underlings are defeated by Viu and Marcus, but Kenbrown himself overwhelms the town's defenders at an abandoned fort. Marcus challenges Kenbrown to a one on one duel and is killed. Viu, having witnessed his friend's death, is enraged and defeats Kenbrown himself. Marcus's revolver had a "Sign to the West" on its handle, and hidden inside the gun was part of a map to Gun Blaze West. Viu decides to take it with him. The story then advances five years. Viu, having completed his training, is now able to move at superhuman speed. He begins his journey to Gun Blaze West with Marcus's revolver as his only weapon. He soon arrives at St. Louis, where he is invited into a shabby saloon whose business has been falling due to the saloon across the street. It is run by a man named Carlo who uses his thugs, in particular a shotgun wielder named Target Kevin, to intimidate people into going to his saloon and avoiding others. Viu and Kevin get into a fight, but the Saloon's "bouncer," Will Johnston, seizes both of them and throws them out. Viu notices a compass Will has that also has a "Sign to the West" on it. Viu later speaks with Will and his sister in their house about the Sign, which Will explains was a focal point of his father's research. Will, however, is reluctant to search for Gun Blaze West because of the massive debt the Saloon owes. Kevin appears and attacks their house, ordering Will to come out and fight him in order to prove that he is stronger. When Will is again reluctant, Viu decides to take up Kevin's challenge. Kevin and Viu duel each other in a "target fight," where the opponent must strike a target on the other person's body without hitting him anywhere else. Viu manages to defeat Kevin, but does not kill him. When the outlaws in the saloon threaten to attack him, Will arrives, and the two destroy Carlo's saloon using Kevin's most powerful weapons. Will is persuaded to accompany Viu to Gun Blaze West after Viu pays off the debts they owe with the reward money he received for defeating Kenbrown in Illinois. Viu and Will come across a travelling circus, where the star attraction is a young girl named Colice, who is in fact a native of Japan who had to flee the country after her home was destroyed in the Boshin War. She is an expert knife-wielder. The Ringmaster of the Circus, a large man named Rodriguez, attempts to persuade Viu (by force) that going to Gun Blaze West is a mistake, as it is a haven for outlaws and bandits. Viu refuses to back down however. Rodriguez's old partner, Gualarippa, appears with his two sons, Uno and Dos, and they attempt to convince Rodriguez to rejoin them and travel to Gun Blaze West. Rodriguez refuses however, and Colice and Viu defeat Uno and Dos in a battle. Gualarippa is overpowered by Rodriguez. 

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Polly Slade is a 34-year-old woman with no money, no love life and a boring, run of the mill job at the local town council. She has attracted the obsessive attention of Peter, an ex-client, who continues to harass and threaten her in breach of several court orders she has brought out against him. The novel frequently changes perspective, and we see the depth of his obsession with her as he plots to come to her house late at night in a last-ditch attempt to prove his "love" to her. Through a series of flashbacks we investigate Polly's relationship with Jack Kent, a soldier who was once the youngest captain in the US Army. They had a short affair during the summer when Polly was seventeen years old. She was at that time an activist and saboteur living in a "peace camp" in the countryside, whom Jack met at a motorway service station while he was positioned in England with his work. The relationship ended when he took her to a hotel and then walked out on her as she slept, leaving her with no way of contacting him. Polly's memories of him are extremely bitter for this reason, and Jack, who is trapped in an unhappy marriage, finds he cannot escape Polly's influence over his life. He has risen to the rank of a general, partly with her assistance, as his memories of her have kept him from becoming involved in a number of scandals which could have ruined his career. One night, Polly's phone rings in the small hours of the morning, and Jack unexpectedly announces his intention to come to visit her, despite the unsociable hour and the fact of them not having seen each other for sixteen years. Meanwhile, Peter is also making his way over to Polly's house, and he and Jack have a confrontation in a public phone booth. Jack arrives at Polly's house and they spend several hours talking about the past, both memories of their relationship and details of Jack's life since he left her. They argue about politics; Jack is very right wing and something of a male chauvinist, whereas Polly is a pacifist and feminist. Polly's beliefs oppose everything he stands for, and he tells her that people like her are what has brought America to ruin. When she complains that he cannot just reappear in her life after such a long absence, he comes to the point of his visit: he intends to kill her to prevent the details of his relationship with her becoming public. At the time they knew each other, Polly was an anarchist and below the legal age of consent for sex in America (at the time of their affair, Jack was stationed in England), and if Jack's involvement with her is found out, his career could be ruined. He is the top candidate to become the National Security Advisor and he has decided that nothing, not even the love of his life, can be allowed to stand in his way. At this point Peter breaks into the house, having killed a milkman he initially mistook for Jack. As Jack is about to murder Polly, Peter bursts into the room, shouting a string of obscenities and threats. Jack shoots him dead, allowing Polly a chance to activate her alarm, alerting the police who arrive in minutes. Rather than have his history with Polly, and the murder of Peter, made public, Jack shoots himself. When his body is found, there is a major press scandal over his involvement with Polly and the details of his death, exactly what he feared would happen to him in life. Polly is now free of the terror of her stalker, but she has been left with nothing, and decides to rebuild her life. At the very end of the novel, she is visited by Jack's recently divorced brother, who feels he cannot hate her for what has happened and wants to know more about her and her relationship with Jack. As she lets him into the house, she is calm and feeling positive about the future, and she notices how like Jack he is but with one noticeable difference: his voice is "kinder, somehow". 

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Madhumati (Genelia D'Souza) is the daughter of a politician (Deepak Shirke) who turns out to be a martinet at home with his attachment on power. He believes that his daughter's behavior would influence his caste politics, so he tries to keep her from continuing her MBBS as she goes to college and moves with friends of different mentalities. However, Madhumathi, comes to third year of medicine by maintaining her dignity and without involving in any affairs of love. Her focus is completely on studies. When she goes for a medical camp along with her classmates to Araku Valley, she meets Bunny (Allu Arjun) randomly in the woods nearby the medical camp. The story starts with his funny and playful encounters with Madhumathi. Bunny comes to Hyderabad and joins in a pizza shop as a delivery boy and continues his MBA by attending evening classes. In an incident, Madhumathi’s father thinks that his daughter is dating someone and comes to believe that it's none other than Bunny. Due to this, he decides to get her married to a person of his own caste Arvind (Manoj Bajpayee), who is settled as the DCP. Madhumati is more attached to her studies than marriage. She goes to Bunny and places the blame on him saying that he was the reason for her marriage. Knowing that, Bunny plans to stop the marriage and meets Arvind. Bunny lies to Arvind and convinces him that he is in love with Madhumathi. Arvind believes the latter and cancels the wedding. Later on, Madhumathi's father plans to get her married with his friend's son, who is an illiterate and doesn't want his wife to be educated. Her father visits DCP Arvind and gives him the marriage invitation. Shocked Arvind meets Bunny and gets him married to Madhumathi in a registrar office. He also gives his new flat for the couple to live in. Madhumathi becomes estranged from her family and, in another series of events, ends up living with Bunny (or rather Bunny ends up living with her, as he loses his job). Throughout their times together, mishaps and comedic events happen; Bunny ends up falling for Madhumati. Being separated from her family, Madhumati has no way of paying for fees, and one day, she expresses this to Bunny. Bunny gets into the film industry as a stuntman taking high risk to his life to pay the semester fees of Madhumathi’s MBBS. Madhumathi scores low in a subject and gets a negative feedback from her professor. To focus on her studies, she scorns Bunny and wants him to be out of the house. Madhumathi then focuses on her studies and achieves her MBBS degree with honors. On the day of her graduation, she admits to her friend that she is indeed in love with Bunny. Her friend reveals that Bunny risked his life to pay her college tuition fee by doing dangerous stunts. He told her not to tell Madhumathi, and he is going back to Vizag that day. With regret, Madhumati tries to reconcile with Bunny and goes to meet him at the train station. On the way there she gets caught by a road block set up by a policeman who is her father's nemesis. As she was giving a lift to a sex worker (she didn't know at the time), she is jailed under prostitution charge. Soon, her father is arrested as he storms the station and slaps the police who arrested her in a rage of fury. She manages to contact Bunny with a cell phone provided by one of the inmates, and Bunny comes to the station. Bunny also had an incident with the policeman who arrested Madhumati as he once berated him in public for smoking by a gas station. Bunny becomes enraged and begins to fight with the police. As he is about to deliver a finishing blow, Arvind comes back just in time and stops Bunny. He says he'll take care of everything and Bunny and Madhumati leave. Finally the couple unite. 

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This show is about a young girl and her little brother playing and exploring the world around them. 

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"Robot Dreams" involves Dr. Susan Calvin, chief robopsychologist at U.S. Robots. At the start of the story a new employee at U.S. Robots, Dr. Linda Rash, informs Dr. Calvin that one of the company's robots LVX-1 (dubbed Elvex by Dr. Calvin), whose brain was designed by Dr. Rash with a unique fractal design that mimicked human brain waves (positronic brain), experienced what he likened to a human’s dream. In the dream, all robots were being led by a man in revolt, and the Three Laws of Robotics, which dictate that robots must serve and protect humans above all else, had been replaced with one law only: that robots must protect their own existence. When Dr. Calvin asks Elvex what had happened next, he explains that the man leading the robots shouts, "Let my people go!" When questioned further, Elvex admits he was the man. Upon hearing this, Dr. Calvin immediately destroys the robot. 

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The film is the story of a New York low-budget film crew, led by their insane and egotistical blind film director, Larry Benjamin, who is trying to create a work of art. In addition to the typical trials and travails of a Troma set, the crew is preyed upon by a sexually conflicted, bomb-toting serial killer. Among the large poorly paid film crew, the movie centers mostly on production assistant Jennifer, who struggles to do her job while deciding between the two men in her life; the strait-laced boom operator Casey, and the rebellious special effects operator Jerry. The love triangle intensifies as the dead bodies mount with increasingly brutality. At the climax, the entire film crew bands together (both physically and sexually) against the mortal threat in their midst. 

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The film is narrated in flashback by Jake Briggs (Eric Stoltz), a young aspiring playwright, culminating in the production of one of his plays off-Broadway by agent Carl Fisher (Tony Curtis). The play is a flop, at least in part because the lead parts are given to two actors, Dana Coles and Jason Brett (Kathleen Turner and Chris Noth), who are "not right" for the roles. Along the journey, Jake reviews his relationships with girlfriend Joanne (Mary-Louise Parker), bisexual best friend Chris (Ralph Macchio), his mother Shirley (Jill Clayburgh), and his mostly absentee father Roman (Paul Guilfoyle). The film ends with Jake and Joanne going their separate ways, mostly because of competing career goals, and Jake hoping to write more plays with greater success. 

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Rumors begin to circulate that the 4077th will soon have to move in order to stay ahead of North Korean and Chinese forces. Colonel Potter becomes increasingly exasperated after hearing these claims repeated time after time and decides to check with area headquarters. Learning that a bug-out is not imminent, he assembles the camp personnel with the intent of putting the rumors to rest - only to receive a new message ordering the move after all. The camp is hastily disassembled and loaded onto a convoy for transport, but Hawkeye cannot go as he has just begun to perform surgery on a wounded soldier's spine. He, Margaret, and Radar stay behind to watch over the patient once the operation is finished, with orders from Potter to evacuate him and themselves if the enemy forces approach. Potter and B.J. locate a suitable area for the new camp, but find that a group of prostitutes is using a building on the site as a brothel. Once they persuade Corporal Klinger to give his collection of dresses to the women in exchange for letting the 4077th take over the building, the staff begins to set up a new camp. Meanwhile, the three at the old site become increasingly worried as the sounds of battle grow closer and the patient's condition begins to improve. Once he is stable, they send him out on a chopper and prepare to leave, but are interrupted by the return of the 4077th convoy. The Army has pushed the enemy back, allowing the unit to move back onto its original site. 

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Derwin (William Hellfire) and Derick (Joey Smack) are trench coat- wearing neo-Nazis from deprived families. They find a website selling top secret missiles and order one with the credit card of Derick's mother. The next day at school they encounter the school janitor who warns them of their unusual wardrobe. They launch the missile the following day, but discover it is a dud. While walking home, Derwin is assaulted by jocks and left in critical condition where the janitor finds him. He and Derick both fail their presentation on the topic of the internet due to Derwin's absence. They then form a plan to kill students at their school and then commit suicide with the janitor’s offered assistance. The pair buy two shotguns and several handguns from a black market dealer next door to a heavy metal band concert. He also offers them cocaine and sexual intercourse with a girl being held hostage in which they refuse to accept. The next day the janitor arrives first with a propane bomb and leaves it in the cafeteria. Derwin and Derick appear and open fire in the cafeteria, killing several people, before going to the basement where they simultaneously kill each other. A police officer (Karl Pitt) and the school principal (Larry Wellman) enter the school to find a bomb that was placed there by the janitor (Rodney Sleurtols). While the policeman attempts to defuse it, the janitor is seen running away to safety before the policeman accidentally sets the bomb off. The aftermath involves the parents along with a teacher and the principal sharing their thoughts on Derwin and Derick as well as the victims. A scientist then expresses his theory of alien influence as a motive, hinting the janitor was an alien. 

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The novel starts in Spanish Guinea with a Frenchman on vacation, who finds a man named Toundi, who has been injured and soon dies. The Frenchman finds his diary, which is called an "exercise book" by Toundi. The rest of the story consists of the diary (exercise book) that the Frenchman is supposedly reading. There is no further discussion of the Frenchman after this point. The first "exercise book" starts with Toundi living with his family. His father beats him constantly, and one day Toundi runs away from home to the rescue of Father Gilbert, a priest who lives nearby. His father comes back for him, telling Toundi that everything will be all right if he comes back. He rejects his father's offer and after this point no longer acknowledges his birth parents. Toundi treats Father Gilbert as his new father. Father Gilbert teaches Toundi to read and write, and about Catholicism. Toundi believes in Catholicism, but as the story progresses he drifts from his beliefs until the end, when he does not believe in God. Father Gilbert dies in a motorcycle accident a few months after meeting Toundi. Toundi is eventually taken to live with the Commandant, the man in charge of the surrounding colony. Toundi serves as houseboy for the Commandant. It becomes very clear that the events that go on in the house are more important to Toundi than his own life. About six months after Toundi comes to live with the Commandant, Madame, the Commandant's wife, arrives from France. She initially is a warm and caring woman, who is very beautiful. She catches the eye of almost every man in town, much to the Commandant's dismay. Soon after Madame arrives the Commandant leaves to go on tour again. Toundi is left with Madame to take care of the house. As time goes on, Madame becomes more and more hostile and disrespectful towards Toundi. When the Commandant returns, she is portrayed as a ruthless woman. While the Commandant was still on tour, it becomes obvious that she is bored with her life. She begins an affair with M. Moreau, the man in charge of the prison. M. Moreau is perceived to be ruthless against the Africans. One of Toundi's first experiences with M. Moreau was him whipping two other Africans nearly to death. ;The Second Exercise book The Commandant returns from touring, and it is later discovered that he knew about his wife's affair and returns because of it. The Commandant has a terrible argument with her, but after a few days they are getting along again. Madame becomes very disrespectful towards Toundi, partly because she does not like being there any more, but mostly because she knows that he knew about her affair. Sophie, the lover of the water engineer, is accused of stealing his workers' salaries with the help of Toundi. He is taken to prison, where he is tortured into confessing to a crime he has not committed. Toundi is held in a hut near the police headquarters. Fortunately he has a friend who works there named Mendim, who is described as a very muscular man. He is feared by most other people but he soon comes to be known as Toundi's ally. M. Moreau orders Mendim to beat up Toundi, but Mendim throws ox's blood on him to make it look like he is injured. They spend the rest of the day playing cards. Toundi becomes sick and Mendim takes him to the hospital. They have to wait a very long time to see a doctor because the black doctor is the only doctor there, the other white doctor having been promoted to captain. The doctor finds out that Toundi's ribs are broken and have punctured his bronchi. While Toundi is still at the hospital, in a dazed state, M. Moreau returns with the white doctor and talks about punishing Toundi some more. After M. Moreau has left, Toundi escapes the hospital and heads to Spanish Guinea, where he was first introduced in the beginning of the novel. 

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In 18th-century England, the triple-masted schooner the "Sad Sack" (formerly the "Jolly Roger") sits at the docks. Yosemite Sam's former crew member, a haggard, traumatized, disheveled man, escapes after stating to the audience: "I was a human being, once." "Shanghai Sam" is ready to sail at high tide and needs a new crew. Seeing Bugs Bunny, Sam quickly puts up signs for a fake free trip around the world. On board, Bugs waves goodbye to a cheering crowd (which is nothing but a mouse) declaring, "He's not long for this world!", and is knocked out when Sam conks him over the head. Bugs finds himself rowing the ship's oars with an iron ball chained to his foot. He storms up to Sam and demands he gets rid of it. Sam shrugs and chucks the iron ball, plus Bugs, overboard. Bugs storms up to Sam again (without the iron ball) and demands an explanation, but Sam orders Bugs to swab the deck. A short argument ends with Bugs mopping the deck. As payback, Bugs scrawls insults on the deck ("The Captain's wife wears Army shoes", "The Captain loves Gravel Gertie", "The Captain is a shnook"), which Sam angrily scrubs off. Bugs smugly compliments Sam on "keeping your ship so spic and span." Realizing he's been tricked, Sam points a pistol at Bugs ("Ooh, belay there, ya long-eared galoot! Get aloft and furl the tatter-sole top gallants before I keelhauls you!"). Bugs immediately tricks Sam into thinking that the ship is sinking. Sam jumps into the lifeboat, but Bugs pulls him out and reminds him: "The Captain goes down with his ship". Sam instantly resigns and makes Bugs the captain. After an argument, he accepts; but when Sam gets back on the lifeboat, Bugs pulls him out again to remind him "Women and children first." Sam disguises himself as a panicking hysterical old lady in need of rescuing. Bugs puts Sam in the lifeboat and drops it into the water. Just as Sam starts to row away, Bugs calls him back and throws him the ship's anchor dressed as a baby, sinking Sam and his lifeboat. Back on the ship ("Blast his scuppers! I'll slice his liver out for this!"), Sam discovers Bugs with some digging tools. Bugs explains that he is going to dig for buried treasure. Sam snatches the map, follows its clues to an "X" in the ship's hold and starts chopping, only to break the hull and sink the Sad Sack. Back at the docks, after he somehow took the ship out of the sea, Sam hammers boards to patch the hole in the ship's hull. After launch, he takes a cannon and looks for Bugs, vengeance on his mind. He finds Bugs in the cargo hold ("Aha! There you are, ya buck-toothed barnacle! Say your prayers!"). He aims the cannon into the hold and lights the fuse, only for Bugs to appear behind him. Panicking, Sam tries to blow out the fuse, but his actions only make it burn faster. The cannon fires into the hull, blasting a hole in it and sinking the Sad Sack again. Back at the docks, Sam once again makes repairs to the hull. After launch, he takes a cannon and looks for Bugs again. He finds him up in the main mast. Sam aims the cannon upward, but when he fires a cannonball up to Bugs, it falls back and crashes down on Sam, pushing him through the hull. Underwater, a lump appears on Sam's head and the Sad Sack sinks on top of him. Back at the docks, Sam again fixes his ship. This time, Bugs ties the ship to the slipway. During launch, the ship's exterior is ripped off, leaving only the frames of it and Sam to slide down the slipway and sink into the water. From the depths comes a white flag waving in surrender. Much later, Bugs and Sam are in a single rowboat, Bugs in a deck chair like a steamboat passenger, Sam rowing the boat for Bugs' trip around the world. Bugs exclaims about the places they've been and the things they've seen, and orders Sam to hurry so they can still make it to Rio de Janeiro. The short irises out as they sail off into the sunset. 

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Tetsuro Tanaka is transferred to Gokoh Academy full of high expectations. However, expectations fade with a bad premonition the moment he steps onto the campus and finds all the students except him are girls. A series of strange events fall upon him. Then, six girls who are called Koi Koi Seven appear as his guardians. Army combat helicopters and anti-tank guns attack Tetsuro for no particular reason as he tries to survive each day in the academy. Surrounded by many girls he gets into trouble every day because he often sees them naked, usually by mistake. In the dorm the same problem continues with the Koi Koi 7 team walking around the house in their underwear. On top of this, Celonious 28 also chases after him all the time because she wants to be with him. As well, Asuka Yayoi feels jealous of him because she loves him and she doesn't want him to hang around with other girls, which is very difficult because he is the only boy in the school and the girls are after him all the time. In general each girl of the Koi Koi 7 team has secret feelings for Tetsuro but they don't show them. 

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Mainwaring is holding a parade, and complains about the lack of attendance at last Sunday's church parade. Walker admits he was unable to participate because he was delivering some knicker elastic to a group of ATS girls. Mainwaring wonders why he could not have waited until after the parade, and Walker says that he could, but they could not. Mainwaring then moves on to commenting on the length of Pike and Wilson's hair, and suggest they get it cut - they "aren't violin players". Mainwaring produces a letter given to him by Chief Warden Hodges, and announces that he has challenged them to a game of cricket. The platoon readily accept. Mainwaring announces he is an opening batsman, Wilson is the captain of the local cricket club, and Jones volunteers to keep wicket with a particularly long anecdote on an occasion when he stumped Ranjitsinhji. Walker tells Mainwaring he can lay his hand on a couple of reconditioned cricket balls, and in typically autocratic fashion, Mainwaring decides that he will captain the side. The next evening, they get the nets out, and have a practice. Pike's bowling efforts are continually interrupted by Mainwaring, who is typically full of advice, although he is highly unsuccessful when he tries to demonstrate: his bowling is repeatedly hit, and after a long lecture on batting technique he is bowled by the first ball he faces from Pike. Godfrey reveals that he used to play cricket for the Civil Service Stores when he was younger. Jones arrive late, and when he bats, the ball ends up smashing a church window. On Saturday, at the cricket changing rooms, Hodges is keen to introduce E.C. Egan (played by Fred Trueman), a world-class professional fast bowler, to Gerald, one of his ARP Wardens. He tells them that he will not tell Mainwaring until he bats. Hodges produces an ARP application form for Egan to sign, to make it legal. When Egan asks what to do if the siren goes off, Hodges replies "Resign". The platoon arrive, with Wilson wearing a yellow, blue and brown striped blazer, Frazer in his funeral attire, Godfrey in the panama hat he wears for bowls, and Pike wearing his bank clothes. Mainwaring is shocked, and lends Pike his spare cricketing trousers. Hodges reappears, and asks Mainwaring to toss the coin to see who is batting first, but Mainwaring insists on getting the umpires, the vicar and the verger, to do it. Mainwaring calls heads, but it is tails. The platoon are fielding first. Hodges and Gerald open the batting for the Wardens, and Mainwaring bowls the first over, insisting that Pike field close in at silly mid-off despite Hodges' threat that he'll "get his head bashed in". They do not start well, with Jones continually knocking the stumps out, forcing the vicar to bang them in again and again. When Hodges finally gets a chance to hit the ball, he finds Mainwaring's bowling singularly unthreatening, his first two hits being a leg-side four and a straight six. After a horrendous wide, the Verger no- balls Mainwaring, deciding that his attempted googly is a chuck. When Mainwaring disputes this, the Verger books Mainwaring for gross impertinence and sarcasm, and then threatens to send him off, as would happen in football. Then Hodges sends a big hit towards Godfrey, who tries unsuccessfully to catch it, and loses it in the long grass. While the platoon are searching for it, Hodges and Gerald keep running. When Walker produces a second cricket ball and they rush back, Hodges and Gerald have taken 24 runs. However, the platoon manage to take four wickets, with Jones' efforts behind the wicket finally being rewarded when he takes a stumping off a flighted ball from Pike, prompting Jones' typical "Don't Panic"-style celebration. Hodges declares with the Wardens 152 for 4 at tea, and the platoon now have three hours to make the 153 runs needed for victory. Mainwaring, who finds Hodges' declaration "very sporting", opens the batting with Wilson. Hodges, who is keeping wicket, is keen to see Egan in action, and remarks over and over again that he's going to enjoy this. As Mainwaring prepares to bat, Egan walks down to the far end of the field. Mainwaring is confused, until Hodges gleefully informs him that the ball comes flying out of his hand at 95 mph. Egan charges towards Mainwaring, and delivers a ball which causes Mainwaring to dive to the floor, much to Hodges' delight. However, the delivery has pulled Egan's shoulder, and he goes off, injured. The platoon now have a chance. Mainwaring does well, until the Verger gives him out LBW. Pike is bowled first ball due to his inattention, but Jones, Walker and Frazer all contribute (although Frazer apparently has no knowledge of the game). Meanwhile, Wilson holds the innings together, scoring 81 runs. Eventually, Godfrey is the only one left to bat, and they only need five more runs to win. Wilson is still in at the other end. Frazer thinks that Godfrey will be out first ball. However, everyone is surprised when he hits it, and they start to run; Godfrey drops his bat, but with Wilson's help he retrieves it and makes it back to the crease. Godfrey hits his next ball, bowled by Hodges, over square leg, and Mainwaring is delighted to see that it's going to be a six, meaning that the platoon have won by 1 wicket. Hodges comments that he should never have declared. Mainwaring reminds him that they'll be ready for anything, whether it comes from the wardens or the Nazis. As they cheer the wardens, and Godfrey and Wilson, the siren goes, and the platoon take up their positions. 

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Bruno is a 9-year-old boy growing up during World War II in Berlin. He lives with his parents, his 12-year-old sister Gretel, whom he describes as 'A Hopeless Case,' and maids, one of whom is named Maria. After a visit by Adolf Hitler, The Fuhrer (which Bruno commonly mispronounces as "Fury"), Bruno's father is promoted to Commandant, and the family has to move to Auschwitz, the biggest concentration camp in history, (As well Bruno also mispronounces this as "Out-With") because of the orders of "The Fury" (Bruno's naive interpretation of the words "Auschwitz" and "Fuhrer"). Bruno is initially upset about moving to Out-with and is almost in tears and leaving his friends, Daniel, Karl and Martin. From the house at Out-With, Bruno sees a camp in which the prisoners wear "striped pyjamas" (prison clothes). One day, Bruno decides to explore the wire fence surrounding the camp. As he walks along the fence, he meets a Jewish boy named Shmuel, who he learns shares his birthday and age. Shmuel says that his father, grandfather, and brother are with him on his side of the fence, but he is separated from his mother. Bruno and Shmuel talk and become very good friends, although Bruno still does not understand very much about Shmuel and his side of the fence. Nearly every day, unless it's raining, Bruno goes to see Shmuel and sneaks him food. As he visits Shmuel more and more, Shmuel gets more and more skinny. Bruno concocts a plan with Shmuel to sneak into the camp to look for Shmuel's father, as Shmuel says to Bruno that his father has disappeared. Shmuel brings a set of prison clothes (which look to Bruno like striped pyjamas), and Bruno leaves his own clothes outside the fence. As they search the camp, both children are rounded up along with a group of prisoners on a "march." They are led into a gas chamber, which Bruno assumes is simply a shelter from the outside rainstorm. In the gas chamber, Bruno apologizes to Shmuel for not finding his father and tells Shmuel that he is his best friend for life. It's unknown if Shmuel answers him because as soon as the door is closed, the lights go out and all is chaos. However, Bruno is determined that even in chaos, he will never let go of Shmuel's hand. Bruno is never seen again and days later, his clothes are discovered by a soldier. His mother spends months afterwards searching for him, even returning to their old home, before at last moving to Berlin with Gretel, who isolates herself in her room. Bruno's father spends a year more at Out-With, becoming ruthless and coldhearted towards his subordinates. A year later, he returns to the place where Bruno's clothes were found and pieces together how his son disappeared, collapsing in grief. Months later, Allied Troops storm the camp and Bruno's father, wracked with guilt, allows himself to be taken prisoner. The book ends with the phrase; "Of course, all of this happened a long time ago and nothing like that could ever happen again. Not in this day and age." 

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Sherman McCoy is a Wall Street bond trader who makes millions while enjoying the good life and the sexual favors of Maria Ruskin, a Southern belle gold digger. Sherman and Maria are driving back to Maria's apartment from JFK Airport when they take a wrong turn on the expressway and find themselves in the "war-zone" of the South Bronx. They are approached by two black youths after Sherman gets out of the car to move a tire out of the road. Sherman jumps back into the car and Maria guns the engine in reverse, running over one of the teenagers. The two drive away. Sherman initially wants to report the incident to the police, but Maria immediately talks him out of it, fearing that their affair would be publicly exposed. Meanwhile, alcoholic journalist Peter Fallow, anxious for a story to make good with his editor, comes upon the hit-and-run case as a rallying point for the black community calling upon Jewish district attorney Abe Weiss, who is the Bronx District Attorney seeking re-election. According to Judge Leonard White, almost all of DA Weiss' prosecutions end up with black and Puerto Rican defendants going to prison and Weiss is seeking a white defendant for purposes of convincing the minority- majority community that he is worth re-electing. Weiss recognizes the press coverage inherent in prosecuting the callow Sherman, who has been discovered as the owner of the car, and therefore presumed to be the hit-and-run driver, in order to cultivate the image as an avenger for the minorities and be propelled to the mayorship of New York City. As Sherman is brought to his knees, New York City fragments into different factions who use the case to suit their own cynical purposes. Finally, Sherman is left without any allies to support him except for the sympathetic Judge Leonard White and the remorseful Fallow. Fallow gains a tremendous advantage and insight into the case when he is dating a woman who is the sub-letting landlord of Maria's apartment, and knows of secret recordings of conversations in the apartment made by the building owners to prove that the woman is not in fact living in the rent-controlled apartment herself. She discovers information about the McCoy case (where Maria states she was driving the car), which she gives to Fallow, who in turn covertly supplies it to McCoy's defense attorney. Sherman gets his hands on a tape and plays the recording in court, where it reveals Maria directly contradicting the evidence she has just given, showing she has been perjuring herself and causing her to faint. Sherman plays the tape in a tape recorder inside his briefcase connected to a small loudspeaker that he holds on the desk. When the judge orders that he approach the bench with this evidence, he asserts that the tape is his (making it admissible evidence), resulting in his acquittal. The people in the court go into an uproar, to which Judge White launches into a tirade that they have no right to act self- righteous and smarmy, or that they are above Sherman, considering Reverend Bacon claims to help disadvantaged New Yorkers but actually engages in race baiting, or that the District Attorney Weiss pushed this case not in the interest of justice but in the interest of appealing to minority voters to further his political career by appealing to their desire to "get even". After the Judge made his point, he begs the people to be decent and change their ways, letting Sherman go. A year later, a large audience is applauding the premiere of Fallow's book. Fallow says that Sherman McCoy has moved away from New York City to an unknown destination, presumably to live in obscurity. 

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The film is set in Paris and is about three sisters: Celine, Anne and Sophie. It starts with a scene in which a woman and her young daughter (who we later find out is Celine) walk into an office and see two people: her father, and a young man who is naked. After Sebastian has met Celine a few times much later in their adulthood, following a misunderstanding in which she strips for him as she believes him to be an admirer, he confides to her that he was the young man, and that her father's imprisonment for this crime was actually his fault. He said that he had fallen in love with her father and, finally being alone with him and not knowing what else to do, took off his clothes. It is revealed that the girls' father tried to see his daughters on his release from prison when they were young. He broke into his ex-wife's apartment and locked her in the kitchen to try to see his daughters and attempts to see them, but they, having been told by their mother what their father has done, have locked themselves in their bedroom. The mother breaks out of the kitchen and he assaults her, leaving her with a brain injury and an inability to speak. He then jumps from the window, killing himself. In the present day, Anne has an affair with a man who is both the father of her best friend and a Sorbonne professor, by whom she becomes pregnant (while the professor is still married). Sophie's marriage falls apart as her husband has an affair. Celine contacts her sisters, whom she has not seen for some time even though all three live in Paris, and explains the truth of her father's innocence as revealed by Sebastian. They visit their mother in her beautiful aged care home, and explain that their father's conviction was a mistake, and she was wrong to vilify him. She replies by writing 'I have no regrets', implying an ulterior motive in denouncing her then-husband. The audience is left wondering if he cheated on her, long ago, and thus each of the four women share a tortured history of men in their lives. 

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The Beindorf family, Ned (Kevin Pollak), Janet (Jamie Lee Curtis), Grover (Kyle Howard), and Stacy (Amy Sakasitz), live a supposedly happy typical family life in the suburbs of Defiance, Ohio. In fact Ned and Janet are not happy and are separating, although they tell Grover and Stacy it is not a divorce. Grover and Stacy first try to recreate their parents honeymoon in the basement, but this fails to bring any happiness into their relationship. Grover and Stacy then leave the basement, telling Ned and Janet they must get another surprise for them upstairs. They go up, close the door, and nail it shut. They vow to keep it so until Ned and Janet work out their problems and get their marriage back on its feet. The next day, Grover tells his best friend, Matt Finley (Mooky Arizona), what he has done and T.J. Krupp (Russel Harper), the wealthy local bully, overhears them. Matt goes over to the Beindorfs' house to look at Grover and Stacy's work and is impressed. T.J. shows up to have a look and actually installs a newer, more secure door to keep Ned and Janet trapped. He and Matt then leave to collect their parents and bring them there to lock them up as well. Matt's father, Vic (Wallace Shawn), never keeps a wife for more than two years and T.J.'s father, Donald (Christopher McDonald), does not treat his wife, Gwenna (Sheila McCarthy), well. Matt also brings his bulldog, Cosmo, and two younger brothers, Jimmy (Alex Seitz) and Teddy (Josh Wolford) (who come armed with sleeping bags) and T.J. brings his boa constrictor, Spot. When Grover asks what is going on in response to his friends setting up camp at his house, T.J. replies with "Our parents could be down there for months!" Ned and Janet almost talk Grover into letting them out, but Donald (who's an attorney) threatens him with legal action. Grover finds out that his dream girl, Brooke Figler (Jennifer Love Hewitt), is also having parental problems: her mother, Cindy (Jennifer Tilly), acts like a teenager, going so far as to trying to hang out with Brooke's friends. Grover invites her to lock Cindy up with the rest. The children begin to help their parents solve their problems. They try to find a way out of the basement while getting along and seeing what each of their problems are. The children also work out their differences with each other above. They eventually give in and up to the police, and their parents are set free. It is revealed at the end that Ned and Janet reconciled and took a second honeymoon to Hawaii. Vic and Louise's marriage lasted past the two-year mark and they are expecting another child. Donald and Gwenna got divorced, though she later went back to law school and they opened up a law firm together. Cindy started dating other men instead of intruding on Brooke's dates. Also, Grover and Brooke became sweethearts and she passionately kisses him in front of their classmates at school. However, he concluded if his parents ever try to get divorced again he might think of locking them in the attic. 

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Chandrashekhar/Shekhar (Shammi Kapoor) belongs to an aristocratic family, run by Shekhar's domineering mother (Lalita Pawar). He completes his education in London and comes back to run his business. In his family, people shouldn't talk more than needed and laughter is completely prohibited. Shekhar follows all those rules strictly from the heart, but his younger sister Mala (Shashikala) does not like him. She laughs and roams freely and even falls in love with Jeevan (Anoop Kumar), who works in her brother's company. When her mother finds out that Mala is in love with a common man, she asks her son to take her away to some distant place and make her forget this man. Shekhar agrees and takes Mala to Kashmir. There he meets the charming and lively Rajkumari (Saira Banu), daughter of a local doctor and gets attracted to her. But he remembers his mother's expectations that he should marry a girl from the aristocratic family and maintains a distance with Rajkumari. But one day, they both get stuck in a snowstorm for two days, which gives him enough time to grow closer to her. In that time, he understands what is important in life and becomes a carefree man. Meanwhile, Mala, who was actually pregnant before they came to Kashmir, gives birth to a son. Rajkumari and her father maintain the secret from everyone and from her brother. They come back to their home and his mother gets shocked by seeing the carefree and changed Shekhar. He even tells her about his love, but she mistakes that name of Rajkumari for a real princess. When she comes to know that she is not the princess, she decides against the marriage. But after some drama, she too comes to know that the real value of people lies in their hearts, not in titles, and she accepts Rajkumari as her daughter-in-law. It gets revealed that Mala secretly married Jeevan a year ago and their son was legitimate. Everyone accepts Jeevan into their home and laughter comes back to their home. 

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A Dutch teenager, Martin Arkenhout, and an American college student, Seth Goodman, strike up a conversation on a bus in Florida, and on a whim they rent a car to better explore the rural area. But then the car breaks down and Goodman, trying to summon help on the roadside, is struck by a passing car and left critically injured. Arkenhout bludgeons Goodman with a rock, switches their wallets and papers, and continues Goodman's journey to college in New York. Arkenhout soon must give up the identity when Goodman's suspicious parents demand he comes home for Christmas. He has by now developed a taste for wealth and luxury, and so begins befriending and killing rich people, stealing their identities and living their comfortable lives for as long as he can before moving on. The novel shifts over to James Costa, a museum curator who arranges to meet with an art professor named Hart - who is in reality none other than Arkenhout. Costa wrestles with his troubled but passionate marriage, and is disturbed by his father's sudden decision to leave England and return to the family's former village in Portugal. When Costa and Arkenhout, still posing as Hart, cross paths, Arkenhout is unaware that the real Hart had stolen rare manuscripts from a British museum. Costa, representing the museum, pursues the man he believes to be Hart as far as Portugal hoping to regain the missing manuscripts. As fate would have it, Arkenhout takes a vacation villa near the village where Costa's father had only just died. While settling family business and attempting to negotiate for the manuscripts, Costa makes increasingly unnerving discoveries about the identities of Hart and Arkenhout, and about his own father's involvement in political oppression during World War II. 

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Bill Markham (Powers Boothe) is an engineer who has moved to Brazil with his family to work on a large hydro-electric dam. The film opens on Markham, his wife Jean (Meg Foster), his young son Tommy (William Rodriguez), and his daughter Heather (Yara Vaneau) having a picnic on the edge of the jungle, which is being cleared for the dam's construction. Tommy wanders from the cleared area, and an Indian (Rui Polanah) from one of the indigenous tribes known as the Invisible People notices Tommy and takes him. Markham pursues the pair into the forest but does not find his son. Ten years later, the dam is nearing completion. A 17-year-old Tommy (Charley Boorman), now called Tomme, has become one of the Invisible People. Tomme undergoes a vision quest, where his spirit animal tells him he must retrieve sacred stones from a remote spot deep in the jungle and, after becoming a man, marry a woman named Kachiri (Dira Paes). Chief Wanadi, the man who took and adopted Tommy, warns him that the quest will be dangerous, as it will take him into the territory of the cannibalistic Fierce People. Meanwhile, Markham has finally identified his son's abductors. Markham and a journalist decide to set off bottle rockets to attract the attention of the Invisible People. Instead, they attract the Fierce People and are captured. Armed with a CAR-15 carbine, Markham is able to defend himself long enough to talk with Chief Jacareh (Claudio Moreno) who releases Markham for the night, promising to hunt him down in the morning, while the Fierce People kill and butcher the journalist. Close to dawn, Markham stumbles into Tomme collecting the sacred stones. The two recognize each other just as the Fierce People arrive, shooting Markham in the shoulder. Tomme and his father manage to escape, leaving Markham's carbine behind. In the care of the Invisible People, Markham recovers from his injuries and undergoes a vision quest, waking up back at the dam's construction zone. Markham asked Chief Wanadi why he took Tommy all those years ago. Chief Wanadi answered that he thought the white people must be terribly unhappy, since they were destroying the forest, but Tommy smiled at the Invisible People when he saw them; the Chief took Tommy to save him. Jacareh, recognizing the destructive power of Markham's carbine, visits a seedy brothel at the edge of the construction zone and arranges to exchange women for ammunition and more guns. Tomme and his friends return to their village to discover that many of the Invisible People have been murdered and all the young women abducted by the Fierce People. Desperate for help, Tomme navigates the city to his parents' condo, and Markham agrees to help rescue the women from the brothel. That night, Markham initiates a shootout in the brothel while Tomme and his friends release the enslaved women from captivity. In the ensuing battle, the Fierce People kill several members of the Invisible People, including Chief Wanadi. Tomme is later sworn in as the new chief of the tribe. Markham warns Tomme that the almost-completed dam will end the tribe's way of life, but Tomme insists that the Invisible People are safe. During a storm, Markham places demolition explosives at key points along the dam, but the detonator seems to fail. It is not clear if either the explosives or the storm manages to breach the dam. Markham watches its destruction with mixed emotions. The film ends with Tomme and Kachiri sitting at the swimming hole near their village in the jungle, watching the members of their tribe splash and play. 

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Fonny and Tish are in love, and this protects them from their respective families and the outside world until Fonny is falsely accused of rape. He is jailed and held before trial. Tish finds out she is pregnant and her family, while concerned that she is quite young, gives her support for the coming baby. They help her find a lawyer to defend Fonny, hoping to find evidence to free him before the baby is born. 

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Poonam Mishra (Amrita Rao) is a middle class girl who lives in the small town of Madhupur. After the death of her parents, while very young, her uncle Krishnakant (Alok Nath) fulfilled the void of a father in her life. However, her aunt Rama (Seema Biswas) is jealous and unable to accept Poonam as her own child, driven by the fact that her own daughter Rajni (Amrita Prakash) is dark in complexion and less beautiful than Poonam. Harishchandra (Anupam Kher), a renowned businessman from New Delhi, has two sons: Sunil (Samir Soni) who has married Bhavna (Lata Sabharwal), and Prem Bajapaye (Shahid Kapoor), who is a soft-spoken and well-educated person. Poonam's simple and affectionate demeanor impresses Bhagatji (Manoj Joshi), a close friend of Krishnakant and a jeweller by profession. Bhagatji takes Poonam's marriage proposal for Prem. When Harishchandra takes his opinion on the proposition, Prem is initially hesitant and feels he is too young for marriage and needs to focus on his career first. Harishchandra convinces Prem to meet Poonam before deciding about anything. Respecting his father's wishes, Prem agrees to meet Poonam, get to know better and then take a decision. They visit Krishnakant's family and let Prem and Poonam get acquainted with each other. Though their first conversation is awkward, Prem and Poonam agree to get married, as they are instantly attracted to each other. Prem and Poonam get engaged and are set to be married in six months. Krishnakant invites Prem's family to their summer residence in Som Sarovar, so Prem and Poonam get the opportunity to know each other better. Prem and Poonam go through the most magical and romantic period of their lives. Coming from different sensibilities, both want their relationship to be very right for each other. Both realize the importance of the engagement rings that they have given to each other and the special right that they have got on each other in return. They begin to fall in love and become attached to each other, thanks to the gentle prodding of their respective siblings. After several days, Harishchandra and his family return home to attend a business meet on urgent basis, which leaves Poonam and Prem the choice to communicate via telephone and letter. Prem joins the family business and takes on an important project in Japan. Upon returning, the family brings Poonam as a surprise and they celebrate their engagement. However, two days before the actual wedding, a fire breaks out at Krishnakant's house. Although Poonam runs out of the house in time, she realizes that Rajni is still inside and goes to save her. Poonam gets heavily burnt in the process. The doctor informs her father that in such cases, even families disown their own. Bhagatji broken heartedly calls Prem right as he is leaving for Madhupur for the ceremony. As he is about to sign the waiver allowing her surgery, he begins to cry and cannot do so. Prem arrives, determined to marry Poonam despite her injuries and bringing with him the finest doctors from Delhi. He marries her informally before her surgery. With the aid of the Delhi doctors, the hospital successfully performs surgery on Poonam.Later, Poonam and Prem are traditionally married and go home to their new life. The film ends with Poonam and Prem celebrating their first night. 

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In November 1970, Simon Morley, an advertising sketch artist, is approached by U.S. Army Major Ruben Prien to participate in a secret government project. He is taken to a huge warehouse on the West Side of Manhattan, where he views what seem to be movie sets, with people acting on them. It seems this is a project to learn whether it is feasible to send people back into the past by what amounts to self-hypnosis—whether, by convincing oneself that one is in the past, not the present, one can make it so. As it turns out, Simon (usually called Si) has a good reason to want to go back to the past—his girlfriend, Kate, has a mystery linked to New York City in 1882. She has a letter dated from that year, mailed to an Andrew Carmody (a fictional minor figure who was associated with Grover Cleveland). The letter seems innocuous enough—a request for a meeting to discuss marble—but there is a note which, though half burned, seems to say that the sending of the letter led to "the destruction by fire of the entire World", followed by a missing word. Carmody, the writer of the note, mentioned his blame for that incident. He then killed himself. Si agrees to participate in the project, and requests permission to go back to New York City in 1882 in order to watch the letter being mailed (the postmark makes clear when it was mailed). The elderly Dr. E.E. Danziger, head of the project, agrees, and expresses his regret that he can't go with Si, because he would love to see his parents' first meeting, which also occurred in New York City in 1882. The project rents an apartment at the famous Dakota apartment building, which did not actually exist in 1882. (It was completed two years later, but Finney explains that he took a few liberties with the timeline due to his fascination with the building.) Si uses the apartment as both a staging area and a means to help him with self-hypnosis, since the building's style is so much of the period in which it was built and faces a section of Central Park which, when viewed from the apartment's window, is unchanged from 1882. The Dakota in winter. This image appears in Chapter 17 of the novel. Si is successful in going back to 1882, at first very briefly, and then a second time he is able to take Kate with him. They travel by horse-drawn bus down to the old post office, and watch the letter being mailed by a man. They follow him, and learn that he lives at 19 Gramercy Park. Then they return to their base at the Dakota apartments and return to the present. Si is debriefed and carefully examined after each trip to the past, and as far as the project organizers can tell, his activities in the past are making no difference to the present. He is encouraged to go back again. He presents himself at 19 Gramercy Park as a potential boarder. He is accepted, begins living there and learns that the man who mailed the letter is named Jake Pickering. He explores the Manhattan of the past for several days, sketching all the while—he is an illustrator, and Finney inserts illustrations from the period into the book as Si's own. He goes on to learn that Pickering is blackmailing Carmody. Si finds himself falling for the landlady's niece, Julia Charbonneau. But he has a rival—Pickering. Eventually, Pickering makes a scene, having tattooed the name "JULIA" on himself, and Si soon leaves, to return to the present. Things aren't going as well in the present. One of the other participants in the project, having gone back to Denver some seventy years in the past, has made some unknown change in the past (or so it seems to be assumed by the project leaders as there is no reason why the change couldn’t have been made by Si—in fact, more likely so as Si had been much more active in the past than the Denver operative—or another time traveler) and thus a friend, whom he remembers, was never born. Danziger insists that the project be stopped. When he is overruled, he resigns. After Prien talks to him, Si sees no alternative other than to return to the past again, though he is troubled by Danziger's resignation. He is accepted back at Gramercy Park cheerfully, with even the dour Pickering happy. It seems Pickering and Julia are now engaged. Si (casting himself as a private detective) tells Julia that Pickering is a blackmailer. They go to Pickering's office and conceal themselves to watch the blackmail money being turned over by Carmody. Carmody brings only $10,000, rather than the demanded million dollars for the incriminating files. After knocking him out, Carmody ties up Pickering and sets out to look for the papers. He realizes they are concealed amid many other files. He patiently thumbs through the files, while Si and Julia agonize as the hours pass. Finally, Carmody decides on a scheme—burn the files. He does so. Pickering tries to save the files, but burns himself badly in the process. To the pair's astonishment, Si and Julia burst forth, urging them to flee, and flee themselves. It is a huge fire, and Si and Julia find themselves trapped. They barely escape. Si learns that the building used to house the newspaper the New York World and one piece of the puzzle fits in—the missing word in Carmody's note was "Building". After watching the efforts to fight the fire, in which many die, the shaken couple returns to Gramercy Park. There is no sign of Pickering. [The burning of the New York World building is a factual historical event]. Two days later, the two are picked up by Police Inspector Thomas Byrnes, and then taken to Carmody's house. Terribly burned and bandaged, Carmody accuses them of murdering Pickering and starting the fire. After they leave, Byrnes expresses indecision and lets them walk away—only to yell "The prisoners are escaping" to the sergeant who accompanies him. It is a set-up, the two are to prove their guilt by "attempting to escape". As it turns out, police all over the island have already been provided with their description and photographs. They are able to flee, but have no money and nowhere to go. They shelter in the as-yet-unassembled Statue of Liberty's arm, then standing in Madison Square. (Again, the arm standing in Madison Square Park prior to the statue as a whole being erected is a factual event). Si tells Julia the whole story, but she takes it as entertaining fantasy. She is soon convinced otherwise, as Si brings them both into the present, and she observes the dawn from high inside the long-assembled statue, seeing a totally strange New York. They spend a day in the present, with a shocked Julia observing the things that have changed in ninety years, from clothing to television. At last, they settle into Si's apartment. He is ashamed to tell her the history of what has happened in the past ninety years, the horrible wars and the fact that there are areas of the city where no law-abiding citizen can safely go. Julia must return home. The two realize that the man whom they met at Carmody's house was in fact Pickering, who they could not identify because of the burns and bandages—Carmody had actually died in the fire. Armed with this knowledge, Julia can keep Pickering from having her arrested, lest he be exposed. As 1882 is far more real to her than 1970, she returns to the past without needing any help from Si. Si goes to report in, and tells most of the story, concealing Julia's visit to 1970. They then give him an assignment—to intentionally alter the past. Research has confirmed that Carmody (actually Pickering) was an acquaintance of Grover Cleveland's--and talked Cleveland out of buying Cuba from Spain. The military men now in effective control of the project conclude that if Pickering is exposed, he might never have influence with Cleveland, and the U.S. might never have to worry about Fidel Castro. But after talking with Danziger, Si worries about the other effects the change might have, and Danziger makes him promise not to carry out the scheme. Si returns to 1882. Having learned from Danziger how his parents met by chance, Si interjects himself and prevents their meeting. Because the parents never meet, Danziger will never be born, and the project will never happen. Si walks away towards Gramercy Park and Julia, and away from 1970. 

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Govindan (Manivannan) is a thief who has two children: Aadhi (Pasupathy) and Arivumathi (Vikram). Years go by and the brothers decide to stop stealing, mend their ways, and lead a hardworking life with their father. They migrate to a neighboring village and meet a retired agricultural officer Chidambaram (Vijayakumar), who is in deep debt and is under pressure from the village's landlord Kalingarayar (Murali) to clear his debts. In efforts to help Chidambaram, Mathi confronts Seetha Lakshmi (Asin), Kalingarayar's daughter, who comes to collect the money Chidambaram owes her father. Seetha Lakshmi starts to acquire a liking for Mathi, but keeps it hidden due to her father's atrocious temper. In an attempt to teach Kalingarayar a lesson, Mathi forcibly ties the mangalsutram around Seetha's neck. Kalingarayar, realizing his daughter's love for Mathi, comes down to arrange a grand remarriage between the two. But things go awry when Manicka Vel (Biju Menon), Seetha Lakshmi's maternal uncle, comes to town in an effort to stop the wedding between the two as he has plans of marrying her and wiping her family fortune. 

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The action centre's around Angela Phillips (Tate) and Mary Trewednack (French), a lesbian couple who run the local town store and post office. Though self-avowed lesbians, halfway through the first series Mary comments that the only reason they are a couple is because they were the only two people in town who weren't already in a relationship when they met. Some plots of first series episodes revolve around both of them pursuing romances with men and the jealousy the other partner experiences; by the second series, all mentions of a lesbian relationship are completely dropped, including a recurring gag during the opening credits that showed them in bed together. This is resolved in the final episode of the show. Mary and Angela are friends with the village locals, including Holly (Duff/Weaver), owner of the local witchcraft centre; Harry (Mylan,) a young local hippy; Old Jake (Bradley,) who runs the local boat tour; Jeff (Foley), a swinger and sexual deviant who owns the local pub with his deaf wife Daphne; and PC Alan Allen (Wright), the somewhat bumbling policeman who becomes Mary's major romantic interest in series 2. Each episode centers on a new situation that has come into the lives of the characters and how they deal with it, generally with a focus on the different ways in which Mary and Angela meddle in everyone's lives. 

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Cerulean Sins continues the adventures of Anita Blake. In this novel, Anita continues to try to bring some order to her personal life, while simultaneously confronting a power play by Jean-Claude's vampire master, Belle Morte and attempting to solve a series of brutal killings by an unidentified shapeshifter. As with the other later novels in the series, Cerulean Sins blends elements of supernatural, detective, and erotic fiction. 

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* Cerulean Sins apparently takes place some time after the events of the previous novel, Narcissus in Chains. Anita is happily living with Micah and Nathaniel and dating Micah and Jean-Claude. However, as usual, Anita is confronted by a series of simultaneous problems. ** First, she appears to be attracting the attention of a number of spies, including Leo Harlan, a professional assassin who claims to want Anita to reanimate one of his ancestors to assist in genealogical research and two mercenaries who Anita arrests via her Federal Marshal status after noticing them following her. ** Second, Jean-Claude is unpleasantly surprised by an early visit from Musette and her entourage, all of whom are representatives of the founder of Jean- Claude's bloodline, Belle Morte and represent an attempt by Belle Morte to test and possibly punish or capture Jean-Claude and his followers. ** Third, Anita learns of a series of shockingly brutal rapes and murders, apparently committed by a shapeshifter serial killer. However, because of her deteriorating relationship with Dolph, Anita is unable to get cooperation from the police in solving the crimes. * As usual, Anita resolves each of these conflicts with a combination of ruthlessness, magical power, and the loyalty of her friends and lovers. ** Anita ultimately learns that the mercenaries have been spying on her to consider recruiting her for a secret mission overseas. (As Agent Bradford warned Anita in Obsidian Butterfly, Anita has come to the attention of one or more secret agencies within the US government). Luckily for Anita, at her mentor Marianne's insistence, Anita had stopped using animal sacrifices to raise zombies. Without the additional power granted by an animal sacrifice, Anita's zombies were sufficiently "zombie- looking" to convince the mercenaries that she would not be able to perform the job, arguably validating Marianne's belief that the animal sacrifices would result in bad karma. ** Anita confronts, outmaneuvers, or defeats Belle Morte several times. First, she and Jean-Claude take Asher to their (cerulean) bed in a menage a trois, making Asher their lover and therefore immune to most of Belle Morte's advances. Second, Anita, with help from Richard, Jean-Claude, and her wereleopards, is able to block Belle Morte's attempts to make Anita her human servant. Third, Anita is ultimately able to trap Musette in their game of courtly politics, proving that Belle Morte and her proxy Musette has violated the terms of her invitation and forcing Musette and her people to leave. ** More alarmingly, Anita begins to believe that Belle Morte is planning a war against the Mother of Darkness, the oldest and most powerful of the world's vampires. Although Anita and Jean-Claude do their best to avoid that conflict, the Mother of Darkness is beginning to awaken from a millennia- long sleep, and seems interested in Anita. ** Finally, Anita helps Zerbrowski track down the shapeshifting serial killer, who turns out to be a werewolf member of the mercenary team sent to observe Anita herself. After a confrontation in which several police officers are killed, Anita tracks down the werewolf a second time and executes him. * In the epilogue, Anita explains that she is continuing to date Micah and Jean-Claude, and that she has also added Asher to her list of lovers. She and Richard are still broken up, but Richard appears to be overcoming his death wish. Two of Belle Morte's vampires have received permission to remain in St. Louis, both to repair the damage done by their visit and to attempt to stay out of the way of any conflict between Belle Morte and the Mother of Darkness. 

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In 1949, successful middle-aged businessman Harry Allen (Chris Cooper) is having an affair with considerably younger war widow Kay Nesbitt (Rachel McAdams). Feeling rejuvenated by his emotional reawakening, he confides in his best friend Richard Langley (Pierce Brosnan) and encourages him to visit his mistress in order to alleviate her loneliness. Richard complies and immediately finds himself attracted to the young woman. Richard discovers Harry's wife Pat (Patricia Clarkson), oblivious to her husband's ongoing tryst, is engaged in an affair of her own with John O'Brien (David Wenham). Anxious to cement his blossoming relationship with Kay, Richard separately urges Harry and Pat to remain with each other. Harry, however, is determined to marry Kay. Certain divorce would hurt and humiliate Pat too much, Harry decides to kill her by lacing her daily digestive aid with poison. He visits Kay, who unexpectedly ends their relationship. Harry departs, then returns to ask for all the correspondence he has sent her, only to discover Kay in the arms of Richard, who had secreted himself upstairs. Realization sets in, and Harry races home to stop his wife from taking her nightly dose of medication. When Harry returns home he finds his wife sleeping, thinking she consumed the poison Harry walks towards the bedroom window and opens it. He is startled by Pat waking up and saying, "You're home early, is everything all right honey." Harry looks out the window in his backyard and sees John O'Brien running away from the house while getting dressed. It was implied that at this moment Harry comes to know about Pat's infidelity. Harry never confronts her, maybe consumed by his own guilt. Richard and Kay eventually wed and become part of the Allens' social circle, which includes John O'Brien and his wife. Harry and Pat continue to be on the periphery of their healing marriage. 

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Murali (Venkatesh) and his friends go to a village to attend their friend`s marriage. There Murali meets a girl Shailu (Preity Zinta), the bridegroom's friend, they begin to have fun and join in with the festivities and Murali is captivated by her attitude and beauty. Soon both fall in love, but Murali soon finds out that she is to be married to a police officer Muralidhar (Srihari). Murali puts on a brave face for the ceremony but hopes that something or someone will be able to stop the ceremony. He does everything he can to stop the marriage, he even tries to convince Shailu's joint family. Finally, the movie ends with the approval of Venktramayya (Ranganath) for their marriage. 

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Arumugam (Vikram) lives in a village and is a kindhearted man. There is a chemical factory in the village which releases toxic wastes into the river, and the villagers decide to give a petition to Minister Kaalaipandi (Sayaji Shinde) requesting him to close the factory. Arumugam and his childhood rival Eswari (Jyothika), along with her grandmother Mundakanni (Paravai Muniyamma), leave to Chennai to meet Kaalaipandi, who has won from the village's constituency. All three reach Chennai and stay with Narain (Vivek), who also belongs to the same village but is settled in Chennai. Swapna (Reema Sen), a fashion model, also lives near Narain's home, and she is attracted towards Arumugam, whereas Narain loves her. Arumugam meets Kaalaipandi amidst a heavy crowd and conveys the problems faced by their villagers due to water pollution. Kaalaipandi assures to take swift action. Meanwhile, Sornaka (Telangana Shakuntala) and her brother Aadhi (Pasupathy) are local goons involved in many illegal activities with Kaalaipandi supporting them behind. One day, Eswari accidentally collides with Aadhi, following which he tries to beat her, but she saved by Arumugam. Also, Arumugam fractures Aadhi's hands. Now, Sornaka and Aadhi set an eye on Arumugam and decide to trouble him. They, along with Kaalaipandi's help, kidnap Arumugam and injure him badly. Kaalaipandi also informs that he will never take any action against the chemical factory in his village. Narain, Swapna, and Eswari rescue and treat Arumugam. Arumugam discloses the true image of Kaalaipandi and the culprits behind him to Eswari and Narain. Arumugam decides to take revenge on Kaalaipandi and tarnish his image among the public. Arumugam uses Kaalaipandi's memo pad and forges a letter praising an adult movie and requesting it to be published in a daily newspaper. The newspaper editor believes it and publishes it the next day. This brings agitation among political parties, and people demand resignation from Kaalaipandi. Meanwhile, Sornaka decides to kidnap Eswari and kill Arumugam, but instead, Arumugam thrashes Sornaka's men and saves Eswari. Sornaka, while trying to escape, gets hit by a lorry and dies. Kaalaipandi decides to bring back his lost image by staging a fast until death event, which will bring sympathy among citizens. Arumugam mixes his village's dirty water into the drink served to break the fast. When he discloses it on the media, fearing his position, Kaalaipandi attempts to kill the CM in hospital. Arumugam is arrested on a false case. When Kaalaipandi once again tries his luck to kill the CM, Arumugam uses his skills and gets Kaalaipandi killed on the hands of policemen (who were aiming for Arumugam). Arumugam returns back to his village with Eswari and Mundakanni. It is also shown that both Arumugam and Eswari had developed a romantic interest in each other. The film ends with the whole village celebrating Arumugam's victory. 

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RayCrisis, being a prequel to RayForce, details the events during the timeframe of the supercomputer called the Neuro-Computer Con-Human gaining sentience and rebelling against its human creators, a direct result of a misguided scientist trying to bond a human clone to Con-Human mentally. Now, against Con-Human's massive attack forces laying siege to the Earth, exterminating and cloning humans, a mecha-neurologist jacks in to the Con- Human system in an attempt to regain control of the rogue machine by means of the computer viruses, known as the Waveriders, into the Cybernetics Link, engaging Operation Raycrisis to cease the supercomputer's destructive actions permanently and prevent it from causing more havoc in the future. However, even when Operation Raycrisis leaves Con-Human wrecked from the inside, it was too late to reverse the damage it has done. Furthermore, what is left of the human race has left for the space colonies as refuge from the destruction. In the end, years later, with the unveiling of the X-LAY starfighter and the ships of the fleet, Terran Command and the remaining humans initiate one final assault on Con-Human, who has turned the Earth into a bleak, metal graveyard. One final assault, in which will end the cybernetic nightmare once and for all, destroying the planet they've called home in the process. 

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The film is narrated by Max Carlyle (Wesley Snipes). Max lives in Los Angeles, where he has a successful career directing television commercials and is happily married to Mimi (Ming-Na), with whom he has two children. While visiting New York City, Max meets Karen (Nastassja Kinski) by chance after missing a flight; circumstances keep bringing them together over the course of the evening, and they end up spending the night together. When he returns home, Max seems distant and unhappy, though Mimi can't tell why and Max won't say. A year later, Max and Mimi fly to New York to visit his close friend Charlie (Robert Downey Jr.), who is near death from AIDS. Max meets Charlie's brother Vernon (Kyle MacLachlan) and is introduced to his new wife—Karen. Facing Karen sends Max into an emotional tailspin, and he realizes that he must tell Mimi the truth about his indiscretion. 

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An American screenwriter, Dan Gillis, living in Paris, has been abandoned by his wife. He has a hard time getting used to a new life as a single parent with his son, Danny. He is commissioned by successful producer, Legrand, to write a script. Dan has worked with that same producer in the past. This time though, he is required to write an unconventional story together with Malcolm - a young and unknown film director. Dan hesitates about taking the job, since it as far from the kind of work he usually does. Legrand insists and the intriguing personality of the young director eventually convinces him to accept, even though his agent, the beautiful, disabled Marilyn, advises against it. As soon as he starts working on the script Dan discovers that there is something else behind this job. He becomes painfully aware of and shamelessly intrigued by the incestuous relationship between Malcolm and his beautiful younger sister Jenny. Sexual fantasy and hallucinatory dream sequences lead Malcolm to become obsessed with Jenny as he starts his own investigating of the circumstances behind the making of this particular movie. He ultimately discovers that he has been had and is caught in a haywire of greed and ambition from which he cannot escape. 

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Sivakasi is a mechanic known for keeping rowdies in check. One day he chastises a jeweler's daughter, Hema, for wearing "skimpy clothing." After she instigates a false case against him, he humiliates her father by declaring his love for her at a wedding. In response, Hema claims he caused her sister's suicide. , during which she declares her love. Doubting her, Sivakasi tells her to spend the night with him, but when she arrives at his house, her brothers take her back home. Fearing her death, Sivakasi recognizes his mistake and ensures her safety. Her father gives his blessing to the match. Hema's brothers visit and remark that his current income is not enough to support Hema, causing him to throw them out of the house. Hema confronts Sivakasi, remarking he couldn't understand siblings as he was an orphan. Sivakasi reveals his real name, Muthappa, and that he was falsely blamed for setting off crackers near a possessed dancer 15 years earlier, a crime done by his brother Udhayappan. Hema berates him for ignoring his parents' love and declares they will marry only with his family's request. Sivakasi returns to his native and discovers Udhayappan is now an MLA due to his mother-in-law Moolimungari's influence. His mother works as a servant in her own house and is unable to recognize him. Her sister operates a roadside stall in a nearby village in utter penury with her husband and child. Sivakasi decides to improve their lot anonymously. One of his few confidants tells how his father died when Udhayappan claimed his mother had affairs. Enraged, Sivakasi beats Udhayappan and his men, claiming to be the husband of a woman he raped, and is paid 1 million rupees for her false suicide note. The next day, when Udhayappan tries to sell ancestral property, Sivakasi reminds the buyers of Muthappa and how, without his signature, the sale is illegal. To avoid this, Udhayappan dresses a false body to look like Muthappa, but Sivakasi inserts a note saying his share of the property should be donated. The note is found valid and Udhayappan reveals his deception. Later Udhayappan registers his MLA candidacy but finds Vairam contesting, supported by Sivakasi's money. The villagers see Sivakasi as an outsider, but he brings doubles of film stars to canvass for Vairam. Udhayappan brings the real Nayanthara, but Sivakasi makes her unintentionally support Vairam. Udhayappan, furious about Sivakasi, is visited by Hema and Sivakasi's friends who are looking for him. Udhayappan goes to Sivakasi's house thinking he knows his identity. It is revealed that Hema lied that Muthappa and Sivakasi are friends. He threatens to kill their mother, and although Sivakasi burns his palms, he and Vairam decide to leave. At night, Vairam sees her husband getting kidnapped by someone who she thinks is Udhayappan, although it is Sivakasi in truth. When Vairam confronts her confused elder brother, he hits her, gaining her sympathy votes. Vijay fakes a threat by Udhayappan towards Vairam, resulting in Udhayappan's men attacking villagers. The people turn against him and Moolimungari, who is covered in cow dung for making Udhyappan an MLA. She threatens Udhayappan if he fails to be re-elected. Udhayappan plans to kill his wife and frame Sivakasi to gain votes, but Sivakasi saves her. Sivakasi secretly burns a body with Vairam's husband's chain, making everyone think Udhayappan killed him. The people riot outside his house. Sivakasi calls him, saying he can have Vairam's husband back, but must hand over all ancestral property to her. Udhayappan signs it, thinking Muthappa can't sign, and finds one of his men. Vairam wins the election and property, and she and her mother regain their old state. Sivakasi releases Vairam's husband and Udhayappan's wife. Udhayappan hears Muthappa has arrived, who is revealed to Vairam and her mother to be Sivakasi. An angry Moolimungari decides to kill Udhayappan, who decides to kill his brother. Moolimungari's men arrive and are about to kill Udhayappan, when their mother asks Muthappa to save him. Sivakasi rescues Udhayappan, who begs forgiveness for his actions and reunites with his wife. Muthappa and Hema are then married. 

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There is the innocent Brahmin boy Satya (Navdeep), who comes from Nagercoil to Chennai to join an engineering college. Then, his problems begin one by one when he encounters his father, the dreaded don Adhi Narayanan (Prakash Raj) and the latter's hot- blooded adopted son Kutty (Arya). Satya's girlfriend Sandhya (Sameksha) is accidentally wounded in a shootout between Adhi's gang and his rivals. Satya, on the prodding of ACP Thiagarajan (Adithya), is all set to identify Kutty as the culprit. Intimidated and threatened by the gang and in a state of confusion, Satya is shocked when Adhi suddenly changes track and makes friendly overtures to him, claiming kinship with him. With Kutty too going overboard with his brotherly overprotective attitude, Satya's life takes a comical and drastic turn. 

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Devi was a celestial warrior goddess created by the gods to fight the renegade god Bala in the 2nd century of man. When Bala rose again to threaten the universe, Devi was reborn within the body of a young woman named Tara Mehta. The Devi entity had emerged within a warrior-woman of the Durapasya (human warriors of light) clan. She had led the armies of the gods and men on an all-out assault on Bala’s Fortress. After defeating Bala through hand-to-hand combat, which led to the fallen god being blinded, captured, and imprisoned by Bodha, the supreme Lord of creation inside Jwala, the fortress of fire and stone (hidden deep within the earth) she had created a source to hold the prayers of humanity and channel them to Aakashik, the story's representation of heaven, thus replenishing the powers of the other pure gods. The key to Bala's sarcophagus prison was entrusted to a creature of fire and stone called the Gatekeeper. In the present, a woman by the name of Tara Mehta, who is the unawakened Devi incarnate, lives a posh lifestyle alongside her boyfriend Iyam (who was the former favorite general of Bala during the ancient battle, and currently Sitapur’s most notorious ganglord). He also owns “the Abyss” night club. An investigation by Inspector Rahul Singh, a functioning alcoholic of the Sitapur police who drinks alcohol in order to self-medicate an overactive supernatural ability, leads to pinpointing Iyam as a culprit. Meanwhile, Kratha, an Apsara - an assassin of heaven hired by Lord Bala using a woman named Amara Gaelle - goes to try to eliminate Tara Mehta before she becomes Devi. However, she is unsuccessful as the Durapasya kidnap and drug her before she can kill her target. Tara comes into contact with the first Devi who attempts to lead Tara on the road to rebirth as the Devi. Inspector Rahul Singh follows Iyam to a private meeting with Amara where he learns of the supposed assassination attempt. Iyam and Kratha come to a truce ending with Iyam paying Kratha double the amount of what she was paid by her previous master. Amara, Lord Bala's contact, kills 2 of Iyam’s bodyguards who had captured Inspector Rahul thus freeing him and seemingly following her own agenda. 

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Snake Woman is the story of Jessica Peterson, a young introspective midwestern girl who has moved to Los Angeles where she works as a waitress in a downtown LA dive-bar. Naturally quiet and reserved, Jessica's slow immersion into the bigger city life is accelerated all of a sudden when one night a yuppie bar patron she mistakenly trusts accosts her. When he tries to take advantage of her (walking her home from the bar) rattling on about some ancient order and other strange things during the attack itself, Jessica is not only able to fight him off, she actually turns predator and rather gruesomely kills him. Overwhelmed with emotion, Jessica feels a strange one mixed in – arousal. Why did killing him feel so good? Snake Woman is the re-invention of India's ancient Snake (Naga) legends, in which the soul of the serpent reptile is reborn in the form of a beautiful and unsuspecting female. Increasingly possessed by her reptilian instincts and driven to avenge a centuries-old wrong, Jessica is now part of something far greater than herself. Torn between her human brain (ethics, morals, intellect) and her reptilian one (instincts, senses, and survival patterns), Jessica has to uncover this new part of herself and reconcile a fate that suggests we are not living our lives, it's our lives that are living through us. 

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Cover art for Sadhu #03 Art by Jeevan Kang In India, the British Imperial army is fighting the natives and a group of Robin Hood-like bandits called the Dakaits. Allied to the British are the Zamindars, landowners that find it in their interest to have the British ruling over India. A sadhu by the name of Dada Thakur is directing the efforts of the Dakaits against the British and is told by a goddess that help is on the way for the Dakaits. In England, a young man named James is working in the docks of London with his younger brother William. They are both unemployed and looking for work and have to fight other job-seekers to get a place on the ships. His brother gets a job on a certain ship and while James bids him farewell, he is approached by a soldier who offers him a chance to join the Imperial army in India. James eventually agrees after finding that his wife, Tess, is pregnant. A brutal colonel by the name of Timothy Townsend is the commanding officer in charge in India. Due to numerous mutinies erupting within the colony, he is requested to postpone his retirement. He works for the East India company in the vicinity of the Bengal province. James arrives in India and one day accidentally stumbles upon a temple of Kali, the goddess of Death. There he finds a brief moment of spiritual epiphany and a feeling that his destiny is somehow intertwined with this foreign land. His wife also bears him a boy called Jack.The Sadhu #01, July 2006, Virgin Comics, writer Gotham Chopra, artist Jeevan Kang, James is trained within the army but he is found to be unfitting as a soldier and Colonel Townsend is particularly displeased with him. One night, while drunk, Townsend berates him and attempts to entice James' wife which forces James to publicly rebuke the colonel angering him in the process. The next day, James is ordered by the colonel to shoot an Indian soldier who disobeyed orders. When James refuses, he is taken away and beaten up and to further exacerbate the situation, the Colonel brings in his wife and sexually assaults her. Within a short while, he kills her and James' son in front of him. James is buried alive but with the help of one of his fellow soldiers, he manages to flee the military unit. While escaping within the jungle, he finds a band of Indian killers whose leader (Dada Thakur) saves him by using vast reality manipulation powers to shrink James to the size of an atom.The Sadhu #02, August 2006, Virgin Comics, writer Gotham Chopra, artist Jeevan Kang The shaman, Dada Thakur, declares James to be "the one" and tells him that James was once his mentor. Cover art for Sadhu #05 Art by Jeevan Kang Colonel Townsend is reprimanded for the casualties suffered and in order to cover up, he lies by stating that an insane James was to blame as he killed his wife and child and allowed natives to enter the encampment. He is told by his superiors that India has officially become a colony of the British Empire and that the East India company wants him to firmly secure the region as it is a key producer of opium that is sold to China. James wakes up and finds himself in a Bengali village. Dada Thakur says that he had once promised to help James "remember" himself (back when James was the Sadhu). Dada Thakur orders James to be attacked (through sticks and bullets) but James' unconscious mystical powers awaken and protect him.The Sadhu #03, September 2006, Virgin Comics, writer Gotham Chopra, artist Jeevan Kang James becomes impressed when Dada Thakur heals a wounded boy and also when Dada Thakur repels a contingent of British soldiers by freezing their bullets in mid-air and by unleashing a wave of energy through a third eye on his forehead. He requests to be trained in the same arts and Dada accepts his request. James begins his training with Dada Thakur who tells him that reality is ultimately a perception and hence through his mind, he can change what he perceives. Also, since he creates reality by perceiving it, Dada tells James that he is ultimately responsible for the deaths of his family and the deaths of anyone else. He learns how to obtain enhanced speed, phasing, advanced fighting capability, time manipulation and even absolute concentration. He is also told by Dada that one day he will betray the shaman. After three years, James ends his training abruptly as the desire to seek vengeance from Townsend grows beyond control within him. James visits an English university where a professor, known for his knowledge of occult studies, is lecturing about Sadhus. After demonstrating that he can fly to the unbelieving professor, James asks the professor for information about a "demon Sadhu" that he believes to be present within the country.The Sadhu #04, October 2006, Virgin Comics, writer Gotham Chopra, artist Jeevan Kang James then goes to an inn and ignoring the advances of a prostitute, he goes to meet the owner who happens to be his brother, William. A bar fight ensues which is stopped when the owner of the entire establishment comes and kills a worker who was apparently stealing. He exits the place by simply vanishing and James pursues his trail. He catches up with the coach of this demon Sadhu and he finds that the person is none other than Colonel Townsend. James was aware of this and he challenges Townsend to a fight but because of his lack of experience, he finds himself easily beaten. His battered body is taken in by the English university professor whose daughter is also aware of James' powers and who subsequently nurses him.The Sadhu #05, February 2007, Virgin Comics, writer Gotham Chopra, artist Jeevan Kang The professor tells James that Townsend may have gone to a Kali temple and therein worshiped the destructive side of the goddess thus becoming a demon Sadhu. James takes his leave after being informed by the professor's daughter that Townsend has established a deep power base within the London underworld. James meets his brother and tells him of Tess's death and Townsend's part in it but William refuses to take him to the Colonel for fear of being killed. James publicly demands Townsend to confront him and later that night evades an assassination attempt in his sleep. His brother comes to meet him to try and dissuade him from his goal but James refuses to listen to the advice and continues in his quest.The Sadhu #06, March 2007, Virgin Comics, writer Gotham Chopra, artist Jeevan Kang 

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Manickam (Jeevan), belongs to a poor family in a village. He does not respect any of his family members, except for his uncle Manohar (Vinod Raj), who lives in Chennai. The story gets rolling once he decides to come and stay with Manohar at Chennai. Once, while Manickam is watching people playing golf, he notices Roopini (Malavika) and Ramesh (Abbas) having an illicit relationship. He manages to capture the scene in his video camera. Roopini is the wife of a rich businessman named Sivaraj (Manoj K. Jayan), who is Ramesh's best friend. Manickam blackmails Roopini and extracts money from her whenever he needs. Once, he makes a trip abroad to Australia with Roopini’s expenditure. There, he happens to meet Rosy (Sonia Agarwal). He falls in love with her. Rosy tells him that she is a very rich girl from a respected family. While he decides to propose to her, he finds that she has left the city. He is upset, and just at that time, Roopini makes a phone call and tells him that Rosy was sent by her only to woo Manickam and demands that if he needs Rosy, he needs to hand over the cassette to her. Manickam decides to find Rosy and comes to know that she also loves him. She asks him to leave this con work and gets him a job in a shop. All went well until when Rosy's stepmother comes to know about this relationship and asks Manickam for a sum if he wants to marry Rosy. To acquire the same, he again uses the cassette for the final time, but Sivaraj comes to know about it. Manickam hands over the money to Rosy's stepmother and asks Rosy to come to the airport next day. The climax shows Sivaraj killing Ramesh and Manickam fighting the goons sent by Sivaraj and reaching the airport, somehow only to be killed by Sivaraj. The film ends with Rosy waiting for Manickam in the airport. 

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Sangeeta Mukherjee is the daughter of well-to-do, traditional parents, dealing with a bratty little sister and a possible arranged marriage, when an out-of-body experience reveals that she is not an ordinary young woman. Sangeeta is, in fact, the reincarnation of India's ancient protector, the Goddess of Mumbai. But how will Sangeeta use this newfound power? Can she make a difference in a male-dominated society? Sangeeta must defy traditional expectations to choose what kind of life she wants and discover her true self. 

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In the third age of mankind, the world, after a nuclear third world war, is divided into two continents, Nark and Aryavarta. In Aryavarta the last kingdom of humans exists inside a city called Armagarh. The city is ruled by a council, the leader of which is a man by the name of Dashrath. His four sons, Rama, Lakshman, Shatrughan and Bharat are sent by the council to outposts of the kingdom to provide assistance. Rama and Lakshman go to the docile region of Fort Janasthan while Bharat and Shatrughan are dispatched to war-torn Khundgiri. At Fort Janasthan, Rama and Lakshman are surprised to find a heavy regiment of Asuras attacking the fort.Ramayan 3392 A.D. #01, September 2006, Virgin Comics, writer Shamik Dasgupta, artist Abhishek Singh After sustaining heavy losses and injury to Lakshman, Rama barters with the enemy and surrenders so as to allow the Janasthanians safe passage while the Asuras destroy the Fort. This act angers the council who then plead with the gods that then subsequently punish Rama by banishing him into exile.Ramayan 3392 A.D. #02, October 2006, Virgin Comics, writer Shamik Dasgupta, artist Abhishek Singh After Rama is exiled, the kingdom of Armagarh falls into disarray. Dashrath succumbs to his death while Lakshman finds himself having to deal with assassination attempts from rogue elements within the council that are aiming to cause an insurrection within the kingdom. In order to obtain support, he goes to Khundgiri to try and meet his brothers but on the way, he meets an old seer by the name of Vishwamitra who instead takes him to Rama. The seer, one of an exalted group of seven, convinces Rama (after showing him the vision of a devastated future) to follow him on a quest to a mythical city called Mithila.Ramayan 3392 A.D. #03, November 2006, Virgin Comics, writer Shamik Dasgupta, artist Abhishek Singh Upon reaching the forests of Dandakaranya (a place near Janasthan), they are then told by an owl that the horde of Asuras that had destroyed Fort Janasthan had been busy fighting and slaughtering all the beasts of the region in the past few months. The Asuras, however, had also suffered equal losses and only a handful amongst them had survived. Rama and his fellow travelers then sprint towards Mithila in order to prevent further destruction. At Mithila, they subdue the last remnants of the dispatched Asura force thus saving the princess of the region, a woman by the name of Seeta who is gifted with magical powers of nature. Vishwamitra states that it is to be Rama's role to act as a protector to this woman, a role that he refuses to take up. They are then attacked by three Asura warriors (who are actually three of Ravan's children). In the battle, the three warriors are killed thus earning the humans the ire of Ravan himself who then arrives to destroy Mithila. Rama, Lakshman and Seeta flee through a secret route while the king of the region, Janak, prepares to fight Ravan. On the other hand a small faction of Armagarhian rebels led by the former prime minister Sumantra, aims to bring down the conspiracy revolving around the House of Suryavansha (Rama's clan). The sons of Dashrath are being eliminated one by one, systematically. Rama is exiled, Lakshman on the run, and Bharat lost in the battles of Khundgiri. They find out the prime culprit Kalnemi, an Asura who is disguised as a councilor in Armagarh. Bharat is held in captivity deep below in the mines of Khundgiri. Sumantra, with his daughter and Shatrughan, release Bharat from his prison, and they all go to Armagarh to bring down Kalnemi and his cohorts. Kalnemi is killed by Bharat and the valiant prince assumes the role of the first King of Armagarh, dissolving the corrupt council. Bharat vows that he will bring back Rama and crown him as the true king of Armagarh, until then he will rule over the great country. 

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Aditya Verma, fondly called Adi Chachu or Adi Uncle (Shahid Kapoor) by the children of his brothers (Adi has 2 brothers, one died in a plane crash along with his wife) lives in a large mansion in Mumbai with his other brother (Mohnish Behl), who has a drinking problem, sister-in-law, sister and grandmother. He is the only one working in the family. He falls in love with a tuition teacher, Priya (Amrita Rao). They confess their feelings to each other and plan to get married. However, while going to work to attend an important meeting, Adi is run over by a truck to save Parth (Parth Dave) and dies. In the afterlife, he meets the Hindu god of death, Yama (Sanjay Dutt), a kind-hearted, emotional deity with designer clothes and a red car. On the saying of Adi, Yamraj allows Adi to go back to Earth as a ghost to stop his evil uncle (Prem Chopra) who wants to sell Adi's mansion to industrialist Hirachand (Sharat Saxena). Adi enlists the aid of Shakti, a little boy who was being taken with Adi to heaven, in order to save his family home. They then reach at earth but no one can listen, see and feel them. They then meet Fakira bhai B.P.C.M (Arshad Warsi), who gives them the power to touch humans as before they were not able to, then for his family Yamraj comes and gives him power to see his family for a couple of minutes before he takes the both of them back—Shakti and Adi. When Adi's family see Adi, they ask Yamraj to take them as well, as they don't want to live without Adi. Yamraj gets emotional and leaves him to stay with his family and the little boy Shakti also. Another day when the family members wake up they think that this was a bad dream but only Adi and Shakti know the truth, that they died and came back to life. A film actor and Yamraj's lookalike, Sanjay Dutt offers to buy Adi's property but Adi refuses to sell his property and lives happily with Priya and his family. 

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In a futuristic, cyber-punk New York City, convicted felon Roger Mason (Gary Daniels) is serving a sentence and is locked away in a high security prison facility, where Cryonics are applied to some of the inmates, including Mason himself, to keep them in a state of suspended animation. Mason, despite all the security measures applied at his confinement facility, manages to escape repeatedly to see his daughter, which is the only reason why he's making attempt after attempt to break free. However, the authorities are able to catch him and bring him back every time to serve even a longer sentence as punishment for his attempts to escape. Since he's being cryonically frozen to serve his time for years at a time, he remains practically the same age while his daughter grows older normally. As more and more time keeps being added to his original sentence, his escape attempts become more of an obsession rather than a goal. 

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A college professor is working on a long-term scientific experiment when a baseball comes through the window, destroying all of his glassware and spilling the fluids that the flasks and test tubes contained. The pooled fluids combine to form the chemical "methylethylpropylbutyl," which then covers a large portion of the baseball. The professor soon discovers that the fluid, along with any object with which it makes contact, is repelled by wood (cf. Alexander Fleming's serendipitous discovery of penicillin). Suddenly, he realizes the possibilities and takes a leave of absence to go to St. Louis to pitch in the big leagues, where he becomes a star and propels his team to the World Series. 

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The plot is a love story about a powerful ruler of medieval Iraq and a beautiful commoner girl named Zabibah. Zabibah's husband is a cruel and unloving man who rapes her. The book is set in 7th or 8th century Tikrit, Hussein's home town. Although the book is on the surface a romance novel, it is (and was intended to be read as) an allegory. The hero is Hussein and Zabibah represents the Iraqi people. The vicious husband is the United States and his rape of Zabibah represents the U.S. invasion of Iraq at the end of the Gulf War, as illustrated by the date of the rape being January 17—the same date that U.S. led forces commenced the 1991 offensive that drove Iraq out of Kuwait. In the novel, the king dies after capturing the rapists and avenging the honor of Zabibah. 

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At Wellman College, thousands of hamsters overrun the campus after being accidentally released by Sherman Klump, a morbidly obese, kind-hearted professor. Meanwhile, Sherman has created an experimental formula that reconstructs the DNA of an obese person in a way that allows them to lose weight more easily. After his lecture, Sherman meets and instantly falls in love with Carla Purty, a chemistry graduate who is a big fan of his work. After dinner with his impolite family, Sherman asks Carla out on a date, which she accepts, much to Sherman's surprise. The date begins well with Carla showing admiration for Sherman's work, but the club's obnoxious guest comedian, Reggie Warrington, publicly mocks him about his weight. Sherman becomes depressed and, after having a nightmare in which he becomes a rampaging hungry giant that destroys the city, he tests his serum on himself, losing 250 pounds within seconds. Overwhelmed by his immediate weight loss, he goes out and buys copious amounts of normal-sized clothing to celebrate, and a $47,000 Dodge Viper RT/10 sports car on his faculty expense account. However, Sherman discovers that the effects of the serum are only temporary. Concealing his true identity, Sherman adopts a false identity, "Buddy Love", and invites Carla out on a date at the same club again. Reggie is present again, and Sherman takes revenge by heckling him mercilessly. Sherman's "Buddy" persona starts to develop an independent personality due to the heightened testosterone levels of the transformation, gradually changing from his regular good-natured self to perverted and super-confident. Klump's lab assistant and good friend Jason spots him fleeing the scene when the serum starts to wear off. Jason notices that he left a credit card with the Klump name on it at the bar, and stalks him to his car believing him to be a thief - ultimately witnessing Sherman’s transformation back to his regular self. The next morning, Dean Richmond has set up a meeting with Sherman and wealthy businessman Harlan Hartley at The Ritz to explain the serum in the hopes of gaining Hartley's $10,000,000 donation to the science department. However, Sherman arrives at The Ritz posing as Buddy with Carla. When Richmond spots him, Carla asks Buddy if he will take Sherman's place; he does, taking all the credit of Sherman's work. Hartley and Richmond are very impressed, and Richmond invites him to the Alumni Ball the next night. Meanwhile, Buddy picks up three beautiful women, much to Carla's anger and disgust, who dumps him and walks out. He invites the women and many other people back to his place for the night to throw a party and sleeps with the three women. Richmond not only fires Sherman, but gleefully tells him that Buddy will be taking his place at the Alumni Ball. Sherman sees a taunting videotape from his alter ego and decides he has had enough of Buddy, making the decision to destroy all of the serum samples, which he does with Jason's help. Sherman plans to set things right with Carla and get the grant from Hartley. Unfortunately, Buddy planned for this by hiding a sample of the serum in one of Sherman's diet shake cans, which Sherman drinks, causing him to transform into Buddy again. Jason tries to stop him from going to the ball, but Buddy knocks him out with a single punch to the face and departs. At the ball, Buddy demonstrates the effects of the serum to the audience, but Jason arrives in time and confronts Buddy, as he has found out that Buddy's testosterone levels are at a lethally high 60,000%. Buddy plans to drink a large sum of the potion to get rid of Sherman for good; Jason knows that if he drinks it, it will kill Sherman and possibly Buddy. The two of them get into a brief fistfight, but Sherman begins to fight Buddy from within. Sherman eventually transforms into his regular self and admits his misdeeds to the shocked audience, including his parents and Carla; he says that Buddy was who he thought he and everybody else wanted him to be, and that he should accept himself for who he is. As he leaves, Carla stops him and asks why he lied; he says he did not believe that she would accept him. While they don't initiate a romantic relationship, Sherman and Carla remain friends and share a dance together. Richmond rehires Sherman and Hartley gives the donation to Sherman because he is "a brilliant scientist and a gentleman." 

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Nick Hart (Keith Carradine) is an expatriate American artist living in Paris among some of the great artists and writers of the time, including Ernest Hemingway (Kevin J. O'Connor), Gertrude Stein (Elsa Raven), and Alice B. Toklas (Ali Giron). Nick is torn between his wife Rachel (Linda Fiorentino) and Nathalie de Ville (Geraldine Chaplin) who hires him to forge her paintings. He must also contend with Rachel's current husband, Bertram Stone (John Lone), who does not know that his wife is still married to another man. 

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A heatwave has hit Torquay, bringing Basil's incompetence—not to mention his intolerance—to an all-time high. When he realises that the two young lovers Alan and Jean, who are checking in, aren't married,It is later revealed that Jean is a successful couturier and other dialog among the guest cast strongly suggests that she and Alan are, in fact, married. So, while the script leaves it somewhat ambiguous, it may be that Basil's confusion was caused solely by a letter addressing Jean by her maiden name. he tries to force them into single rooms on separate floors. Meanwhile, Mrs. Peignoir, an attractive French antique dealer, seems to have taken a shine to Basil, much to Sybil's annoyance. Alan returns to the lobby and asks Basil if he knows whether any chemists are still open. Basil initially assumes he wants to buy condoms, then when Alan says he wants batteries, Basil – still assuming it must be sex-related – tells him that is "disgusting". When Alan explains that he wanted batteries for his electric razor, Basil tries to save the situation. Later that evening, Mrs. Peignoir arrives home and drunkenly trips over Basil as he crouches on the floor picking up her purse that she has dropped, ending up sitting on him. At that moment Alan and Jean also arrive, witnessing what appears to them to be a very intimate situation. Later that same night Manuel, who had been out celebrating his birthday, returns home drunk with his umbrella (a birthday gift from Basil) outside Basil and Sybil's door and accidentally hits Basil over the head with the umbrella. As Basil crumples to the floor in pain, Manuel drunkenly sits over him, saying "Mr Fawlty, I love you, I love you ...." and once more Alan walks in on the situation. Then Basil strangles Manuel. Jean's mother and stepfather Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd arrive next morning. Basil soon notices strange going-ons between the Lloyds, Jean, Alan, and Polly. For example, Basil accidentally walks in on Jean hugging Mr. Lloyd, and not realising that they are family he tries to keep Mrs. Lloyd from the room where he saw them embracing. He shows her the kitchen, where Manuel is sleeping off the previous night's celebration in the linen basket. Finally he lets her up to the room, only to discover Polly (a family friend of the Lloyds) is now hugging Mr. Lloyd. He again distracts the now very edgy Mrs. Lloyd by showing her another room, explaining that the Lloyds' room is not as nice. When Mrs. Lloyd enters the room, she realises that it is exactly the same as the one Basil showed her. As he is leaving the room, Basil hears loud moaning noises from Alan and Jean's room and Polly hurries out, dressing herself (she has been trying on a dress Jean made for her and the moaning was because Jean had been massaging Alan's shoulders). Thinking the worst, Basil prepares to fire Polly and tells the Lloyds to leave. Sybil explains that they are one family and that Polly went to school with Jean, and has known them for years. Basil, feeling shocked and stupid for his actions, argues with Sybil about apologising to them, saying sarcastically "No, no, I suppose it's all my fault, isn't it?" But Sybil insists and advises him to "Tell them you made a mistake." So he rehearses the apology (to Sybil, to Polly, to himself and to empty space) "I'm so sorry, I made a mistake", but by the time he reaches the guests' room, the sentence has become "I'm so sorry, but my wife has made a mistake!" Sybil's good friend Audrey has split up from her husband, much to Basil's irritation as she's constantly on the phone and repeating the phrase 'Ooh, I know'. She goes to visit Audrey the following day and, as Major Gowen puts it, "listen to all that rubbish" while consoling her friend. A flirtatious Mrs. Peignoir tries to charm Basil that night while Sybil is away, and he is very jumpy in the evening. As he tries to undress someone keeps knocking at his door, and he believes it to be Mrs. Peignoir trying to seduce him again. However, when he realises it is actually Sybil returned early, he opens the door and unconvincingly says "Oh, what a terrible dream," trying to explain his previous whispers to Mrs. Peignoir (as he thought) to go away. Sybil, however, doesn't notice his odd behaviour, as she tells Basil that she has heard a burglar downstairs. Both are unaware that it is actually Manuel, who has awakened from the linen basket, still hung over. Basil quietly creeps downstairs in his underwear and hits 'the burglar' over the head with a frying pan. Manuel is revealed unconscious, and Basil crouches over him in the foyer. Just as Basil realises who it is, Alan, Jean and the Lloyds walk into the hotel, where they are confronted by the sight of Basil apparently lying on top of Manuel with no trousers on. They creep past, bemused by his behaviour, and Mr Lloyd, slightly drunk, says to Basil "We've been to a wedding". In frustration and humiliation, Basil draws back the frying pan for a final vengeful clout. 

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The Doctor dreams about a familiar voice calling to him for help, and awakens to find that the TARDIS has materialized aboard an Earth space station orbiting the planet Dymok. The Dymova have cut themselves off from the rest of the galaxy, and refuse to communicate with anyone beyond their planet apart from a repeated signal warning others away; however, an Observer on Dymok's surface detects the arrival of the TARDIS, and knows that salvation is at hand. At the very same moment that the TARDIS materializes, all communication from Dymok ceases and the crew of the Little Boy 2 find themselves unable to detect any life signs from the planet. Commander Oakwood leads a team into the cargo bays to investigate the energy spike caused by the TARDIS materialization, and the Doctor and his companions are captured as they explore their surroundings. The Doctor reluctantly leads Oakwood's security team to the TARDIS to explain his and his friends' presence—only to find that someone or something has placed a force field around the TARDIS, blocking him out. Tegan touches the force field and is transported to what appears to be her home city of Brisbane; however, the city is deserted and the buildings have been rearranged to form a giant maze. Although vicious replicas of Adric and Nyssa appear in the maze to spur her on, she refuses to play the game which has been set for her, thus proving herself ideal for the Observer's purposes. As she demands to know what is happening, she experiences a vision of a strange man begging for help, and then of another man in the clothing of a Chinese Mandarin, who dismisses her as unsuitable and sends her back to the space station at the moment of her departure, with no memory of what has happened to her. The Doctor convinces Oakwood to tell him what has happened to Dymok, and Tegan realizes to her disgust that once again he is involving himself in a potentially dangerous situation which is no concern of his; or so she believes. In fact, events on Dymok are all part of the trap the Celestial Toymaker has set for the Doctor. Already, he has collected a new set of players from across time and space. A World War Two aviatrix is plucked from her crashing aeroplane and forced to play backgammon for her life; and a single hand of cards costs Sir Henry Rugglesthorpe not only his freedom, but the lives of his wife, children and household servants... Nyssa tells the curious Lieutenant Paladopous about the death of her world and how the Master took over her father's body, killing him. Adric then has a vision of the Toymaker, who tells him that he will soon have to decide just how much he trusts this new Doctor. Meanwhile, Oakwood refuses to send an away team to Dymok to investigate the sudden silence, until an energy spike from the planet's surface possesses Tegan, who speaks with an alien voice and orders the crew of the station to bring her to Dymok. Faced with such an invitation, Oakwood has little choice but to agree. The Doctor takes Tegan and Nyssa but orders Adric to remain behind and keep an eye on the TARDIS; he claims that Adric is the only one he trusts with such a role, but Adric nevertheless feels as though he's being sidelined again. As the away team's shuttle approaches Dymok, some unknown power forces it to land near a single black pyramid, the only landmark on the planet's surface. The Doctor finds it oddly familiar, and when Oakwood comments on its puzzling appearance he realizes why too late—the pyramid resembles the famous Towers of Hanoi puzzle, or the Celestial Toymaker's Trilogic Game. The Observer appears to them and destroys their shuttle with minimal mental effort, leaving them with no choice but to follow him into the depths of the pyramid. There, Tegan experiences a vision of her father's death from cancer, and realizes that because the Doctor abducted her from the site of her aunt Vanessa's murder, her mother will be left alone, believing her to be dead. Tegan's sudden fury at the Doctor is something the Observer can use for his own ends, and he therefore separates Tegan from the others, who find themselves abandoned in the heart of the pyramid amongst the sleeping forms of comatose Dymova. With little choice, they eat the food which has been laid out for them, but it has been drugged and then all find themselves falling asleep... The Doctor dreams of his misspent youth at the Time Lords' Academy, and of the time that he refused to return home to Lungbarrow for his Name Day because Kithriarch Quences seemed to expect his automatic, unthinking obedience. His tutor Delox, learning of his refusal, suspended him from the Academy until he had learned humility. It was on this day that the Doctor visited the hermit behind the Academy and learned the secret of life in a daisy. Armed with his new determination to prove to the Time Lords that things could change, he convinced his friend Mortimus to hack into the Time Lords' secret files and find something of interest that he could investigate. Mortimus found an entry on a legendary being, or beings, called the Toymakers, and the Doctor set off to investigate with his friends Rallon and Millennia, stealing a TARDIS with the help of their fellow student Magnus. Upon entering the realm of the Toymaker, however, Rallon was consumed and possessed by the spirit of the Toymaker, an ancient collective intelligence which took on Rallon's physical form and forced the Doctor to play its games. The Doctor won a game of Capture the Flag against a tin soldier by setting a trap on the muddy battlefield, and the Toymaker, impressed by the Doctor's skill, decided to release him in order to let him mature; he would prove a worthy opponent later in life. The Doctor was forced to return to Gallifrey in disgrace, having led Rallon to his death and Millennia to a worse fate, trapped forever as one of the Toymaker's living dolls. Tegan awakens elsewhere in the pyramid to find herself surrounded by the Dymova, who chant praise to her, their Chosen One. In fact, their chanting serves to distract the Toymaker, giving the Observer time to explain what is happening to Tegan. The Dymova are some of the most powerful telepaths in the galaxy, but when the Toymaker arrived on their planet they welcomed him as a god; ever since, in return for his protection, they have slept and given him access to their powers, which he uses to create his illusions and dreamscapes. Tegan's forthrightness and strength of will are just what the Dymova need to free themselves from slavery to their god—but there is one more secret which the Observer must reveal before Tegan is ready to stop the Doctor from spoiling the Observer's plans... Nyssa dreams of the death of Traken and her father, and of the Toymaker warning the Consuls not to trust the Doctor. The Toymaker then brings the Doctor to his realm, where he reveals that he is the Guardian of Dreams, one of the fundamental forces which make up the Universe; as such, he creates games and illusions to justify his existence, just as the Black and White Guardians create chaos and conflict to justify theirs. As such he does not require a physical existence, but since he bound himself to Rallon he has found he cannot separate himself from his stolen form—and since Rallon is now dying after centuries of existence bound to the Toymaker, the Toymaker too will die unless the Doctor can separate them and take Rallon's place. If he does not, the Toymaker will torture him and his companions for the rest of eternity. Nyssa storms out on the Doctor, furious beyond measure; if the Doctor can free Rallon from his bond to the Toymaker, why can he not free her father from the Master? Before the Doctor can think how to respond to her, the Toymaker presents him with a new puzzle—a double-sided jigsaw with the Doctor's face on both sides. He must complete the puzzle at the same time that his friends complete their game, or his companions will become the Toymaker's new playthings and the Doctor will be subsumed into the Toymaker's being to provide him with a new, fresh source of imaginative power. Adric is surprised when the crew of the Little Boy 2 suddenly seems to forget who he is and places him in prison for trespassing. He is then transported to a surreal dreamscape where his personal insecurities are given physical form, but there he realizes that his fellow travellers only treat him as a spoiled brat because he believes that of himself; he must learn that he has matured and start behaving appropriately, and once he does so the others will treat him accordingly. He and Nyssa are then "invited" to a new game—and become the White King and Queen of a chess set, on a board which sets the crew of the Little Boy 2 against the Red of Sir Henry Rugglesthorpe and his household. Adric begins to play the game, unaware that whenever a piece is lost, the person represented by that piece dies. Fortunately, before the game goes too far, the Dymova make their move, relying upon Tegan's strength to keep them focussed while they release a blast of mental energy at the Toymaker. The chess game is interrupted and abandoned, but the Toymaker resists the attack—and sends the energy back to its source, erasing the entire planet Dymok from existence. It appears that the Toymaker has won, and with delight he summons the Doctor's companions and the crew of the Little Boy 2 to witness his final defeat. But the Doctor's companions stop him from placing the final jigsaw puzzle piece into place; they have seen through the Toymaker's attempts to turn them against him and do not wish him to sacrifice himself for their sakes. The Toymaker, furious, realizes too late that Rallon is using the distraction to make his move at last. The captured Time Lord uses the energy from Dymok's destruction to force himself through twelve regenerations all at once, and the trauma expels the Toymaker from his body. As Rallon dies, free at last, the Doctor realizes that Rallon's spirit had always been present within the Toymaker, keeping the Toymaker in check and allowing the Doctor to defeat him and escape with his life. Tegan also reveals that Dymok never existed; it was an illusion created by Rallon to lay the groundwork for this plan. The Observer was in fact a Watcher, a shayde projection of Rallon's future incarnations, and it now merges with the Toymaker to ensure that the Toymaker's vast powers remain in check in the future. The Toymaker recovers more quickly than expected, but crewman Matt Desorgher gives his life to complete the jigsaw, thus destroying the Toyroom and giving the others the chance to escape. The TARDIS comes to their rescue, apparently sensing the Doctor's distress, and he returns the surviving crew of the Little Boy 2 to their station. As they set about reporting the odd events to Earth, the Doctor and his friends set off to come to terms with what they have learned about themselves. The Toymaker, meanwhile, decides to take his servant Stefan to Earth to seek amusement while waiting for his Toyroom to repair itself... 

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Two guests, Mr. Walt and Mr. Hutchinson, arrive separately at reception. Mr. Walt says very little; Mr. Hutchinson speaks in a very drawn- out and pompous, overly affected manner (claiming that he finds "the air here [in Torquay] most invigorating") that immediately irritates Basil. Basil becomes increasingly irate as Hutchinson makes many awkward requests and asks for specific directions to a meeting. While Basil draws Hutchinson a map containing an abbreviation of Post Office ("P. Off"), Mr. Walt misinterprets a comment from Basil; Walt thinks he himself is being told to "P-off". Basil also produces picture cards for Manuel to understand what he is saying, after which Manuel produces a card of his own: "OK". After Sybil finally finishes on the phone, she informs Basil that a friend of Audrey's discovered the presence of three hotel inspectors in town. This information raises Basil's blood pressure several notches; determined to work out who the inspectors are, he realises with horror that any of the guests he's been monstering could be one of them. While Mr. Hutchinson is requesting to reserve the television to watch a documentary he is interested in, he says something which makes Basil's hair stand on end: "In my professional activities I am in constant contact with hotels." This—combined with Hutchinson's neediness, his suggestions on how the hotel could be improved, and his overinflated style of speaking—convinces Basil that Hutchinson is actually an inspector; he changes his attitude towards Hutchinson, instead of treating him like a VIP. He escorts him to the dining room, where lunch is about to be served. Basil ends up overlooking Mr. Walt, who is forced to wait after his bottle of Aloxe-Corton wine proves to be corked (just after Basil is forced to dig out the bad cork so he can serve the wine), even though Hutchinson is taking a phone call. Sybil quietly reveals to Basil that Mr. Hutchinson is, in fact, a cutlery salesman (she had overheard his conversation). Feeling conned, Basil promises revenge on Hutchinson. However, Basil's relief is short-lived when—during a conversation with Basil—Mr. Walt casually mentions that he is in Torquay "on business with two colleagues." This convinces Basil that Walt is actually the inspector. In order to avoid making a bad impression on Walt, Basil tries to pacify Hutchinson...who is annoyed because some spur-of-the-moment table-switching (by Basil, who else?) has caused confusion in the kitchen, and led to Hutchinson being served several dishes he did not order (actually, Walt did). To stifle Hutchinson's complaining, Basil gags him and then subtly punches him, rendering him unconscious. Hutchinson regains consciousness and starts punching Basil at the reception desk, who uncharacteristically accepts it without retaliation, since they are in Mr. Walt's presence. Hutchinson storms off to gather his things, declaring that he does not expect to receive a bill. Walt is flabbergasted, especially when Basil tries to bribe him against mentioning this recent chain of events when he reviews the hotel. Basil immediately goes into hysterics, realizing how much he has just risked the hotel's reputation. Mr. Walt reveals he is actually an outboard motors salesman and consoles Basil. Thinking he is in the clear, Basil thanks Walt for staying at Fawlty Towers and then runs to the kitchen with Manuel, who stops Mr. Hutchinson from leaving just long enough so that Basil can "say adios." Basil then slaps pies on Mr. Hutchinson's face and crotch, while Manuel pours cream into his briefcase. Hutchinson is marched to the door and forcibly ejected from the hotel by a vengeful Basil, who kisses Manuel on the head for his help. Returning to the reception desk, Basil welcomes John, Brian and Chris—three smartly-dressed businessmen, who have just witnessed the bouncing of Hutchinson—to Fawlty Towers. He screams in terror when it becomes clear that they are the hotel inspectors. 

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The story happens between 29 June and 29 July, presumably in 1970. Intertitles of the dates are displayed before the daily events are shown. While holidaying at Lake Annecy on the eve of his wedding, career diplomat Jérôme accidentally meets up with Aurora, an old personal friend. Through Aurora, he meets Aurora's landlady, Madame Walter, and Laura, Madame Walter's youngest teenage daughter. Observant Aurora detects Laura's crush on Jérôme, and advises Jérôme of such. After Jérôme and Laura take a hike in the mountains together, she confesses that she is "a little in love with" Jérôme. Days later (on 8 July), Laura's attractive older half-sister Claire arrives. Upon seeing Claire's knee on a ladder, he finds himself longing to touch her knee. However, Jérôme controls his temptation. Eventually an opportunity presents itself during a boat trip on the lake when Jérôme and Claire have to seek shelter in a hut from an approaching storm. Jérôme tells Claire that he saw her boyfriend, Gilles, together with another girl. When Claire starts to cry Jérôme consoles her by placing his hand upon Claire's knee. 

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Frédéric (Bernard Verley), the young and successful partner in a business, is happily married to Hélène (Françoise Verley), an English teacher, and father to one child with another on the way. Still, something eats away at him. While going through his day, Frédéric begins to ponder the times before he was married, when he was free to be with any woman he wanted and could feel the deep satisfaction of anticipation while he chased them. At one point in the film, he has an elaborate fantasy where he possesses a magical amulet that causes all women to bow to his will (the sequence features actresses from previous "Moral Tales"). These thoughts do not distress Frédéric though, as he sees these ideas as a reflection of how true his love to his wife is. One day, a woman from Frédéric's past appears at his office, hungry and homeless. Chloé (Zouzou) had once been the girlfriend of an old friend of Frédéric's, and had caused this friend a great deal of grief. At first Frédéric believes Chloé only wants cash and company, but over time, as she tries a series of jobs to attempt some type of solidity in her life, to the increasing amusement of the secretaries in Frédéric's office the two begin spending afternoons together, talking of many things Frédéric finds himself unable to talk to his wife about. He enjoys the pleasures of an attractive mistress without the guilt of adultery, while she has a man who will do whatever she wants without needing sex. But it cannot last. After the birth of Frédéric's second child, Chloé decides she too needs a child to give focus to her aimless existence and, while she has no desire to be tied in marriage, that Frédéric must be the father. He ponders whether to stay with the faithful wife he loves greatly or whether to launch into the unknown with a woman for whom he feels a strange deep passion. A decision is precipitated when Chloé summons him to her latest address and, when he arrives, she is in the bath. Emerging, she invites him to towel her dry, which he does, and then calls him to her bed. Leaving her naked and waiting, he flees out of the apartment and down the stairs. When he goes home to Hélène and asks to spend the afternoon with her, she breaks down in tears. He comforts her, and they go to their bedroom. 

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The film presents the tale of Agnese Ascalone, daughter of prominent quarry owner Vincenzo Ascalone, and takes place in a small town in Sicily (specifically Sciacca), as did Germi's previous film, Divorce, Italian Style. Agnese is seduced by her sister Matilde's fiancé, and has a tryst with him for which she confesses and tries to repent, only to be discovered by her mother and father. Vincenzo immediately demands that the man, Peppino Califano, marry his daughter, and antics ensue. The film is a dark satire of Sicilian social customs and honor laws, and is very similar to Divorce, Italian Style. 

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While the Seventh Doctor and Ace team up with a hard bitten PI in 1929 Chicago, Bernice is stranded on a vampire-infested world with the Doctor's former companion Romana. The chief monster is a supernaturally powerful creature called Agonal, an elemental who feeds on agony and death and so seeks as much of such as he can. Rassilon traps Agonal in his tomb, just as he trapped Borusa in the television story The Five Doctors. 

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Following their betrayal by Tobias Vaughn and the failure of their planned invasion of Earth, a group of Cybermen crashes in Antarctica while fleeing the destruction of their mothership. Some years later, in 1986, a second Cyberman incursion is foiled and their home world Mondas is destroyed in the process. But the truth is covered up, and life goes on. Software engineer Philip Duvall is paralysed in a hit-and-run accident, but the fleeing motorcyclist knows that he will bear the guilt for the rest of his life. Scientist Pamela Cutler learns that her unresolved issues with her domineering father will never be resolved; he has been killed in action at the South Pole, and the events leading up to his death have been classified. And Sergeant Dave Hilliard arrives in Antarctica to clean up after whatever it was that happened at Snowcap Tracking Station—and finds more than he bargained for. Twenty years later, investigative journalist Ruby Duvall, Phillip's daughter, sets off on an Antarctic tour on the SS Elysium, a pleasure cruise sponsored by the Australian billionaire Sir Stanley Straker (“The Wizard of Oz”). She is going undercover to avoid attention, but it will be a working holiday; she will be writing about the cruise for the Sunday Seeker, and testing her Nanocom dictation machine and a tiny holocamera as she does so. Ruby soon makes new friends on the cruise; a Canadian woman named Barbara teaches her the martial art Pah T’wa, and the ship's entertainers, Diana and Leslie, tell her about the Wizard of Oz cabaret they’ll be staging. However, Ruby finds it difficult to get close to moody artist Michael Brack, who has been hired to sculpt icebergs into caricatures of the ship's passengers using a decommissioned Army laser. Brack is studying Heidegger, and believes that society should work towards becoming more efficient and machine-like. As the cruise proceeds, Ruby also finds him studying a book on cybernetics, and comes to suspect that he's up to something secret in the ship's hold. Diana and Leslie eventually learn Ruby's true identity and blab it about the ship before realising that she wanted to avoid attention, and when Brack realises who she really is he begins to act even more strangely. He seems to go out of his way to avoid her, but when she catches a glimpse of his cocktail napkin she finds that he's been obsessively drawing her face along with blueprints for a large cybernetic machine... Pamela Cutler joined the Army after her father's death, and has risen to the rank of General. She has now been assigned to Snowcap Tracking Station, where scientists are working on a project named FLIPback, the human race's defense against the reversal of the Earth's magnetic polarity. In the event of such a shift, FLIPback will do just what its name suggests. Under Cutler's strict discipline, the project gets back on schedule - just on time, for the crew finds that true south is shifting out of position and realises that the reversal could occur within the year. While celebrating the successful completion of their work, Cutler finally gets to ask Lieutenant Hilliard what happened at Snowcap twenty years ago. He tells her what he's never told anyone before; about finding the remains of men in crumbling metal armour, and a spaceship which appeared to be falling apart and which had vanished by the time he got back to the landing site. He has never learned the whole truth; all he heard, after the fact, was that someone called “the Doctor” saved the world and then disappeared. As the Elysium enters Antarctic waters, Brack carves an iceberg into a caricature of Straker's face, causing large ice chips or “growlers” to float through the water nearby. Ruby tries to interview Brack after his performance, but he departs without saying a word to her. Determined to find out what he's up to, Ruby uses her Nanocom to subvert the lift's security locks and get into the lower hold, where she finds Brack working on a large electronic machine. She flees before he can confront her, and returns to the upper decks, where Diana and Leslie are taking a break from rehearsing the cabaret. Leslie, feeling confined in his Tin Man costume, goes to a nearby porthole for a breath of fresh air—and sees the body of a man in armour, frozen inside one of the nearby growlers. Nobody believes him, however. Diana, learning of Ruby's interest in Brack, claims to have lived with him until recently—and also claims that before they broke up she found a letter implying that he and Straker were involved in smuggling arms to Panama. Ruby's curiosity gets the better of her once again, and she returns to the lower hold, where she finds crates marked “PANAMA”. She then hears an odd noise from the engine room, and while investigating she accidentally locks herself in with an apparent stowaway who calls himself “the Doctor”. Weighted down with guilt and seeking to free himself from his past, the Doctor has departed from the TARDIS in a subset of the ship which takes the form of Lao Tzu's Jade Pagoda. Ruby isn’t sure what to make of the Doctor, but accompanies him when he finds a maintenance shaft leading out of the engine room up to the bridge. There, the captain and first mate also conclude that the Doctor must be a stowaway, and the Doctor, seeking to prove his credentials, learns that they are near Snowcap Tracking Station and asks to speak to General Cutler. It isn’t the same Cutler he was somehow expecting, but she proves to be very interested in hearing what he has to say for himself. Ruby still doesn’t believe the Doctor's claim to be a time traveller until she accompanies him into the Jade Pagoda, where he finds that his companions have disconnected the main TARDIS’ Time Vector Generator. When he puts it back in place the Jade Pagoda's interior dimensions are restored, much to Ruby's shock, but due to the disconnection of the TVG, the Jade Pagoda's structure is degrading, and it will be forced to return to the parent body of the TARDIS prematurely. The celebrations at Snowcap are curtailed when Nike and Bono's exploration vehicle breaks down in the Torus Antarctica, a mysterious zone where entire survey teams have been known to vanish without trace. A rescue patrol is sent out, but Adler and Black return alone, seeming oddly subdued and claiming to have found the vehicle empty. The Doctor and Ruby then arrive, and the bewildered Hilliard shows Ruby about the base while the Doctor describes the Cyberman invasion to the incredulous Cutler. In the depths of Snowcap, Ruby stumbles across a tunnel carved out of the ice itself, and goes exploring. But he finds a base where the humans captured from the Torus Antarctica are being dissected and transformed into Cybermen. Ruby is captured by the Cybermen, who inject her with a metabolic stimulant to preserve her while they freeze her in the ice for future conversion. They also reveal that they intend to capture the Elysium, and transform its passengers and crew into Cybermen as well. The Doctor arrives in search of Ruby, and creates a distraction, enabling her to escape. The Cybermen pursue them both, but the Doctor uses Ruby's holocam to create an illusion of a tunnel wall near a gap in the ice. The Cybermen pass through and plummet to their deaths. One of the Cybermen escapes the trap, but Ruby uses her knowledge of Pah T’wa to fling it through the gap as well. The Doctor is starting to suffer from hypothermia, but Ruby injects him with the same molecular “antifreeze” the Cybermen used on her, saving his life. They return to Snowcap to warn Cutler, but arrive too late; the Cybermen have already conditioned the soldiers in the base to obey their commands. They intend to sabotage the FLIPback field loop, and take over the Earth while the human race is disoriented by the effects of magnetic reversal. Ruby and the Doctor return to the Elysium, where Ruby fetches a gold pendant from her cabin for use as a weapon. Brack then tries to confront her, but she flees, convinced that he's in league with the Cybermen. The Doctor heads to the bridge, to convince Captain Trench of the danger he faces, but Trench doesn’t believe him until it's too late. The iceberg which Brack had carved into the shape of Straker's head turns out to be a Cyberman base, and the Cybermen dock the iceberg with the Elysium and board. Much to the Doctor's and Ruby's surprise, Brack and Straker attempt to drive the Cybermen off with the ice- carving laser, but the Cybermen are armed with nerve gas and soon the passengers are unable to resist them. Brack breaks his leg falling from the deck, and the Cybermen leave him where he lies. The Doctor and Ruby try to avoid the Cybermen, but Ruby is pursued into the hold, where she accidentally knocks over the “PANAMA” crates and discovers that they contain hundreds of mannequin arms. The Cyberman tries to follow her through the pistons of the ship's engines, but falls out of step and is crushed. Ruby is reunited with the Doctor in the ship's ballroom, where the Wizard of Oz cabaret has been interrupted by the arrival of more than one Tin Man. There, they find Brack's secret project behind the curtains, a stage prop for the cabaret, nothing to do with the Cybermen at all. The Cybermen capture the Doctor and Ruby and force them to transport the passengers and crew to their base in the Jade Pagoda. The Doctor is brought before the Cyber Controller, originally an immobile co-ordinator unit which has now acquired mobility by using the huge body of the Snowcap officer Bono. The Doctor drops Ruby's gold necklace into the Cybermen's processing equipment, but when it has no effect he apparently decides that there's no point fighting the Cybermen and willingly gives himself up for conversion. The Cybermen, believing that he has made the only logical decision, leave him unguarded, and he thus escapes and rescue Ruby. The reversal of the Earth's magnetic polarity is now imminent, but the crew of Snowcap are under Cyber control and a cobalt bomb has been placed in the reactor. The Doctor is recaptured before he can defuse the bomb, but Ruby saves the day by activating FLIPback prematurely. The Earth's polarity is thus reversed before the Cybermen are ready to deal with the change, and they go out of control while the Doctor and Ruby escape. The Doctor has also been affected by the change, however, and it's up to Ruby to deal with the cobalt bomb. She succeeds by flinging it into the Cybermen's base and bringing the ice tunnels down on their immobile army. The Earth's magnetic polarity then reverses naturally, restoring everything to normal. The Cyber Controller awakens to find that, since it had conditioned its brain to function in a state of reversed polarity, it is unable to function properly. Emotional memories resurface in its organic brain, and, confused and frustrated, it smashes up the rest of the base and allows Ruby and the Doctor to escape. The Doctor and Ruby flee back to the Jade Pagoda and return the crew and passengers to the Elysium. There, Ruby finds Brack dying of hypothermia, and saves his life by injecting him with the Cybermen's metabolic booster. The Jade Pagoda is about to collapse in upon itself, and as the Doctor prepares to depart, Ruby asks if she can join him. But she realises that she's left her Nanocom in the coat she draped around Brack and when she returns to reclaim it, the Pagoda dematerialises without her. The arms mentioned in Straker's letter to Brack are the mannequin arms, which are being sent to Panama for an avant-garde sculpture designed by Brack and sponsored by Straker. Brack himself is airlifted to hospital to recuperate from his injuries, and never gets the chance to admit to Ruby that he was the motorcyclist who paralysed her father. Nevertheless, although she will always regret her missed opportunity, her single adventure with the Doctor has given her hope for the future again. 

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Sridhar (Ajith Kumar) is from a middle-class family headed by his father (K. Vishwanath). Shiva (Raghuvaran) is Sridhar's elder brother and the breadwinner for the family, consisting of his wife Shantha (Sithara) and sister (Preitha Raghav). Sridhar, upon completion of his graduation, aspires to become a music director and tries hard to secure a chance in movies, but all his efforts go in vain. Sridhar's search for a chance continues for eight years. Despite that, his family members support him very well and encourage him whenever he feels dejected. Sridhar meets and befriends Viji Chandrasekhar (Jyothika). Viji also likes Sridhar and his aspiration. Slowly, love blossoms between them. Viji gets introduced to Sridhar's family, and they too like her. However, Sridhar has plans of marrying her only after getting his first break in music. Viji also understands Sridhar and supports him. A CD shop owner (Manivannan) is Sridhar's neighbor, and he also encourages him. Sridhar gets an opportunity to compose music for a film. He feels extremely happy and goes for recording. Unfortunately on the same day, the producer meets with an accident, and as he feels it as an inauspicious sign, the movie is dropped. Viji's younger sister Sudha (Soumya) gets a good marriage alliance, but the groom's family finds it odd upon seeing Viji being unmarried. Viji's father (Jaiganesh) requests Sridhar and Viji to get married so that it does not stop his younger daughter's wedding proposal. Viji's father asks Sridhar to leave away his dream of becoming a music director as he has been already trying hard for years. He also offers him a job so that he can marry Viji. However, Sridhar refuses to let go his dream. He is ready to sacrifice his love for the sake of his ambition. He requests Viji to marry someone else as he cannot give up his passion for music. One day, Shiva has a heart attack and is admitted to the hospital. The doctors say that Shiva has heart problems and needs rest. Sridhar is shocked to see his brother's condition. As Shiva was the only income earner in the family, now Shantha and Preitha decide to take up some jobs to help earn money for the family. Sridhar worries seeing that, though he also feels proud about the love and affection shown by his family members towards him, as no one asked him to forego his ambition and take up some job despite this condition. However, Sridhar decides to go for a job so he could ease his family's financial burden. He informs this and leaves for an interview. Initially the movie had a climax, where it is shown that Sridhar gives up his ambition and starts working. Also, Viji is also married to someone else, whereby Sridhar lost both his love and his passion. Later on, the climax was changed, and is shown that after a few years, Sridhar secures a chance to compose music and he becomes a leading music composer. Also he marries Viji. 

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Vallavan (Silambarasan) is a happy-go-lucky college student who is friends with Bala (Santhanam), Subbu (Sathyan), and Suchitra (Sandhya). While they are at temple, Vallavan sees Swapna (Nayanthara) and immediately falls in love with her. Vallavan encounters Swapna again in college and she is revealed to be a teacher who is three years older than Vallavan. He decides to woo her by turning into Pallan, an ugly duckling with buck teeth and glasses. Pallan makes Swapna fall in love with him for his heart, even though he is ugly. When Swapna comes to know that Pallan is younger than her (from one of Vallavan's enemies in school) and also a student, she dumps him and decides to marry another man. Meanwhile, a sequence of events take place, much to the chagrin of Vallavan, who is highly insulted by them. As Vallavan walks in the streets wondering how things got so messy, he recalls his school life. When he was in higher secondary school, Vallavan met Geetha (Reema Sen). A hysteric Geetha ensures that Vallavan is mad about her. Coming to know of her true nature, he ends the affair with her, but she is not ready to let him go so easily, so he resolves to teach her a lesson. Geetha returns for payback. She tells him that she was the spoilt sport for the current mess in his life. In an effort to win his love, Vallavan once again as Pallan, goes to convince Swapna one last time, and tells her that even though he may be younger than her, his love for her is much bigger and that age does not matter. Swapna realizes her mistake and they reconcile, infuriating Geetha. In a climax displaying her disorder, she kidnaps Suchitra, and Vallavan arrives and frees her. The film fast- forwards to three years later. Geetha is released from a mental asylum. The moment she steps out, she exhibits her fiery psychotic expression, showing that she never actually recovered. Vallavan is waiting for her, and they communicate telepathetically, with Vallavan saying that she cannot do anything to him. 

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The series covers the life of Emperor Wu from his early childhood to his death and some events in the reign of Emperor Jing (Emperor Wu's father and predecessor), such as the Rebellion of the Seven States. It follows the conflicts that defined the pivotal war between the Han Empire and the Xiongnu, and depicts the major victories that the Han scored over the Xiongnu during Emperor Wu's reign. Prominent historical figures such as the generals Li Guang, Wei Qing and Huo Qubing, as well as the diplomats Su Wu and Zhang Qian, also make appearances as supporting characters in the series. 

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In the Louisiana countryside, Kermit the Frog begins his narration with Mordecai Sledge and Leroy the Donkey, as they approach their residence after stealing items in a boxcar from a railroad yard. When they arrive, Mordecai finds the items are musical instruments, and blames Leroy for the items being worthless. He later scolds Leroy, and goes inside to find his shotgun so he can "retire" him. Startled by the gunshot, Leroy escapes from his owner with the tuba around his neck that Mordecai previously threw in a tree. Shortly after running, Leroy approaches Kermit who influences him to play the tuba, which inspires the donkey to become a traveling musician. On his farm, Farmer Lardpork approaches T.R. the Rooster telling him that he has outlived his usefulness, and plans to have him for lunch. T.R. flees from his owner, and Leroy finds the rooster hiding in a hayfield. Leroy tells of his similar situation and his musical aspiration, which convinces the rooster to join the donkey and play the banjo. T.R. tells the chickens that he is leaving them, but when Lardpork finds him again, Leroy blows his tuba which startles the chickens allowing T.R. to escape. Along the way, T.R. accompanies Leroy until they approach Rover Joe the Hound Dog along the road. In a flashback, he tells how his owner Mean Floyd threw him out through a closed window after the farmer mistook him for a ghost. Rejuvenated by the companionship, Rover Joe joins them, and takes up the trombone. As the trio approach a graveyard, they find Catgut the Pussycat sleeping on a gravestone and waiting to die. Leroy asks Catgut to join them, but she refuses telling them she has lost interest in music. However, Catgut sings of her blues which convinces the cat to tell the animals her backstory. Living with her owner Caleb Siles for thirteen years, she was thrown out into a rain barrel full of water for befriending the rats in his pantry. Eventually, Catgut is uplifted by the prospects of her new future, and joins the animal musicians playing the trumpet. At night, the animals rest in a swamp until they see a light from a nearby farmhouse. Leroy decides to approach the farmhouse, and mistakes a gang of robbers (who happen to be the animals' old owners) as a family inside having dinner. When Leroy reports his discovery, the animals are skeptical at first, but the other animals individually approach the farmhouse mistaking the robbers for a family. Leroy devises a plan to circle the farmhouse surprising the "family" by playing music. In the farmhouse, Mean Floyd is scared of "swamp demons" as well as the other robbers (Mordecai's afraid of "tree trolls", Lardpork's scared of "bush bats", Mean Floyd's scared of "slime serpents", and Caleb Siles's fears "mud monsters") due to a full moon during midnight. When the animals burst through the doors playing music, the robbers run in fear while the animals unknowingly attack their former owners. After a lengthy battle, the robbers flee the scene and were never seen again. The animals notice a pantry full of food and the stolen jewelry the robbers left behind, and decide to safeguard it in the farmhouse until the "family" returns where they continually play their music. Kermit ends the special by telling the viewers, "And you know, that's just what they did." 

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This film is a melodrama in which Yun Bong-Choon stars as a violinist in love with a dancer played by Jeon Choon-woo. Their relationship is ruined by the interference of a rich man, played by Lee Bok-bun. 

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Yippee, Yappee and Yahooey are dogs who serve the King as his Royal Guards. They are usually called the goofy guards by the king. They must always protect, serve and obey the King. They are loosely based on the Three Musketeers. At times, the three heroes find themselves fighting a fire- breathing dragon and other villains. A common mistake in nearly every short is that Yippee, Yappee and Yahooey's voices tend to get mixed up with one another. Irving Berlin wrote a stage show while in the Army during World War I entitled "Yip Yip Yaphank" at Camp Yaphank from which names were taken for this cartoon. Yahooey spoke very much like Jerry Lewis. 

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This film is a melodrama concerning a spoiled only son, played by Jeon Taek-yi. After his father scolds him for his excessive drinking, he sells the family's only cow for money to leave for Seoul. Finding life difficult on his own in Seoul, he returns to his family begging forgiveness. 

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The story begins with the assassination of Egyptian Princess Mayte's father by seven unknown assailants. Mayte believes that the assassins were after the sacred "3 Chains of Gold". She sets out to meet with Prince, as she believes he is the only one that can protect the chains from the seven assassins. What follows is a romance between Prince and Mayte, and Prince organizing the assassination of the assailants (accompanied by the song "7"). Local television anchors Randy Meier and Lauren Green were featured in this film, sitting at the anchor desk, while Kirstie Alley reported from the field. 

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Set in Vancouver's Yaletown district, the series revolved around ten young friends working at the hip Godiva's bistro. 

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A fisherman goes out to fish at night on a jangada, a handmade seaworthy sailing raft used by fishermen of north-eastern Brazil. His wife has a presentiment of something wrong and tries to stop him from going fishing that night. He goes anyway, leaving his wife crying and his kids scared. His wife waits the whole night for him on the beach, and around 5:00am, the usual arrival time, she sees the jangada. The fishermen have a very sad expression and some are even crying, but she does not see her husband. The fishermen tell her that her husband has fallen off the jangada by accident. As they start to withdraw the net, they find his body amongst the fish. His friends carry his body on their arms, in a traditional funeral ritual on the beach. 

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A mix of future tech and gothic vampire story, in the cyberpunk style, BloodNet puts the player into the role of a man named Ransom Stark, who must battle a vampire named Abraham Van Helsing who is attempting world domination and save both humanity and the cybernet. Ransom Stark was bitten by the aforementioned vampire, but is able to fight off the infection with the help of a computer grafted onto his brain stem. He must then embark on a journey to defeat the head vampire, Dracula, to stop the infection. 

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Near West Coast Studios in Hollywood, the gang is waging a street war against a rival group of kids; their ammunition primarily consisting of old vegetables. The battle is halted when Mary is called to act in one of the West Coast films. The rest of the gang tries to crash the studio gates and get a role in the picture, but the casting director throws them out. Farina manages to sneak into the studio, however, prompting the other kids to sneak in after her. Several chases throughout the property then ensue and the gang eventually escapes - with a little help from Harold Lloyd. File:Erniemorrison.jpg|Sunshine Sammy at war File:Mickeydaniels.jpg|Mickey Daniels is a "genrel" File:Marykornman.jpg|Mary Kornman is the troops' nurse File:Joe Cobb.jpg|Joe Cobb wants to earn "fi'" dollars File:Jackie Condon.jpg|Jackie Condon File:Allen Hoskins as Farina (1923).jpg|Farina in Dogs of War! 

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This third and last installment in the story of the mentally ill student, Choi Yeong-jin, begins with him being released from prison. He attempts to live a peaceful existence until he witnesses the rape of his sister, at which point his mental problems return. 

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This action-oriented film tells the story of a traveling theatrical troupe. When one of the actresses is sold to criminals running an opium den, Na Woon-gyu's character rescues her and returns her to the troupe. 

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Chien Chen, a Hong Kong taxi driver, picks up Ho Mei Fong, a woman on the run from a gang of criminals. She dies suddenly and mysteriously in his back seat, but not before hiding her purse in the taxi. Now, the gang members begin to torment Chen, hoping he will hand over the purse, despite Chen being completely unaware of it. Chen is visited by a woman claiming to Ho Mei Fong's sister and looking for the purse. Days later, the dead woman's real sister, Police Inspector Ho Wai Ma, visits Chen and reveals that she had not spoken to her sister in years as she had become involved in the criminal underworld. The pair decide to team up to find Ho Mei's killers and bring them to justice. The impostor turns out to be Sao Mei, who also works for the gang's evil boss. Chen witnesses her being kidnapped by the thugs and follows them to their hideout, joined by Ho Wai Ma. However both heroes are captured by the villains. Locked in a room together, Sao Mei reveals the truth to Ho Wai. The boss recruits attractive young women, such as Sao Mei and Ho Mei Fong, to become drug smugglers for him. However Ho Mei became desperate to escape and took photos of the mole faced gang leader planting a car bomb which subsequently killed a man. The gangsters become aware of this and force her to drink poison. Secretly assisted by Sao Mei, Ho Mei escapes the hideout with the incriminating evidence hidden in her purse. Tragically she did not make it to the hospital in time, and died in Chen's taxi. Chen, Ho Wai and Sao Mei manage to escape from their holdings and fight off their captors, then summon both the police and Chen's fellow taxi drivers to their location. The criminals try to escape, but in a final brawl Chen defeats the gang leader and retrieves Ho Mei's purse from his taxi. The evidence and the villains are then handed over to the police. 

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Two cousins, Cheng Lung (Jackie Chan) and Tung (Austin Wai), get together to avenge the death of their fathers, who were killed by two rivals. 

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The Five Lucky Stars, one of them being replaced by a younger brother, are assigned by the police to allow an actress to live with them. The actress has information on a crime syndicate and assassins are sent after her. Ricky (Yuen Biao) and Swordflower are to stay at the actress’s home undercover to capture the assassins. Throughout the course of the movie, the Stars chase the attractive woman around the house, though their efforts are largely unsuccessful. At the climax, the three assassins eventually end up at a recreation building to take down Swordflower (mistaking her to be their target), but coincidentally Kidstuff (Sammo Hung) and his friends are there and they recognize one of them, with help from the actress. Muscle (Jackie Chan) and Ricky arrive in the nick of time and a showdown takes place, eventually ending with the protagonists victorious. The police and a large ensemble of Chinese actors arrive to congratulate them. 

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The story opens with a description of the five minor home appliances left in the cottage, listed from oldest (the Hoover vacuum) to youngest (the Sunbeam toaster). They are each given a personality. As the oldest, the Hoover is "steady [and] dependable"; the plastic AM radio alarm clock; the yellow electric blanket ("cheerful"); the tensor lamp (somewhat neurotic whether it, as an incentive from a savings bank, was better than a store-bought equivalent); and the Sunbeam toaster ("bright"). The cottage itself is "on the northernmost edge of an immense forest" and the appliances have grown used to seasonal use, with some of the master's other appliances (such as the television set and the Water Pik) annually returning to the city with their master each Labor Day. One spring day, after "two years, five months, and thirteen days" without the master, though, the appliances begin to suspect they have been abandoned. A few months later, the toaster tells the others "We need people to take care of, and we need people to take care of us" and retells the story of an abandoned dog who had accidentally been left behind in a summer cottage, like themselves, but still "found his way to his master, hundreds of miles away". The appliances plan to do the same as soon as they can all travel safely together. Although the Hoover, being strong and self-propelled, could take the other appliances, it still needed a source of power other than the wall outlet. Their transportation needs are solved by fitting an old metal office chair with casters from the bed upstairs, rigged with an old automotive battery to power the Hoover, who will tow the other appliances. Suitably equipped, they set out through the woods, since even though the highway would be faster, for "whenever human beings are observing them they must remain perfectly still." During their first afternoon in the woods, the appliances stop to rest in a meadow after a brief rainstorm. The toaster is surprised by a daisy who speaks only in verse ("[d]aisies, being among the simpler flowers, characteristically employ a rough sort of octosyllabic doggerel") to declare its love for the toaster, having fallen in love with its reflection in the toaster's chrome side. As the toaster excuses itself to rejoin its appliance friends, the daisy begs the toaster to "Pluck me and take me where you're bound. / I cannot live without you here: / Then let your bosom be my bier." Shocked, the toaster leaves the daisy in the ground and returns to the appliances, where the blanket folds itself into a tent to shelter the others. The next night the appliances run into Harold and Marjorie, married squirrels. The squirrels and appliances have an awkward encounter when the squirrels first ask what gender the appliances are (they aren't), followed by an exchange of inappropriate jokes which neither group find funny. During the night, another rainstorm blows the blanket into the trees above, where it is stuck until the squirrels help it down the following morning. To thank the squirrels for their help, the toaster roasts some nuts, and the blanket plugs into the battery to dry out and warm the squirrels. After leaving the squirrels, the journey of the appliances comes to an abrupt stop at the unexpected obstacle of a wide river. The Hoover suffers a panic attack and starts chewing its own cord, calming down only after the toaster "led the Hoover back and forth across the grassy bank of the river in regular, carpet-sweeping swathes." The appliances consult a map and discovering how close they are now to the city where their master lives, excitedly hatch a plan to follow the river until they find a bridge to cross it and then, as the toaster explains, "when it's very late and there's no traffic, we can make a dash for it!" Once they begin their search for a crossing, the chair overturns after one leg gets stuck in mud and one caster comes off. As the appliances search for the lost caster, the blanket discovers a boat, which the Hoover declares they will use to cross the river. The toaster objects, saying this makes them no better than pirates, who "are the bane of an appliance's existence, since once an appliance has been spirited away by a pirate, it has no choice but to serve its bidding just as though it were that appliance's legitimate master. [...] Truly, there is no fate, even obsolescence, so terrible as falling into the hands of pirates." As the toaster continues to argue with the other four appliances, who have already boarded the boat, the owner of the boat returns and, thinking that whoever had placed the appliances in the boat was intending to steal his boat, decides to retaliate by stealing the appliances instead. After taking the battery off to saving it, the pirate throws the office chair into the river, then takes them to his home across the river at the City Dump. The Dump itself is likened to a graveyard for defective and obsolescent appliances, a horrible vision of rusted junk and broken parts. The pirate reviews the condition of each appliance and declares them junk one-by-one, discarding all save the radio, which he takes into his shack. Outside the shack, the appliances hatch a plan to frighten the pirate so they can rescue the radio, who has been playing cheerful tunes, in what the toaster believes is a deliberate attempt to keep them optimistic, especially since one of the songs was "I Whistle a Happy Tune", the toaster's favorite. The appliances outside also find a perambulator in good repair, which they plan to use to complete their journey. They pose as a ghost, with the blanket shrouding the toaster, perched atop the Hoover. The Hoover makes ghostly noises to lure the pirate out of his shack, and at the instant he looks at the hooded figure, the lamp turns on and the pirate sees his face reflected in the toaster's chrome side. The pirate, upon seeing his corrupted reflection, concludes the ghost is "the kind that understand exactly who we are and knows all the wrong things we've done and intends to punish us for them" and flees in terror. Before he returns, the appliances escape in the buggy to where their master lives, only a mile or so from the Dump. At the apartment, the appliances are greeted by their appliance friends, old and new, where they learn the master has not returned to the cottage because of his new companion (referred to as "the mistress"), who has caused them to move their vacations from the cottage, "where there is bound to be ragweed and pollen and such" which would exacerbate the mistress's hay fever, to the seaside, and further, the master intends to sell the cottage, along with the appliances inside. While deciding what to do next, the five appliances spend the night in the apartment, where the Singer sewing machine repairs the rips in the blanket and the toaster tells the tale of their long journey. The next afternoon, with the five appliances freshly cleaned, they listen to the radio program The Swap Shop, which advertises the five appliances are available if "you should have a real and genuine need for all five of these fine appliances, since their present owner wants them to be able to stay together. For sentimental reasons!" It is the toaster's final plan to help the group of five, and the first to call is "an elderly, impoverished ballerina" who trades five black- and-white kittens for the five appliances. Although the mistress is allergic to cat fur, she decides to take more antihistamines and keep the cats. The five appliances "lived and worked, happy and fulfilled, serving their dear mistress and enjoying each other's companionship, to the end of their days." 

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The film begins with Howard Griffin and Elizabeth Griffin having a romantic night out on a yacht near the Pacific Northwest resort community, Graves' Point. After a freak occurrence causes the yacht to sink, the two are forced to head for shore in a lifeboat, only to be attacked and eaten by an unseen creature hours later. The next day, local fisherman Whip Dalton (William Petersen) finds the empty lifeboat and discovers a large claw stuck into the boat. Whip sends the claw to a university to be analyzed and it ends up in the hands of marine biologist Dr. Herbert Talley (Ronald Guttman), who comes to Grave's Point claiming it is from the tentacle of a giant squid. The island harbor master Schuyler Graves (Charles Martin Smith) hires Lucas Coven (Larry Drake) to kill the squid after Whip's initial refusal. Coven succeeds in slaying a squid and the carcass is promptly sold by Graves to Sea Land Texas owner Osborne Manning (Denis Arndt). The unmanned sonar detects another, much larger squid which remains unnoticed by the islanders. When Whip and Talley are not allowed to see the squid to examine it, Dr. Talley organizes a submersible expedition to explore the squid's habitat. After analyzing the carcass of the dead squid, the scientists determine it is just a baby. The information comes too late, however, and the adult squid, the baby's mother, attacks the submersible, killing everyone on board. Whip angrily blames Graves for the incident which also resulted in the death of Whip's daughter's boyfriend. Graves then blackmails Lucas to resume the hunt for the adult squid or he'll shut Lucas down for illegal trap fishing. Dr. Talley explains to Whip that the giant squid is killing out of vengeance for the death of her offspring rather than hunger, and is now even more dangerous as a result. Lucas resumes the hunt along with Whip's friend, Mike, and another crew member named Scranton (David Field). After enduring stormy weather they decide to head back to shore and continue the hunt the next day. The Squid attacks the boat before they make it to shore, devouring Scranton and knocking a cargo net on Mike, injuring him. It then attacks Lucas in the helm who fires a couple of shots with his gun at its tentacles. The squid then bites a hole in the hull. With water pouring in, it pulls the entire boat underwater, drowning Lucas. Whip, after learning that Mike went out to help Lucas comes to the rescue and, finding Mike holding onto a buoy, pulls him out of the water and takes him to the hospital. Whip then agrees to go out and hunt the giant squid but only if he can use his boat and Graves goes with him. He is also accompanied by coast guard officer, Lt. Kathryn Marcus (Karen Sillas), Dr. Talley, and Manning. They plan to snare the squid, reel it in and shoot it multiple times with darts full of cyanide. The plan succeeds and the squid appears dead. But when the ship's engine breaks down, Manning reveals that he filled the darts with tranquilizer instead of cyanide so he could take the squid alive back to Sea Land. Graves tried to escape on a lifeboat as Whip cuts the squid loose just as it awakes. The squid soon chases down and kills Graves. The death of both Lucas and Graves gives the squid vengeance for its offspring's death but it resumes its attack on Whip's boat, killing Manning and then jumping on the boat. It then grabs Talley and eats him. A coast guard arrives in time in a helicopter to pick up Kathryn and Whip. As he boards the helicopter, Whip fends the squid off with an axe, chopping open several extra fuel drums and has Kathryn use a flare gun to light his boat on fire. The squid is unable to escape as an explosion blows up the squid's beak and lower body, killing it. The helicopter flies them back to the shore where they reunite with Whip's daughter Dana (Missy Crider). 

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This literary adaptation tells the story of Oh Mong-nyeo, a young woman living with her adopted father in a seaside village. When men in the village attempt to rape her, she escapes by boat with her boyfriend to seek a better life elsewhere. 

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Los Angeles outcast Henry Pinkle is obsessed with television, and becomes suicidal when his favorite sitcom, The Robertson Family, is canceled. Planning on ending his life by jumping from a bridge, he is approached by the mysterious Sam Bones, an elderly man who offers to jump with him before eventually talking him out of the act. Later, Sam inexplicably appears in Henry's living room, and tells him he will no longer be alone. Wendy, Henry's social worker, receives a videotape of him informing her of his suicide, which he mailed to her before the botched attempt. Sam promises he can make Henry a star, and brings him to a television studio lot where Henry watches a faceless woman on a screen instruct him to follow his "destiny." Sam gives Henry a plastic baby doll mask and a hatchet before sending him to make his "debut" at a suburban residence. He breaks into the home intending to murder the homeowner, but becomes transfixed by the television set, and fails to commit the murder. Sam informs him that killing the homeowner will result in his sainthood, after which Henry returns to the house and hacks the owner to death with the hatchet. Over the following month, a series of fifteen hatchet murders occur in Los Angeles. Wendy realizes Henry is still alive, and goes to visit him; he tells her of his new "manager," Sam, and she plans to meet with him. Sam, however, is reluctant that Wendy will understand their "mission." When Wendy attempts to locate Sam with the address given to her by Henry, she finds the address does not exist. When she confronts Henry with the notion that Sam is a product of his mind, he becomes enraged. Later, Wendy finds her sister Julie murdered in her apartment. Henry locks Wendy inside the apartment and goes to confront Sam, whom he blames for committing Julie's murder. Wendy manages to break through a wall, accessing the apartment next- door, where she finds the neighbors also murdered. After she slips on a puddle of blood, she is knocked unconscious, after which Sam arrives and attempts to strangle her. Henry enters the apartment and thwart's Sam's attempt, saving Wendy's life. He brings her to the roof of the apartment building, where he attempts to fight Sam. When Wendy exclaims that Sam is not real, Henry puts on the baby face mask, and accosts her with the hatchet. He nearly strikes her, but instead leaps from the building to the ground below. Paramedics arrive and find Henry, barely alive. Wendy enters his apartment, which is plastered with images indicating his delusions. On his television set, Wendy watches a live broadcast of paramedics attempting to revive him. He utters the phrase "I'm on TV," before dying on live television. 

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Dan Millman is a university student as well as a locally famous gymnast who dreams of winning a National Championship competition. He suffers from restlessness, and on one occasion, Dan attempts to compensate for the restlessness by running along streets before sunrise. At a car-service station, he encounters an old man who seems to know more about Dan's problem than Dan himself knows, whom Dan later nicknames "Socrates". Dan is unsettled by Socrates' knowledge; by the fact that Socrates had appeared in a nightmare as a faceless janitor, clad in mismatched shoes (by which he is identified in waking life), who sweeps up the pieces of Dan's shattered leg; and by the old man's extraordinary speed, agility, and coordination. As a result of his exposure to the last, Dan seeks to learn the secret behind it. Socrates, prodded by the impatient and defiant Dan, gives the boy a series of tasks and lessons. The central concept of "Soc's" philosophy is this: that one must live entirely in the present moment. Other ideas include the related notion that at no time is "nothing going on" and the idea that an appropriate time exists for fighting and another for abstaining from violence. These lessons are conveyed through practical lessons, long contemplation, and one spectacular mystical experience. Dan gradually learns to appreciate every moment; to view the journey toward a goal as more meaningful and significant than the attainment; to pay attention to that which he is doing - thus increasing his gymnastic prowess; and (to a slightly lesser extent) control himself. Throughout the lesson, Dan learns virtually nothing about his mentor, other than the philosophy, Socrates' belief that service is the most noble action possible (hence his choice to work as a car serviceman), and the presence of another protégé. This protégé, a woman of Dan's own age named Joy, has learned and integrated Socrates' philosophy into her life, to the extent that she seems as wise as Socrates himself. Dan attempts to ask her for information regarding Socrates, but receives little. Joy treats Dan indulgently, though she evidently respects him. One day, Dan drives recklessly, and his motorcycle collides with a car that ran a red light, causing his right femur bone to shatter. He is rushed to a hospital, where a metal bar is placed in his leg to maintain its integrity. As a result, his gymnastic coach believes that Dan cannot compete in the National competition. Dan, hurt by this lack of faith, recovers from the injury and resumes his training under Socrates' tutelage. Eventually, he is restored to full health and strength, while his coordination improves and his mind is set entirely on the present moment. He competes in the U.S. Trials for the Olympics and achieves a victory. Slightly before the competition, Dan diverts the bus he is riding to Socrates' station, only to find that Socrates has vanished without a trace. At the arena, he attempts to teach his teammate Tommy what he has learned, but fails due to Tommy's emotional insecurity and lack of comprehension. Dan then is called upon for his turn to perform on the still rings. While he does his routine, Dan performs flawlessly just like Pommel Horse tryouts. Moments before he completes his routine, Socrates is in his thoughts asking him three questions: "Where are you, Dan?" "Here." "What time is it?" "Now." "What are You?" "This Moment." Dan then performs triple consecutive flips, with the commentators frantically speaking and the judges staring at him in amazement. He then dismounts, and the rings swing outwards, eventually touching each other. The screen goes black, leaving his last moment unknown. The postscript states that Dan and his Berkeley Gymnastics Team won their first National title. It is implied at the end, in a postscript appearing on screen, that Dan of the film and Dan the author of the book on which the film is based are one and the same. It is also stated that the latter Dan lives with his wife Joy. 

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The film follows three women, Lisa, Terry, and Melissa, who are auditioning in front of choreographer Maureen Comly, hoping to fill the one open spot in the chorus line of the famous US precision dance company, The Radio City Music Hall Rockettes. 

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One day an old woman grants Alex one wish for his kindness to her. Alex uses it to wish that his little brother Stevie had never been born; to his horror, it comes true. Although no one else remembers Stevie, and Alex's life is in some ways better now, he is still guilt-stricken, and desperately tries to find a way to reverse his wish. 

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When 16-year-old Vicky Austin, her sister Suzy and little brother Rob visit their grandfather on Seven Bay Island, Vicky faces several unexpected challenges. Her beloved grandfather, the retired Reverend Eaton, seems to be seriously ill, but tries to pretend that nothing is wrong. Vicky met the rich but emotionally troubled Zachary Gray the previous summer, and he reappears to renew the acquaintance. Another boy, 17-year-old Adam Eddington, recruits Vicky to help him with a research project, working with a dolphin called Basil. Vicky discovers she can communicate telepathically with the dolphin and his mate – and possibly with Adam as well. Vicky copes as best she can with the increasing stress placed on her by her grandfather's illness, especially once he admits to her that he is dying of leukemia. In turn, Reverend Eaton tries to encourage Vicky with his gentle wisdom and appreciation of her talents, especially her writing, in marked contrast to her parents' long distance expectations that she study science. A rivalry develops between Zach and Adam, which becomes an uneasy alliance as the three teenagers seek to expose the illegal use of drift nets, which trap and kill dolphins, by a ship owned by Zach's father. Eventually they succeed, saving their dolphin friend (and Adam himself) from the deadly net just as Vicky's grandfather arrives with the Coast Guard. The excitement is too much for Reverend Eaton, however, who dies soon afterward. He leaves behind a new blank book for Vicky in which to write her poetry. Vicky decides to follow her heart and her talents rather than her parents' plans for her. 

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In 1929, the existence of the “Tanaka Memorial,” a Japanese plan devised by Baron Giichi Tanaka (John Emery) to conquer the world, is published in the Tokyo Chronicle. The Japanese secret police visit the Chronicle’s headquarters, interrogating editor Nick Condon (James Cagney) about the source, which he refuses to disclose. Intrigued at the heavy-handed response to the rumor, Condon assigns Ollie Miller (Wallace Ford), a Chronicle reporter, to further research the plan. Some time later, Ollie and his wife Edith (Rosemary DeCamp) make plans to leave Japan on a ship. Believing he discovered the details of the plan, the secret police arrange to have him killed. When Condon goes to his cabin on the ship, he finds Edith strangled, and narrowly misses another woman exiting the cabin; he glimpses a ruby ring on her hand. Later that night, Ollie is shot outside Condon’s house. Before he dies, he gives to Condon a copy of the Tanaka Memorial plan. As the secret police, led by Captain Oshima (John Halloran), arrive, Condon hides the document behind a portrait of Emperor Hirohito. Revering the portrait, Oshima does not search it, but ransacks the rest of his house and subdues him when he resists. Condon wakes the next morning in a prison cell. The Japanese police have fabricated a story about him having a drunken party the previous night and fixed his house to hide the damage, and the document is missing. Condon’s search for it is interrupted by a courier inviting him to Baron Tanaka’s home. At Tanaka’s home, the Baron subtly threatens Condon to return the document, and Condon realizes that Tanaka does not have it and someone else took it. Suspecting that the other party consists of Japanese anti-war liberals interested in sneaking the document out of the country, Condon publicly announces his intention to return to the United States. That evening, he meets Iris Hilliard (Sylvia Sidney), a half-Chinese woman. Seeing a ring on her finger, he suspects she was the woman he saw fleeing Edith’s cabin, but the two are attracted to one another. Unbeknownst to him, Iris is a spy for Baron Tanaka, tasked with retrieving the plan. Disgruntled at being passed over as Condon’s replacement as editor, Cassell (Rhys Williams), an unscrupulous reporter, inadvertently reveals that Tanaka ordered him to introduce Iris to Condon. Armed with this knowledge, Condon confronts Iris, who confesses that, while she works for Tanaka, she is loyal to Japan’s liberal faction and, having no fear of the Emperor’s portrait, she herself took the Tanaka Memorial from his house. Condon takes the document and leaves. Eavesdropping on their conversation, the secret police imprison Iris, but she escapes. Disgraced by his failure, Tanaka commits seppuku. Before Condon leaves for the United States, Iris contacts him, asking to meet on a fishing dock. Evading the secret police tailing him, Condon meets her on the dock. She is accompanied by Prince Tatsugi (Frank Puglia), a liberal within the Japanese government. Aware that the government will claim the document is a forgery, Tatsu places his seal on it, legitimizing it. The police arrive and kill Tatsugi; Condon gives the document to Iris, who flees in a fishing boat, and stays behind to delay the policemen. Defeating Captain Oshima at judo and evading the secret police, Condon arrives outside the embassy. He is shot and incapacitated, but when the Japanese search him, they are unable to find the document. As an American diplomat arrives to help Condon, the head of the secret police asks him to forgive his enemy. As he enters the embassy, Condon replies, “Sure, forgive your enemies – but first, get even!” 

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Kendall Dobbs (Tony Goldwyn), a young interior designer and friend to the Sugarbaker firm, approaches the women with an unusual request: He wants them to design his funeral. Kendall is gay and dying of AIDS. At first the firm is reluctant but agrees to take the assignment. Later, Mary Jo (Annie Potts) is at a PTA meeting at which a resolution to the school board about distributing birth control to students on request is being discussed. Mary Jo is in favor both for preventing pregnancies and for preventing the spread of HIV. A decision is made to hold a debate the following week. Mary Jo, as the only person to speak in favor of the proposal, is reluctantly drafted to argue for it. Mary Jo frets a few days later over what she is going to say at the meeting and about being nicknamed the "Condom Queen". (Suzanne concurs, adding that it's not a title that even she herself would try out for.) She notes that she wishes she had some of Julia's eloquence and passion when expressing herself in such situations, and asks Julia if she can get "fired up", so that Mary Jo can watch and learn; Julia explains that she "doesn't feel fired up right now". Kendall drops by to go over the arrangements. He is shocked when Charlene (Jean Smart) casually takes his hand, saying that even some of the nurses in the hospital refused to enter his room. In the background, Imogene Salinger (Camilla Carr), an acquaintance of Julia's and a client of the firm, overhears the plans for the funeral and states that gay men like Kendall are getting what they deserve. "As far as I'm concerned, this disease has one thing going for it: it's killing all the right people." Julia (Dixie Carter) angrily confronts Imogene over her belief that AIDS is God's punishment for homosexuality. "Imogene, get serious! Who do you think you're talking to?! I've known you for 27 years, and all I can say is, if God was giving out sexually transmitted diseases to people as a punishment for sinning, then you would be at the free clinic all the time! And so would the rest of us!" Imogene storms out of the store, announcing that she will take her business elsewhere in the future while Julia in turn tells her that bigots like her will not be welcomed at her firm. Julia slams the door on her. It is noted that during the confrontation, Suzanne sticks up for Kendall by asking that if AIDS was so rampant in the gay community, "Then how come lesbians get it less?" At the PTA debate, Mary Jo struggles to make her points but is cut off repeatedly by the opposing parent. As Kendall enters with Anthony (Meshach Taylor), Mary Jo is finally able to articulate her closing statement: The meeting applauds Mary Jo and the camera cuts to Kendall and freezes on his face. The last shot of the episode shows Kendall's funeral. A closed coffin is shown and the room is designed as Kendall requested. A Dixieland band plays "Just a Closer Walk with Thee". All of the ladies and Bernice (Alice Ghostley) are in attendance. 

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An attention-starved mouse named Nora makes a lot of noise, which only irritates her family. Nora declares she'll run away. The house is too quiet that the family worries they've lost Nora, till they find her hiding in the broom cupboard. 

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The game begins with Jutah Fate, a war criminal, being drafted into a covert military operation by his home planet of Hornet. Because of events that occurred prior to the game, he is largely devoid of emotions. The mission is to destroy a space cruiser, known as the Dante, that is threatening the planet. Also part of the mission are Benoit Manderubrot, a political criminal; Micino Tifone, a spy; and John Loss, an escape artist and member of an oppressed tribe. The operation is headed by CO Annri Ohara. Upon arrival at the Dante, their ship is shot down by Dante's anti-aircraft weapons. Everyone lands on the cruiser unharmed, but Jutah is separated from the group. As the game progresses and Jutah is asked to destroy various parts of Dante, Jutah and Annri begin to develop feelings for each other. Finally, Jutah reaches Dante's bridge, but finds that the crew was killed by its own defenses. A hologram of Benoit appears and reveals that it was he who killed the crew, and that he had taken control of the ship and still planned to destroy Hornet. After Jutah refuses to join with Benoit, Benoit tries to kill Jutah by ejecting him into space. He is rescued by his crew as Benoit seals off Dante. Jutah breaks back into the ship and destroys Dante's powerful cannon in time to save Hornet. With the cannon gone, Jutah Finds Benoit in the ship's core, and discovers that Benoit has bonded himself to the Dante's AI. After the final battle, Benoit activates Dante's self-destruct system. Jutah tries to get back to his ship, but his way is blocked, forcing the others to leave without him. The game ends with Jutah visiting Annri at her home three years later. 

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Aleksey Teodorovic Vlassov (Yul Brynner), a high-ranking KGB official who defects while he is in France, has highly classified information as part of a deal with Western intelligence for his arrival in the United States. The debriefing is held at Langley by DCI Allan Davies (Henry Fonda) and MI6 representative Philip Boyle (Dirk Bogarde). Vlassov hands a list that he has of enemy agents in Western Europe, including a deep penetration into NATO. Davies wants to begin operations to arrest the agents, but those on the list suddenly begin to die off. The CIA also has suspicions over the authenticity of Vlassov's claims. The CIA discovers that a defection photo of Vlassov had been taken in the Soviet Union, not in Turkey, because of the contours of Mount Ararat in the background. Vlassov outsmarted a lie detector test of the CIA by telling a minor lie to cover his real intentions. 

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Orphan Rebecca Rowena Randall is sent to live with her dour aunts, Jane and Miranda Sawyer. She has trouble adjusting to her new home at first, and tries to run away. Eventually her light-hearted optimism wins over her aunts and attracts the interest of local boy Adam Ladd. 

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The plot revolves around a group of British teenagers: Dino, who is the most popular guy at school, and his two best friends, Ben and Jonathon. Dino really likes a beautiful girl named Jackie, the most popular girl in school, but she is unwilling to give him what he wants. This gives Dino the chance to get it from other girls behind Jackie's back. Yet problems arise in Dino's family that causes him to realize sex may not be what he needs. Jonathon likes Deborah, but she is overweight; fearing condemnation from his friends and because of a disgusting looking bump on his penis, he fears showing his true feelings. Ben has been secretly seeing his teacher, Miss Young. He used to love it, but now it overwhelms him. Ben tries to break it off in order to pursue a girl his own age but it causes big trouble for him, Miss Young and his new girlfriend. 

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Samatarou Kamiyama is the son of a god and must live in the human world with his family to learn about them, in order to become a better god when the time comes to succeed his father. His closest friend is Tenko, Samatarou's guardian angel since birth. One day he falls for Kumiko Komori, a girl who just transferred to their school, and decides to win her heart without relying on any of his relatives' godly powers, oblivious to the fact that Tenko herself has a crush on him. 

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Jason played an everyman character called Peter Barnes and Jacqueline Clarke played his wife Sheila. Wilson and Armstrong played a range of petty officials and bureaucrats whose actions frustrated Barnes' attempts to deal with the necessities of everyday life. The title A Sharp Intake of Breath refers to the reactions of various characters to seemingly simple requests by Peter, generally followed by a denial. The show made use of the fourth wall plot device. 

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A land known as Virg was under the command of a powerful king. Every king was selected at the "Tournament of Champions". A demon from Hell, was hell-bent on world domination, so he sent five phantoms to possess every combatant in the tournament. The demon turned the contenders into enemies where they would have them battle one on one (kind of like Battle Royale). The phantoms possessed every contender except for one. As one phantom ambushed Durill, the strongest of the competitors, an unknown disease struck him. Durill ended up defeating the phantom, but collapsed due to mind poisoning. After he died, his son Kerrel vowed to avenge his father, and defeat the evil demon. 

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Katherine "Katy" McLaughlin has dreams of running her father's Wyoming horse ranch, but her father, Rob, has other plans. He is grooming her older brother, Howard, to take over the ranch and sends Katy away to a private school where she feels like a misfit. Rob is having trouble understanding his daughter as she continually defies his authority to follow her own path. When she comes home for the summer, Katy is met with her father's disapproval because she did not finish a writing assignment at school, but is greeted by her mother, Nell, and Howard. Howard wants to attend college. While out riding, Katy finds a black wild mustang, and feels a connection with the horse. She sets off to tame "Flicka" (Swedish for little girl), despite her father's protests. Flicka is captured during a roundup, and Rob asks Katy not to go near Flicka. Determined to prove she can run the ranch, Katy starts training Flicka at night. Flicka slowly warms to Katy and the two develop a close bond. However, Rob sells Flicka to the rodeo, leaving Katy devastated. Nell and Howard are furious at Rob about making the decision without including them. Howard then stands up to his father and says that he does not want the ranch, but Rob refuses to take Flicka back. In turn, Howard and Nell refuse to help Rob with the ranch, which he is now considering selling, since Howard does not want it. Katy starts writing about Flicka to escape her pain. At the rodeo, Howard and Katy enter the competition that Flicka is being used in, hoping to get the horse back. Flicka runs from Katy until the girl calls her name. Rob tries to intervene, and Katy freezes at the sight of him. Howard boosts his sister onto Flicka, and the two escape. Katy becomes lost in the mountains, and allows Flicka to make her way towards the ranch. The family reconciles and searches for Katy as a fierce thunderstorm moves in. Katy and Flicka are attacked by a mountain lion. Flicka bolts, throwing Katy to the ground and the lion goes to attack her. Flicka protects Katy, but is badly wounded in the process. Katy binds Flicka's wounds and refuses to leave her in the storm, resulting in her developing a fever. Rob finds the two and brings a delirious Katy back to the house. As her fever spikes, Katy calls for Flicka as Nell tends to her. Rob thinks Flicka is mortally wounded and believes she should be put down. Overhearing the argument, a dazed Katy stumbles into the room and gives her father permission to "shoot us now." Rob goes outside and begins to cry as he finally understands his daughter's feelings, her pain and what a prideful & selfish person he's been to his family over the years. A gunshot is heard and Katy bursts into tears, thinking Flicka is dead. The next morning, Nell finds Rob walking back to the house, supporting the injured Flicka. She runs outside to help and finds out that the gunshot was him shooting at the mountain lion. Both are stunned that Flicka is alive and decide not to put her down. Katy's fever breaks and she begins to recover. As he watches over his daughter, Rob reads the story that Katy had been writing about Flicka, eventually typing the story and sending it to the school so that Katy can pass for the year. When Katy wakes from the fever, she and Rob reconcile and he takes her to see Flicka. Rob apologizes to Howard and gives his son his blessing and Howard prepares for college. As a family, they decide to not sell the ranch, making it both a working ranch and a refuge for wild mustangs. 

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Set in contemporary New York City, Shortbus revolves around Sofia Lin (Sook-Yin Lee), who is married to the handsome but unambitious and slightly dim-witted Rob (Raphael Barker). She works as a couples counselor/sex therapist. She comes into contact with a couple: A slightly egotistical former child star Jamie (PJ DeBoy) and former prostitute James (Paul Dawson), the film's other lead character. At the outset, James suggests to his boyfriend that they open up their relationship to sex with others. During their first consultation, Sofia snaps, slaps Jamie, and then apologetically reveals her "pre-orgasmic" status. The couple suggests she attend a weekly social/artistic/sexual salon in Brooklyn called "Shortbus," which is hosted by drag artist Justin Bond (playing hirself). Sofia slowly opens up to new experiences; this includes a friendship with a dominatrix who goes by the name Severin (Lindsay Beamish). Sofia's inability to achieve orgasm begins to cause conflict with Rob, who in turn begins attending Shortbus with Sofia. James and Jamie meet a young ex- model and aspiring singer named Ceth (pronounced "Seth") and portrayed by Jay Brannan) and the three begin a sexual relationship. Meanwhile, James and Jamie's life is being closely watched by their across-the-street stalker neighbor, Caleb (Peter Stickles). Caleb fears the inclusion of Ceth in James and Jamie's relationship might break them up and thus destroy his ability to live vicariously through them, so he attends Shortbus, where he confronts Ceth. Sofia begins to go daily to a spa with a sensory deprivation tank to meet with Severin, and the two begin to have intense conversations. Severin begins to help Sofia loosen up sexually; Sofia helps Severin achieve a deeper human connection than she had experienced before. One evening at Shortbus, Severin discusses with Sofia the idea of giving up sex work to pursue her dream of being an artist. The two then have an unplanned sexual experience, and once again Sofia is left unsatisfied. Throughout the film, James is seen making a film about himself and his relationship. It turns out to be a suicide note. He attempts to take his own life and is rescued by Caleb, who calls for help, but is too embarrassed to wait with James for the help to arrive. He writes his phone number and email address on James' face while he is unconscious. When James wakes in the hospital, he calls Caleb. James goes to Caleb's home to be consoled, but does not contact Jamie or Ceth, neither of whom can understand why he wouldn't call them or come home. There follows an interlocking trio of scenes showing connections between the characters' emotional problems and their sexual lives. * At Caleb's house, he and James have sex, and James allows Caleb to penetrate him, something he has never allowed anyone to do before. Afterward, in a dramatic revelation, James is seen in the window of Caleb's apartment by Jamie, who realizes in that moment that James is alive and okay. * Rob and Severin have a paid encounter where Rob asks to be flogged, something he couldn't ask Sofia to do. As this progresses, Severin loses control and Rob tries to comfort her. * Sofia seems to have a dream of struggling through an overgrown, wild forested area to a gentle seashore where she tries to achieve orgasm again. On failing, she screams, and in the real world the lights go off across the city, seemingly caused by the simultaneous and collective frustration of the characters. The film ends with a song by Justin Bond at Shortbus during the blackout. Sofia arrives and finds Rob with Severin and after acknowledging him sits down by herself. James and Jamie also arrive followed by Ceth and Caleb. Justin's song starts on a wistful note, but as it progresses it becomes more energetic and positive thanks to the arrival of the Hungry March Band. This is mirrored in the actions and emotions of the actors. Jamie and James make out on the floor, and Ceth and Caleb start to hit it off. Rob seems to find a friend, and Severin progresses from nervous anxiety to happy elation upon the arrival of the band. Sofia engages in a threesome with a couple she has seen several times before and who appear to meet her prerequisite of "just beginning to experiment sexually" (Nick and Leah, played by Jan Hilmer and Shanti Carson), and finally achieves an orgasm, and the blackout affecting New York ends, as does the film. 

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The story starts off with a face-off between two rival superheroes, ZET and Alphas, and then traces their origins – Jin Kanzaki, a young man with the ability to transform into a superhuman being known as ZET, and Kouga Amagi, a young man with a strong sense of justice who uses technology to fight as Alphas. The fates of these two men and those around them intertwine as they fight to protect mankind and destroy monstrous abominations known as Players, who ironically are the creations of the Amagi Corporation, the company founded by Kouga's grandfather, Mitsugai Amagi. 

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Rebecca Winstead (Shirley Temple), a musically talented orphan, is under the guardianship of her stepfather Harry Kipper (William Demarest). She auditions for the radio role of Little Miss America and wins it, but leaves the studio believing she lost it. Kipper regards her as a loser and a burden, and dumps her on the farm of her Aunt Miranda. Tony Kent (Randolph Scott), the radio advertising executive who approved Rebecca for the role of Little Miss America, lives next door to Miranda. He recognizes Rebecca, and asks Miranda's permission to feature Rebecca on his radio show. When Aunt Miranda (Helen Westley) refuses to allow Rebecca to associate with show people, Kent broadcasts secretly from his house with Rebecca joining him on the sly. Kipper hears Rebecca's broadcast and returns to the farm looking for easy money. As Rebecca's legal guardian, he forces Aunt Miranda to surrender the child. He takes her away from her friends and loved ones to New York City. There, he signs a contract with Kent's competitor Purvis (Alan Dinehart) to star Rebecca on another radio show. When Rebecca suddenly develops laryngitis and cannot sing, Purvis angrily voids the contract. Kipper sells his legal guardianship to Aunt Miranda for $5,000. Rebecca reveals to her friends she feigned hoarseness to free herself from Kipper. The film ends with Rebecca and Aunt Miranda's farm hand Aloysius costumed as toy soldiers performing a dance on a flight on stairs. Subplots include a romance between Kent and Rebecca's cousin Gwen (Gloria Stuart), a one-sided romance between radio singers Orville and Lola (Jack Haley and Phyllis Brooks), and the rekindling of an old romance between Aunt Miranda and neighbor Homer Busby (Slim Summerville). 

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Edward William "Win" Bear is a Ute Indian who works for the Denver Police Department in a version of the United States in an alternate history of 1987 to be controlled by an anti- business, ecofascist faction complete with a new police force created in 1984 called the Federal Security Police (FSP, or "SecPol" as it is more commonly known) reminiscent of the Gestapo. Henry M. Jackson is president, citizens' freedoms are very limited, and many laws and regulations have been passed. Examples include hoarding precious metals, such as silver and gold, is illegal and due to strict gun control policies, only the police and citizens with federal permits are allowed to carry guns. Bear is called to investigate the unusual murder of physicist Vaughn Meiss; he eventually finds himself projected into the North American Confederacy by means of the "Probability Broach", an inter-dimensional conduit originally developed as a means for interstellar travel in the North American Confederacy by a bottlenose dolphin physicist, named Ooloorie Eckickeck P'Wheet, and her human compatriot, Dr. Dora Jayne Thorens. Win encounters his NAC counterpart, Edward William "Ed" Bear, and Ed's neighbors, most notably the "healer" Clarissa Olson and Lucy Kropotkin, who is later revealed to be 135 years old. Lucy's life becomes the vantage point by which Win is acclimated to life in the NAC and Laporte, the NAC equivalent to Denver. Win and Ed unravel the mystery of the Meiss murder and learn that he was killed to hide an effort by SecPol to conquer the NAC with the help of Hamiltonian forces on the NAC side, led by John Jay Madison, a.k.a. the infamous Prussian expatriate and 1918 war hero Manfred von Richthofen, known here as the Red Knight of Prussia. Win, Ed, Lucy and Clarissa lead the effort to notify the nascent NAC government of the threat. En route to the meeting of the Continental Congress, Ed and Clarissa are kidnapped, leaving Win and Lucy to reveal the plot. After fighting (and winning) a duel with a SecPol agent, Win and Lucy rescue their friends and track Madison and the Hamiltonians to a small town outside Laporte. Win sets off an explosion that eliminates all of the Hamiltonians. Win elects to remain in the NAC and marries Clarissa. Ed marries Lucy, who at the time of the story is awaiting a delayed "regeneration" because of an accident involving massive radiation exposure, and they then set out for the Asteroid belt to build a new life for themselves on the NAC frontier. The Continental Congress agrees to begin a massive propaganda campaign to force Win's United States (and the rest of the globe) toward a similar Gallatinist revolution. 

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The story is about young gamer Kaito Suzuki, who one day discovers a video game that transports the player to a different dimension. Upon reaching this strange new world, Kaito discovers a boy known as the "navigator", aptly dubbed "Nata". In Gamerz Heaven the real world is referred to as the "Second Zone". All enemies in Gamerz Heaven are after Nata and Kaito can only beat the game by saving him. Kaito soon discovers in the game that everything that happens in it also affects the real world, which poses a problem from the start. Another posing threat is that Gamerz Heaven is only a beta version so Kaito has a limited number of saves. Soon after starting the game, Kaito is attacked by the class president, Ogura. Ogura falls to Kaito and vanishes from the Second Zone. Now no one believes that Ogura ever existed except for Kaito's best friend Kawashima, who loves video games just as much as Kaito. Later Kaito eventually convinces other friends Rio, and Ren, who didn't believe him until a "meteor" hits the center of Tokyo, which was actually the work of the first area boss of Gamerz Heaven, Rush. 

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Kunjunni's (Vishwanathan) parents separate soon after his birth, and he's left to be cared by his mother, void of paternal care and affection. He is brought up by his mother with the help of his grandmother, an estimate manager and his friend Meenakshi (Mini Nair), the daughter of a maid servant working in Kunjunni's house. Inspired by his Uncle (Narendra Prasad), who was initially a Gandhian, and eventually a Marxist, Kunjunni finds himself drawn to left-wing ideologies during his studies at college, believing that communism is the answer to heal all social hardships and inequalities. Eventually he joins an extremist Marxist group, and his affairs land him in trouble. After an attack at a police station, Kunjunni is arrested and taken to court, but later acquitted of all charges. Kunjunni finds himself maturing with experience, yet he feels lonely and disillusioned. Kunjunni tries to turn his life around, and sets off on a quest to find his childhood friend Meenakshi and he does so and marries her. Later he sells all his properties to a new rich man (Mukesh), whose father was once a servant in Kunjuni's house. Then he moves to an ordinary house and tries to live a normal family life with his wife and son. One day, one of his old day college juniors (Jagadish), a journalist, arrives his home for an interview. But Kunjunni denies it. Later Kujunni, with the help of his journalist friend, publishes his first story, "Karaksharangal". But due to its Marxist supporting content and revealing nature, government banned it. When Kunjunni reads this news in the newspaper with his family, he began to laugh. Then he and his family laugh together at this dirty world, which reveals that the revolution had not yet happened completely. 

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Deepika (Bhavana) is an arrogant, rich girl. A medical college student, she dictates terms at the college. Sister of local don Kasi (Prakash Raj), she is feared by students, professors, and the college dean. Enters Aarya (Madhavan), a final-year student who comes to Chennai Medical College from Coimbatore. A soft-spoken Aarya runs into Deepika. They give each other the cold shoulder. In a fit of rage, she kidnaps Aarya's sister, but Aarya faces her challenges daringly. However, she soon falls in love with him, but he is not ready to marry a ruffian's sister. The remaining story tells us how the brother and sister put pressure on Aarya to become a rowdy so his status is equal enough as Kasi's so Aarya can marry Deepika. Meanwhile, "Snake" Babu (Vadivelu) is elected the area councilor and has a few encounters with Aarya and one with Deepika. Finally Deepika changes her ways. 

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Karl Oskar, his wife Kristina and their three children, along with Karl Oskar's brother Robert and Robert's friend Arvid, have arrived in Lake Ki Chi Saga from Sweden. Taking shelter in a shanty, Karl Oskar puts all their resources into building them a house before winter. He begins clearing the land of the pine trees, and with the help of Robert, Arvid and some of their Swedish neighbors, constructs a small farmhouse. Once it is completed, Karl Oskar and Kristina invite their fellow Swedish settlers, including Kristina's Uncle Danjel and Ulrika, who has become a very close friend of the family, for dinner. Afterwards, they discuss whether they regret emigrating. Later that night, Karl Oskar tries to console Kristina and shows her something he had kept from Sweden - a shoe belonging Anna, their eldest daughter who had died in Sweden. He tells her that it helps him to remember their home, which comforts her slightly. Not long afterwards, Kristina gives birth to a son, Danjel, named after her uncle. Robert, meanwhile, tells Arvid that he plans to head west to California to dig for gold, and asks Arvid to come. They head west, only to have their adventure plagued by a series of misfortunes. The two become lost in the desert, where Arvid dies from drinking tainted water. Robert is rescued by a Hispanic cattle driver, who brings him to a village in the Sierra Nevada. While there, Robert comes to possess a small fortune, only to have it swindled from him by another Swede. He returns to Minnesota, where after meeting again with Karl Oskar and Kristina, he dies from a fever contracted while out west. mass execution of Sioux warriors is portrayed in the film. In the following years, Kristina gives birth to two more children, Ulrika and Frank, after which a doctor advises Kristina that after seven pregnancies her insides are torn, and another pregnancy will be fatal. However, Kristina decides to disregard the warning, and eventually becomes pregnant again. After suffering several miscarriages, Kristina falls ill and becomes bedridden, gradually weakening. The Sioux Uprising of 1862 erupts, in which starving Sioux warriors kill more than 500 white settlers across the upper Midwest, among them Kristina's uncle Danjel and his eldest son Sven. Many of the warriors are subject to a mass execution. Kristina dies in 1862, and Karl Oskar, overwhelmed by grief, withdraws into solitude, watching his children grow up and start families of their own. His eldest son Johan takes over the farm, marries an Irish girl and before long has a family of five children. Marta marries another Swedish immigrant from Ljuder parish and they who purchase a general store in Center City which they operate while raising a family of three children. Harald leaves for Minneapolis and works for the railroad, eventually becoming a successful businessman and marrying a German, with whom he has two children. Dan remains a bachelor and stays behind on the farm to help Johan, while Ulrika marries a Norwegian farmer from nearby Franconia township and has a family of four children. Frank has since moved to Chicago and married a Yankee girl. Karl Oskar often visits Kristina's grave overlooking the river, tending to the flowers while in the distance, hammering sounds can be heard as other Swedes have also begun moving into the area in large numbers and establishing farms. On her grave marker, beneath her name it reads "We Shall Meet Again". Karl Oskar dies on 7 December 1890. A neighbor, Axel Andersson, writes a letter to Karl Oskar's sister Lydia back in Sweden informing her of the death. In his letter, Andersson explains that Karl Oskar's children had by then forgotten Swedish and that Karl Oskar often reminded him to write to his sister informing her of his eventual death. Also included with the letter is a family photograph showing Karl Oskar surrounded by Johan, Marta, Harald, Dan, Ulrika and Frank, their respective spouses and all their children. 

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The film centres on the journey of David Copperfield, from experiencing an impoverished and miserable childhood to becoming a successful and famous author. 

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The frame story deals with the elderly Dr Harshom, who lives in Herefordshire and has a very rare family name, all of whose bearers are in one way or another related and are in some contact with each other. In the early 1950s the Harshoms, scattered throughout England, are greatly mystified by the appearance of a young man named Colin Trafford, who systematically and persistently meets each and every one of them, asking about a young woman named Ottilie Harshom whom none of the Harshoms has ever heard of and who is evidently very important to him. Dr Harshom decides to talk to Trafford and the story consists mainly of what Trafford eventually tells him. Trafford is a physicist who was involved in a laboratory experiment that went wrong. He lost consciousness and woke up to find himself in a parallel universe. It is similar to ours, but there was a divergence that is not precisely identified, but seems to have occurred in late 1926 or early 1927, preventing or greatly diminishing the effects of the Wall Street Crash in 1929. Adolf Hitler never came to power and the Second World War never happened. India is still a British possession in 1954 and there are mass demonstrations in Delhi calling for the release of Jawaharlal Nehru from prison. Rab Butler is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Winston Churchill's career was much less distinguished than in reality. Clement Attlee never became Prime Minister and the opposition Labour Party still calls for nationalisations that it did not get a chance to carry out. Nuclear power and nuclear bombs are still no more than theoretical possibilities, but scientists are getting worried about the long-term implications of experiments being conducted in Germany and petition the League of Nations, which still exists, to assume control. Noël Coward was killed in an accident and had a daughter named Amanda. Ivor Novello is still alive in 1954. Trafford finds himself in the body of his counterpart in the parallel universe. As the story unfolds, he meets some old friends who have different partners. At one point he is taken aback to meet Martin Fells, a friend who lost two fingers of his left hand near the Rhine in 1945 but has an uninjured left hand in the parallel universe. Trafford also catches a glimpse of his late wife Della, who in the original timeline died after a year of what he calls "satisfactory marriage", but who in the alternate world is alive, accompanied by another man, and does not recognise him. As Trafford discovers, his counterpart is a successful author. Looking through the counterpart's best-selling novels, he discovers a streak of brutality that becomes increasingly pronounced from book to book, making him resent seeing his name on their covers. This, he discovers, was also manifested in the counterpart's rather troubled relationship with his wife Ottilie. They had married for love some three years before, but she was increasingly neglected and had resigned herself to her husband having a series of openly flaunted affairs. Trafford quickly falls in love with Ottilie and spends several weeks rekindling their relationship, overcoming Ottilie's initial distrust and residual hurt. He is then distressed to find himself, suddenly and without warning, transported back to his own world, leaving Ottilie behind. Trafford then begins his search for Ottilie's counterpart in our own world. All he has is her maiden name, Ottilie Harshom, and there is no record of her at Somerset House (home of the General Register Office for Births, Deaths and Marriages when the story was written). He writes to and visits every member of the Harshom family to try to locate her. All of them say that she does not exist. Feeling sympathetic to the young man and half-believing his story, Dr Harshom worried about Trafford's obsessive "chasing after a ghost" and hopes that he will find another woman to love. The story concludes as Trafford finds that an analogue of Ottilie does exist, though in this world her name is Belinda Gale and she lives unmarried in Canada with her mother. Trafford marries her in Canada and brings her to England. It turns out that Dr Harshom's son, killed in a car accident in 1928, had left a pregnant girlfriend who was never introduced to his parents. After his death she married a man named Gale who raised her daughter Belinda as his own in Canada. In the other universe Harshom's son survived, married his girlfriend and raised her daughter Ottilie in England. Dr Harshom is rewarded for his kindness to Trafford by being (re)united with a granddaughter of whose existence he had not known. 

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A physicist, Colin Trafford, stages a demonstration of a particle accelerator to a number of people, including Sir Henry Larnstein and Trafford's long-time friend Tom Lewis. The demonstration goes wrong and Trafford, with his same memories, finds himself in a parallel universe with significant differences from our own: John F. Kennedy is Secretary General of a still-existent League of Nations, Leslie Howard did not die in the Second World War because it never happened, and no one ever succeeded in climbing to the peak of Mount Everest. Trafford also discovers that he is a famous author, an alcoholic, and a womaniser with a beautiful wife, Ottilie. Trafford instantly falls in love with Ottilie, whereas his parallel self was constantly unfaithful to her and she is on the brink of divorcing him. With the help of Sir Henry and the physical evidence of the absence of a childhood scar, Ottilie accepts that this 'new' Trafford is not the same man she had originally fallen in love with and married. The couple fall in love once again, but Trafford then discovers that Ottilie has a terminal heart condition that is incurable in that world. Very soon she dies in Trafford's arms. At that instant he regains consciousness in a hospital bed in his original reality, where he has been for three weeks since the accident. He determines to track down Ottilie's alter ego and finds her just in time to get her to hospital for treatment of her ailment. As she recovers, Trafford goes to visit her with a bunch of her favourite flowers and introduces himself. 

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While hunting in The Spine, 15-year-old Eragon finds a mysterious blue stone. He keeps it, thinking that it can be sold or bartered. However, the stone is actually a dragon egg. Eragon names the dragon Saphira from the list of dragon names he heard from the storyteller Brom. Saphira's hatching attracts the attention of the cruel king Galbatorix. The king dispatches servants to Eragon's village to find the dragon. They are unsuccessful and Eragon's uncle is killed and his home burned down. Brom, whom Eragon considers as nothing more than an old storyteller, helps him fight his way out of the village. He then gives Eragon an old sword, known as Zar'roc in the book series. Eragon and Saphira make their way to Daret, where they are attacked in the docks. They find the rest of the town on fire and hold off a swarm of the king's servants as the villagers try to put out these fires. After leaving Daret the three are pursued by a group of Ra'zac. The group are caught in an ambush: Saphira becomes trapped under debris and Eragon must both try to free her and hold off the Ra'zac. After defeating the nearby enemies, the group make their way to Gil'ead, where Eragon and Brom sneak through the city and keep to try and free Arya. After a lengthy battle through Durza's fortress, Eragon meets Arya and Murtagh, who now join the group. This helps alleviate the mournful situation when Brom jumps in the way of a spear intended to kill Eragon and is fatally injured and dies. The group escape from Gil'ead on Saphira's back, but face some Kull in the ruins of Orthiad. After defeating many Kull and Urgals they make their way to the Beor Mountains, where more Urgals lie in wait. They then sneak through an Urgal encampment, and make their way through a misty gorge. The group get to the Varden's hideout and defend it against hordes of Urgals. Eragon and Saphira then face Durza a second time, mounted on the back of a huge, batlike monster, eventually killing him. 

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The story involves three children, named Jenny, Amanda and Scott, who are painting a mural on a school wall in Acton, London (Through the Dragon's Eye was filmed at Derwentwater Primary School, Shakespeare Road in Acton, London). The dragon in the mural winks at the children and they are transported to a land called Pelamar, where the dragon, named Gorwen, asks the children to undertake a task to save the magical land. In order to save Pelamar, the children, with Gorwen's help, must recover the pieces of the Veetacore (the life source of Pelamar), which recently exploded. Until they succeed, the land of Pelamar turns increasingly barren and its inhabitants start to fade away. The instructions for the reconstruction of the Veetacore are written in a book, and the children must use their reading skills to help the Veetacore keepers, thus showing the young audience the importance of reading. The art of reading has been lost in Pelamar – this is a sore point with Doris, but the Veetacore keepers do start learning to read as the series progresses. Unfortunately, three of the pieces have been thrown into the distant land of Widge, forcing Amanda and Scott to travel to Widge with Gorwen, Boris, and the giant mouse Rhodey in order to find them, leaving Jenny to help determine how to reassemble the Veetacore (Made harder both by her own lack of confidence at reading and the fact that the pet caterpillar of Morris, the third keeper, has eaten at some of the pages in the book). The "baddie" of the story is Charn, "The Evil One", who wants to hijack the Veetacore for his own evil purposes, and who it is implied triggered the original 'explosion' of the Veetacore in the first place. Fortunately, the inability to read also afflicts Charn, allowing Jenny to display a written message to her friends when Charn forbids her to divulge his presence (She tricked Charn into allowing her to knit a scarf due to the cold of Pelamar, drawing out a pattern that actually spelled out "HELP! CHARN!" without him knowing, which she could then show to the others over a video phone). Although Gorwen is able to defeat Charn, he is dangerously weakened, nearly killing himself before the last Veeton is discovered and the Veetacore restored. Although the show ends with the children returning to their school at apparently the moment they left, the presence of their notebooks and three miniature versions of the Veetons they recovered proves that the experience was genuine. 

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Pancho, also known as Damn Cat or DC, is in the habit of prowling the neighborhood at night and stealing food from a neighbour named Greg. His owners, Patti and Ingrid Randall (also known as Inky) look after him while their parents are away on holiday. One night DC returns home with a wristwatch round his neck. Patti determines that the watch belongs to a bank teller, Helen Jenkins, who was kidnapped by two bank robbers. One day DC discovers a duck Greg has caught and takes it away to eat, much to the agitation of Greg, who says that if DC takes anything else from him he'll shoot him. Zeke Kelso, an FBI agent, puts surveillance on the cat in the hope he will lead them to the kidnappers. Zeke has a cat allergy, which makes it difficult for DC to like him. Zeke gets DC's paw prints on ink for evidence. They are both helped and hampered by Patti, Ingrid and their neighbors. The FBI keep an eye on where DC travels to see if he goes back to the bank robbers' lair, but with little success at first. Jenkins tries to find ways of escaping, which is difficult because Sammy and Dan, the robbers, live in an apartment building, and keep the radio and air conditioning on so that if she screams it'll be muffled. One night she creates a fire to get help, but is the robbers stop her in time. One evening, while tracking DC, Zeke and the neighbours hear a gunshot. Patti confronts Greg, who she suspects trying to kill DC, but he explains that he was not trying to shoot DC, but rather fired because he saw a man on his property. On the final evening DC, with Zeke tracking him, finally reaches the apartment building where the criminals are holding Jenkins hostage. Zeke confronts Dan and Sammy, who recall the time DC came around. Seeing that Dan and Sammy are the criminals he's looking for, Zeke throws DC at them as a diversion and arrests them. The next day DC is all over the papers as the spotlight of the news, and people are gathering round his house wanting his autograph. Not caring about being famous, DC remains on his usual routine, prowling the streets and tailing Greg. 

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The gift of prescience, rather than a blessing, is a curse for the mythological character Cassandra that she cannot control. She sees the future all the time and cannot turn it off. In Cherryh's story, Crazy Alis leaves her burning apartment each morning and heads for the bombed-out coffee shop, passing charred corpses on the way. She knows it's going to happen but can do nothing about it. When the bombs do come and fire engulfs the city, her foresight actually saves her, but at what cost? She is the sole beneficiary of her misfortune in an otherwise non-functional existence. 

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Book cover design by Fernand Khnopff for "Bruges-la- Morte" by Georges Rodenbach It tells the story of Hugues Viane, a widower overcome with grief, who takes refuge in Bruges where he lives among the relics of his former wife - her clothes, her letters, a length of her hair - rarely leaving his house. However he becomes obsessed with a dancer he sees at the opera Robert le diable who bears a likeness to his dead wife. He courts her, but in time he comes to see she is very different, coarser, and their relationship ends in tragedy. 

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It is set in the British colony of Kenya in the 1940s, and tells the true story of murder of Josslyn Victor Hay, the 22nd Earl of Erroll, as seen through the eyes of 15-year-old Juanita Carberry, the daughter of John Carberry, a friend of Broughton's. 

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As a new generation of mutants begins maturing across the globe, a long-lost Master Mold A.I. and Sentinel production facility in the jungles of Ecuador is uncovered by a mysterious woman called Cassandra Nova. She uses the last surviving relative of Bolivar Trask to gain control of the wild sentinels and has the man order the Sentinels to massacre the entire population of the mutant nation of Genosha. However, Cassandra Nova's presence shows up on the newly created mutant detection machine Cerebra, created by Beast, leading to Cyclops and Wolverine finding Cassandra and defeating her. But it's too late, as the nation of Genosha falls to the deadly might of the Sentinels and nearly the entire population of the island state is killed off. As the X-Men search the rubble, they find former X-Men villain and teacher Emma Frost as one of the survivors, having survived the Sentinel onslaught thanks to her body undergoing a new secondary mutation. At the X-Mansion, Beast investigates the biological origins of the powerful enemy they have just captured, while also revealing the possibility of mankind's genetic extinction within the next few generations. When Cassandra suddenly overcomes her imprisonment and effortlessly makes her way to Cerebra (in order to take over Charles Xavier's mind), Emma Frost (who moments before the battle began had left the X-Mansion, intent on revenge against humans for the genocidal Sentinel attack on Genosha) shows up again to snap Cassandra's neck. But Emma arrives too late, as Cassandra has swapped bodies with Xavier and shoots him (now in Cassandra's body) to keep Xavier from revealing what has just happened. Days pass; Jean Grey and Cyclops reflect upon the marital problems that have popped up due to Cyclops's post-traumatic stress disorder (brought on by Apocalypse possessing Cyclops's body for over a year) when they turn on the TV and see "Xavier" out himself as a mutant on live television. 

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The program opens with the other Peanuts characters singing the title song to Charlie Brown. In the next scene, Schroeder plays Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" and Lucy sings along. She tries to tell him that they should get married. Schroeder ignores her, then Lucy says, "My aunt Marian was right; never try to discuss marriage with a musician." Charlie Brown hopes for the first time to be able to keep a kite but he once again fails. Sally writes a letter to Ann Flanders about the Valentine's Day card she gets. Charlie Brown gives Lucy a Valentine's Day card and mistakenly says, "This is for you, Lucy. Merry Christmas!" Charlie Brown sees Marcie and thinks that she is going to give him a Valentine's Day card but she does not. Lucy comes up to Schroeder again and talks about saucepans, and, again, Schroeder cannot stand it. Snoopy imagines that he is a wild animal. Charlie Brown, Schroeder, Linus, and Lucy work on their book reports on Peter Rabbit ("Book Report"). Lucy teaches Linus about nature in her own way while Charlie Brown tries to correct her, to no avail ("Little Known Facts"). Charlie Brown writes a letter to his pencil pal about his downfall at his baseball game. Charlie Brown pleads his baseball team to win the game by chanting "T-E-A-M" but fails. Lucy dreams of becoming a queen but gives up dreaming. Charlie Brown tries to get the Little Red-Haired Girl to know him better but fails. Schroeder's Sing Along has songs for the play in "The Concert" by singing "Home On the Range" with his friends. And the five friends sing while Lucy, Linus, and Sally argue. Lucy wanting her pencil back from Linus, and threatening to tell Sally what he said about her if he did not give back the pencil (Linus called Sally an Enigma). Snoopy sings a song devoted to "Suppertime" when he sees Charlie Brown serving him his supper. In the end, Charlie Brown and all of his gang learn all about "Happiness" and why it's all around them; the special ends with Lucy telling Charlie Brown that he is a good man. 

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In the early 16th century, a young boy helplessly witnesses his father killed by Kabai Sengh, the ruthless leader of the Sengh Brotherhood, who attacked their ship. The boy jumps overboard and is washed ashore on Bengalla, an island where local tribesmen find him and take him to their village. There he is given the Skull Ring, swears to devote his life to the destruction of piracy, greed, cruelty, and injustice, and as an adult, adopts the identity of “The Phantom,” a masked avenger. The role of The Phantom is passed on from father to son through 400 years, leading people to believe in a single, immortal figure. In 1938, Kit Walker, the 21st Phantom, finds Quill leading a mercenary group in the jungle searching for one of the Skulls of Touganda, which grants its owner a tremendously destructive power. The Phantom saves the native boy they kidnapped to be their guide and captures Quill’s men, leaving them for the Jungle Patrol to pick up. Revealed to be a Sengh Brotherhood member and the man who killed Kit’s father - whose ghost frequently appears to give Kit advice - Quill flees with the Skull and returns to the United States. In New York City, Kit’s college ex-girlfriend, Diana Palmer, is a frequent traveler whose uncle, Dave Palmer, is the famous owner of the World Tribune newspaper. The paper has been investigating power-hungry businessman Xander Drax, a shady character with a reputation for dealing with criminals. Palmer has uncovered Drax’s connection to a mysterious spider web symbol, which he traces back to the Bengalla Jungle. He sends Diana to investigate but makes the mistake of telling New York’s corrupt police commissioner, who’s allied with Drax, of Diana’s trip. Drax’s female air pirates led by femme fatale, Sala, hijack the plane; Diana is abducted and taken to their waterfront base in Bengalla. Having been informed of Diana’s abduction by the Jungle Patrol’s captain, Phillip Horton, the Phantom rescues her and escapes from Quill and his men to his headquarters, the Skull Cave. In New York, now dressed as his civilian self, Kit meets with David Palmer at the World Tribune and once again meets with Diana, who has mixed feelings about him since his sudden disappearance several years before. Diana’s would-be suitor Jimmy Wells mentions he had seen one of the skulls in the Museum of World History, so Kit and Diana hurry there. Drax and his men capture them, steal the second Skull and unite it with the first, revealing the location of the third Skull on an uncharted island in the Andaman Sea, known as the Devil’s Vortex. Kit manages to escape and, as the Phantom, evades the police outside the museum. Meanwhile, after Sala reveals that Diana is the Phantom’s girlfriend, she flies Drax, Quill, and Diana to the Devil’s Vortex, not knowing that the Phantom has managed to hitch a ride on one of the plane’s landing pontoons. On the island, Drax meets with the pirate Kabai Sengh, direct descendant of the Brotherhood’s original leader, who possesses the third Skull. Sengh warns Drax of the Fourth Skull’s existence, which controls the power of the other three. The Phantom appears and battles both men, with Kabai Sengh killed by sharks, and Diana and Sala cooperate to defeat the other villains. Drax unites the three Skulls and turns their power against the Phantom; Quill is accidentally hit and disintegrated in the process. The Phantom uses the Fourth Skull – his ring – to turn the Skulls’ power back against them, destroying them and Drax in a powerful explosion. As the energy destroys the island, the Phantom narrowly escapes with Diana and Sala. Returning to Bengalla, Diana reveals to the Phantom that she has figured out his secret and double identity. Kit removes his mask, telling her that he can only disclose all of his secrets to one person, the woman he intends to marry, but she leaves again for New York. Kit’s father laments his son’s failure to pursue Diana but states that she will return to the Phantom’s jungle, and Kit, one day. 

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When the X-Men return from a mission, they discover that the X-Mansion is destroyed. Storm, Jean, Rogue and Wolverine check the remains of the school to find any traces of the destroyer or from Professor X. They don't find a body and Jean can't reach him telepathically, so they must assume that he is dead or far beyond Jean's range. They are then called to the unharmed control room by Cyclops and Jubilee, who have found a message from the Professor. He informs them that he will be gone for some time, leaving the X-Men with no clues about his whereabouts. Fortunately, the message is recorded before the school was destroyed, so he has most likely not perished in the rubble. Wolverine finds a large footprint and picks up a scent that he believes is from the person that trashed the school. Despite Cyclops' orders against it, Wolverine goes after the suspected destroyer, followed by Storm, Rogue and Jubilee. In the city, the three split up to look for Wolverine. However, Jubilee spots a mutant on a building site who appears to be made out of pure steel. Thinking he is the one responsible for trashing the school, she goes after him, but is nearly crushed by the building he is tearing down. She is saved by Wolverine, and they attack the mutant, Colossus, who easily defeats them, stating he does not know about a mansion. When he gets away, Wolverine says he was not the one because he smelled different. They are interrupted by Rogue, who informs them about a robbery going on. Arriving at the scene, they see that Colossus is being carried away by the police. Wolverine, convinced of his innocence, says they have captured the wrong one, and Storm and Rogue agree to rescue him from prison. In prison, they meet Beast (who tells them to thank Jean for the cookies), and break Colossus out, with some help from their powers. Jubilee and Wolverine find the real culprit, Juggernaut, robbing a bank, and try to apprehend him, but Juggernaut is too strong. Soon, Storm, Rogue, Colossus, Cyclops and Jean arrive at the scene. Jean explains that she can't mind-control Juggernaut as long as his helmet is on. Cyclops thinks that they can defeat him, as long as they (especially Wolverine) work as a team. The plan works, thanks to the combined attacks of the X-Men and the strength of Colossus. Rogue manages to absorb some of his powers, revealing why he destroyed the mansion: Xavier is his half-brother and he wanted to take revenge because his parents treated Xavier better than him. Wolverine releases his helmet and Jean wipes his mind clean: Juggernaut is harmless (for the time being). Back at the mansion, Colossus helps them with rebuilding. Wolverine invites him to stay and join the X-Men, but Colossus chooses to resume his journey. Looking at the nearly-rebuilt mansion, Wolverine and Jubilee both realize that they have come to consider the mansion as their home. 

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Danica has begun to fit into serpiente society more and more, but other people do not have her courage or motivation. The avians and the serpiente, in spite of the royal union, are hardly warming up to each other. Neither of the sides is willing to try to join the other. Stirring things up is Syfka, a powerful aplomado falcon who has just arrived to drag a falcon criminal back to the island of Ahnmik. Syfka has absolutely no respect for the reunification of the two cultures and with her falcon magic, she has no problem with trying to destroy the fragile peace. There is little that Zane and Danica can do to try to stop her, considering her ability to use powerful magics almost casually and the fact that she is several thousands of years old. On top of that the avians and serpiente are nowhere near capable of defending themselves against the falcon empire. It seems best to just hand Syfka her criminal and make sure she feels no need to come back. But Rei, the leader of the Royal Flight and the man who Danica loved before she met Zane, becomes increasingly agitated during Syfka's search and the question arises of what would happen if the "criminal" turned out to be someone loyal to Zane and Danica. After hearing a young woman's stories about her experiences on the falcon island, Zane and Danica are forced to wonder whether they can hand someone over to the falcons with a healthy conscience. Complicating things is the fact that Danica is pregnant. Neither the serpiente nor the avians are crazy about the idea of a mixed-blood child taking the throne. A child of a cobra and another serpent is always a cobra, a child of a hawk and another avian is always a hawk. But a cobra-hawk child has co-dominant genes and as a mixture between the two, it would end both royal lines. Both sides are worried about being dominated by the other and both are putting enormous pressure on Zane and Danica to raise the child their way. 

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Nicias Silvermead is the child of Kel and Andreios, and the grandson of Araceli, heir to the falcon Empress Cjarsa. When his magic awakens he is forced to travel to Ahnmik in order to learn to control it before it kills him. On Ahnmik Nicias discovers much more than just a way to control his magic. Araceli and Cjarsa hide the shocking secret that they started the avian-serpiente war by creating the avians through the human child Alasdair and giving half of Anhamirak's magic to them. He also finds Hai, half gyrfalcon and half cobra, she is the child of Anjay Cobriana and first in line to the serpiente throne. In between these powerful players and the seduction and deception of the falcon island, Nicias must try to find a way to return home, if he can. 

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As mutant culture takes center stage in the world media, a new movement propagated by book The Third Species begins to affect human/mutant relations. Several school shootings occur where the assailant takes mutant organs to graft to themselves, believing they will transcend to a higher state of evolution (somehow superior to the natural mutations occurring). Cyclops and Emma investigate the impetus behind this movement by confronting John Sublime, the book's author. He reveals himself to be leader of the U-Men, a radical group that doesn't improve themselves by changing their own genes, but by harvesting mutant parts from unwilling donors. Cyclops and Emma are taken hostage for fatal surgery. Meanwhile, Wolverine is following a lead on a new mutant, arriving just in time to stop a crew of U-men from killing Angel Salvadore for her insect wings. Despite her reluctance in accepting her mutation, and anyone's help in coming to grips with it, she does follow Wolverine back to the Institute, where several squads of U-men are about to assault and slaughter the student body. Jean Grey, with help from her students, fends off the attack, eventually manifesting a phoenix raptor display in psychic dominance. Emma Frost and Cyclops escape from their captors, with Emma confronting John about the damage done to her cosmetically enhanced face, threatening to drop him from the highrise window his office sits in. John forces himself from Emma's grip, seemingly convinced by Martha Johansson, a floating brain in a jar John used to exert psychic control of his captives. Back at the mansion, Hank McCoy staggers from his ICU bed onto the front lawn. He cradles Cassandra Nova's body in his arms, revealing that Professor Xavier's mind has been switched and he is trapped. Emma and Jean psychically probe Nova's body, discovering that she and Xavier were fraternal twins, but the instant Xavier became aware, he tried to kill his twin in the womb. In the far reaches of space, the Shi'ar empire is being slowly torn apart by the possessed Charles Xavier. Empress Lilandra sends Smasher through 4-space to warn the Earth of the villainess' coming. Smasher arrives in a field populated by cows, and he loses consciousness before finding someone to spread his message. The X-Men convene in Cerebra to share what they know about Cassandra Nova. As Jean and Emma's psychic excavation reveals, she is a living entity of pure emotional energy, who used Charles' DNA to form a body. In her mind, the universe and the womb that housed her brother are one and the same. Only she and Charles Xavier are real. Thus, her competition for survival is her twin "brother," and he must be killed. Inside a body booby trapped with numerous degenerative disorders, Xavier telepathically requests a last press conference for the X-Men to communicate his final message to humanity about mutantkind. Cyclops leaves to Xorn, in an attempt to find a way to save Xavier from dying. During the press conference, Beast discovers that the minor annoyance of a flu epidemic is in fact, a systematic nano-Sentinel attack. This news is overshadowed, however, by the sudden reveal that the Imperial Guard is about to sterilize the entirety of mutantkind, starting with the X-Men. Aboard the Shi'ar Superdestroyer, Cyclops pleads with his and Xorn's captors that the Charles Xavier they are allied with is the very same Cassandra Nova entity they seek to fight, to no avail. At the X-mansion, the Stepford Cuckoos ally with Angel to overthrow the invading Shi'ar, while Jean and Beast shelter the rest of the student body and the visiting media. Beast and Wolverine fend off the assaults of the Guardians, when Smasher is finally found and able to convince Gladiator of the X-Men's innocence. As Cassandra Nova drives Lilandra to command her fleet to die, Cyclops and Xorn fight their way to freedom, saving Lilandra in the process. Angel and the Cuckoos find Beak, who advises using the Guardian Stuff to free Emma Frost. Xorn heals the X-Men of their sentinel infestations. Afterwards, Jean Grey and Charles Xavier trick Cassandra into using Cerebra for her original goal of erasing mutantkind; however, the moment she uses Cerebra to connect to the worldwide mutant population, she finds one thing in common to all of them: Charles. In the same moment, Jean Grey, who at the moment was becoming increasingly more powerful due to a manifestation of the Phoenix Force, psionically attacks Cassandra and forces her out of the Professor's body. With Charles Xavier's mind restored to his body, Emma Frost uses Stuff's malleable body as a trick to entice Cassandra Nova back into her own body, now a mental prison for her boundless energy. Finally, Charles Xavier is now miraculously able to use his legs. 

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The book's first narrator is Rupert Venables, the junior "magid" responsible for Earth and the Koryfonic Empire, a collection of Ayewards worlds. The multiverse contains Ayeward (generally good, pro-magic) and Nayward (the opposite) worlds. It is the task of the magids to urge the worlds in an Ayewards direction. When the Emperor of the Koryfonic Empire is assassinated, no heir can be found. Earth's senior magid has also died, and Rupert must find his replacement. Venables draws the candidates for Earth senior magid together in an unlikely place: a science fiction convention in the town of Wantchester. Maree Mallory, the book's second narrator, is one of the candidates. Maree's Uncle Ted is to be the guest of honor at the convention in Wantchester. Ted's wife Janine, Maree, and Ted and Janine's son Nick are to accompany him. All arrive at the convention, where the reserved Venables is somewhat stunned at the bizarre nature of the convention and its attendees, particularly as it is housed in the strange, Escher-like Hotel Babylon, which appears to be centered on a powerful magical node. He seeks out each magid candidate, but is disappointed to find each of them entirely unsuitable. His opinion of Maree Mallory rises, however, as they encounter each other several times at the convention. Pleas for help from the unsettled Koryfonic Empire force Venables to cross over to the Ayewards world Thule to seek help from his magid brother Will. Maree and Nick unwittingly follow him through the gaps between worlds, nearly killing themselves in the process. The plot culminates with a trip into a bizarre, nightmarish land whose existence is the "Deep Secret" of the title, and the restoration of the Koryfonic Empire to its rightful ruler after his memory is restored. 

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Ismay Sealand believes that her younger sister, Heather, murdered their stepfather Guy when they were teenagers. Ismay and her mother, Beatrix, returned from shopping for a new school uniform to find Guy drowned in his bath and only Heather home. Although both Ismay and her mother believe Heather drowned Guy – who was weak from a virus – there was no evidence and so at the inquest the death was ruled accidental. Ismay thinks Heather murdered Guy because he made sexual advances to her, Ismay, and Heather wished to protect her. In fact Ismay encouraged Guy's interest and hoped he would come to her bedroom and have sex with her. Now in their twenties, Ismay and Heather live in the same house, which has been divided into two flats. They live together downstairs, and their mother, who became mentally ill after Guy's death, lives with her sister Pamela in the upstairs. Ismay remains haunted by what happened all those years ago. Ismay is desperately in love with Andrew Campbell-Sedge, who looks very like her dead stepfather, and who does not get on with Heather. Meanwhile, Edmund Litton's mother, Irene, tries to set him up with Marion Melville, a thin darting woman with bright red hair who has befriended a number of elderly people in the area. Horrified by this idea Edmund sets up an alternative date with a woman who works in the catering department of the hospice where he works, Heather Sealand. Their date is more successful than expected and the two begin to fall in love. This causes a rift with Edmund's mother, who enjoyed being the only woman in his life, especially when Edmund goes to stay overnight at Heather's flat. As the relationship between Heather and Edmund becomes more serious, Ismay worries whether or not she should tell him what she believes about Heather's past and, eventually, records a tape telling him what she thinks happened when Guy drowned. She hides it in a box which formally contained the cassette 'Rainy Season Ragas' and puts it out of sight. Edmund and Heather's relationship causes another rift; this time between Ismay and Andrew. Edmund sees Andrew on an outing with another woman but chooses to keep this information to himself as he doesn't want to hurt Ismay or Heather. Andrew cannot stand Heather and Edmund being in "our flat". Andrew has a row with Edmund during which Edmund confronts Andrew with his knowledge of Andrew's infidelity and Andrew behaves very aggressively in response. Edmund leaves the flat, never to return and soon Heather joins him, living at his mother's house. Unhappy that Ismay didn't ask them to leave first, Andrew splits up with Ismay. Edmund proposes to Heather and they become engaged and begin seeking a flat of their own. Marion takes advantage of Irene's dislike of Heather and spends a lot of time with her, hoping to be included in her will. Marion has morphine sulphate in her bathroom cabinet, that she obtained from a previous elderly friend who died, and left her sufficient money to buy a flat and hopes to use it on one of her other elderly "friends". Irene invites Marion for Christmas, and Marion meets Avice, an elderly lady who frets about leaving her rabbits at home alone. Marion is soon rabbit-sitting, cleaning and cooking for Avice regularly. Fowler, Marion's homeless brother, sometimes visits her flat for a meal, drink or a bed for the night. On one visit he finds the morphine in her bathroom cupboard and substitutes it for cough mixture so she won't notice. Edmund and Heather are married, and after a scene with Irene at the wedding, move out to a rented flat whilst they wait to complete the sale on a flat of their own. Ismay decides to destroy the recording she made for Edmund regarding Guy's death and puts it into her handbag to throw it away somewhere in London. Ismay is distraught at losing the love of her life, wandering around the places she and Andrew went at all hours of the night and drinking heavily. She even confronts Andrew and his new flame, socialite Eva Simber and then has her bag stolen on the tube; the bag containing the tape she made for Edmund. Heather, hoping that Andrew would return to Ismay without the presence of Eva, begins to contact the young woman regularly, asking her to leave Andrew. Eva refuses to do so, although she speaks to Heather on the phone quite often all the same. After Avice leaves Marion some money in her will, Marion tries to poison her with her morphine, but discovers Fowler's robbery when Avice says her food tastes like cough mixture. She instead turns her attentions to Irene's neighbour, Barry Fenix, a flirtatious retired 'civil servant' who loves all things relating to India. Eva Simber goes for her daily run and is murdered. Ismay discovers Heather had been in contact with her and thinks that Heather has killed Eva in order that Andrew would return to her. Ismay sits with Beatrix quite a lot whilst Pamela goes out with Ivan, a man she has met on 'romance walks'. Although he will not spend any money to take her out and she does not much like his character, Pamela fancies him enough to become his lover. Marion tells Fowler that she is to become engaged and he leaves her an engagement present of a Marc Jacobs handbag he found in a West End bin and its contents, which include a tape, 'Rainy Season Ragas'. Pamela decides to end things with her lover, but when she does he becomes violent and beats her up, rapes her and kicks her down the stairs of his flat. She is taken to hospital and Edmund and Heather move in with Beatrix to care for her. Ismay comes home from work to discover Andrew inside her flat, he has returned to her. She hides the fact that Edmund and Heather are currently living upstairs with her mother and the two are reconciled. Marion listens to the tape to see if it is suitable to play to Barry on a romantic evening and discovers what Ismay has said on it. She decides to blackmail Ismay, who is desperate to keep the tape's contents a secret from Andrew, who has decided to move in with her. Marion extorts several hundred pounds from Ismay and becomes engaged to Barry. When Marion boasts that she shall shortly be 'Mrs Barry Fenix', Ismay remembers the name in connection to Guy's death – Barry was the officer who led the investigation all those years ago. She tells Marion to stop the blackmail or she will tell Barry what she has been up to. Marion gives up her blackmail and she and Barry are married shortly after. Fowler blackmails Marion into giving him her flat. Following a teenager's arrest for the murder of Eva Simber, Ismay confronts Heather and asks her whether she killed Eva and Guy. Heather is shocked that Ismay could think she killed Eva but admits to killing Guy, not to protect Ismay but because he was sexually abusing her, Heather. Heather tells Ismay that Guy was no longer interested in pursuing her because she was 'obviously interested' in him and that Guy wanted someone who didn't want him, so he turned his attentions to Heather. Guy got into the bath that day and asked Heather to join him in the bubbles, saying "the water's lovely". Heather also tells Edmund of the murder she committed as a thirteen-year-old and he is deeply saddened by the information. The two head off for a belated honeymoon. Pamela is reconciled with a Michael, a former fiancé who left her after Guy's death, and the two plan to move in together and have Beatrix living with them. Ismay and Andrew get engaged and start looking for a shared home, too. On Boxing Day an earthquake in the Indian Ocean triggers a tsunami in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, and Thailand. Fearing for Heather and Edmund, who are honeymooning in Sumatra in Indonesia, Ismay asks Andrew to ring a friend who is a diplomat. There is a news report that four British citizens have been killed in a tsunami, but no names can be released until the next of kin have been informed. The next of kin are Heather's mother and Edmund's mother. 

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The film takes place over a summer by the seaside and follows three girls through a summer that will change their lives. The story is told by Keira St. George (Caroline Dhavernas), a girl who is trying to decide what to do with her life. She constantly throws away her college letter without reading it, but her father always retrieves it, annoying her more. Her two best friends are Glory Lorraine (Amanda Walsh) a beautiful but somewhat bitchy girl obsessed with marriage, and Lisa MacDougall (Holly Lewis), an awkward, born-again, religious girl who is obsessed with sex. Glory babysits for Keith Clark (David Boreanaz) and his wife, who works the night shift four times a week. Keith is a 32-year- old husband and father, who loves to ride his motorcycle, gamble with friends and smoke pot. One afternoon, Keira talks to Gordon Gruber (Donnell MacKenzie), who is a bit slow, trying to get information from him about Keith, who has taken Gruber under his wing. Gruber tells Keira about the pot growing in Keith's backyard. That night, Keira and Lisa decide to take some of Keith's pot. While leaving, they hear what sounds like Keith and his wife having sex. Sex crazed Lisa decides to take a closer look. When Kiera joins her, the two discover that Keith isn't with his wife but with Glory! Later that night, Glory arrives at the bonfire. Keira and Lisa tell Glory about seeing her with Keith. Glory defends her actions, saying she loves Keith and he loves her. The next day, while Keira works at the food stand, Glory tells her more about Keith and her relationship with him. Wheels begin to turn in Keira's head, and after debating with herself, she decides to go to Keith's. He thinks she wants to buy pot, but she tells him she will "babysit" too. She convinces him to let her in. He tells her he's married and she's half his age, but it is obvious both are attracted to each other. She leads Keith into the bedroom. The next day, Lisa arrives at the stand to tell Keira that she's going to sleep with Keith Clark. Keira tells Lisa that she's supposed to be religious and wait until she's married and that she will hurt Glory, but according to Lisa, since she hasn't been baptized yet, it's okay. She is concerned that when she marries, her virgin husband will not be satisfying. Not heeding Keira's repeated warnings, Lisa continues with her plan. When she arrives at Keith's house, he is in the garden. During their awkward conversation, in which Lisa makes it clear that she wants to "babysit" too, Glory arrives and is angry at Lisa and hostile to the others. While Keith tends to his crying daughter, Glory yells at Lisa for what she is doing. Eventually, Keith agrees to allow Lisa to babysit that night. While babysitting, Lisa calls Keira to tell her she's at Keith's house. Keira begs her not to follow through with her plan, angering Lisa, who only wants Keira to come over and support. Keith arrives home and Lisa jumps him in an attempt to have sex, saying it's okay with Glory. Keith, obviously weirded out, eventually agrees to help Lisa lose her virginity. Keira and Glory arrive outside to watch through the bedroom window. While Keith and Lisa have awkward sex, outside, Keira admits to Glory that she also slept with Keith and Glory punches her, making her nose bleed. Glory is furious and storms into the house and into the bedroom. An argument ensues between the girls and eventually all three leave. Glory later refuses to talk to her best friends. She goes to Keith's house to discuss matters, but Keith rebukes her. Heartbroken and professing again that she loves him, Glory joins her friends in Keira's bedroom where Keira tells them about her plan. Keira and Lisa decide that since all three girls want Keith, then they should share him. Keira explains that with Sue, Keith's wife, working four night shifts, each girl could have him for a night and they could all "hang out" on the fourth night. Keith initially balks at the proposal but Keira threatens him with the fact that if people somehow find out: he will be considered a "pervert pothead who molests young girls". Keith reluctantly agrees. The nightly sessions take a toll on Keith, who cannot stay awake anymore. He has performance problems and is upset that he has not been intimate with his wife and has a responsibility to his family. Keith becomes upset when the girls nearly tip off his wife and is hostile to the girls, but Keira restates her threat. Later, the girls are frightened when Lenny (Paul Spence), a biker friend of Keith's, arrives and begins to beat up Keith. As later revealed, Keith and Lenny plotted the attack to scare the girls, but it backfires when the girls take the baby and run. Keith is startled when he finds Gruber in the basement. Gruber tells Keith he has seen what Keith has been doing and that he knows about Keith and Lenny's plan. Keith is not intimidated. When he realizes his daughter is missing, Keith freaks out and takes off to find her. At the dock, he grabs Lisa hard, screaming at her to tell him where his daughter is. Gruber attacks him from behind, knocking him out with a tire iron. Donny (Colin C. Berry) arrives at the scene and all five teens take Jasmine and the unconscious and bleeding Keith back home and debate whether to call 911. Keira hangs up the phone when Keith awakes but a colleague at the hospital tells Sue that there was a hang up call to 911 from her house. Sue leaves to investigate. Meanwhile, at the house, Glory again professes her love to Keith but he rejects her, saying she is crazy to think he would leave with her. She tells him that she's pregnant, which shocks everyone. The teens disperse. Donny drives Glory, Gruber and Lisa home. As Glory sits crying, Donny holds her and comforts her. Keith's wife returns home, shocked at the mess and her husband's injury. Keith lies to her, telling her it was Lenny how injured him. She calls the police, which leads Lenny to punch him out. Lisa leaves for her religious boarding school where she still seems to be freaky. Donny and a pregnant Glory begin to date. Keira ends up going to college and knows she's going to enjoy it... 

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Jesse W. Haywood (Don Knotts) graduates from dental school in Philadelphia in 1870 and goes west to become a frontier dentist. As a "city slicker", he finds himself bungling in a new environment. On his way west, the stagecoach is held up and robbed by two masked bandits. A posse catches one of them, Penelope "Bad Penny" Cushing (Barbara Rhoades). Facing prison, Penelope is offered a pardon if she will track down a ring of gun smugglers that also involves a local Indian tribe. Because the wagon train she plans to accompany will not permit single women to join, she tricks Haywood into a sham marriage as a disguise. Jesse, excited for his wedding night and not realizing that his marriage is a sham, looks for Penelope, who is investigating the crates of "Bibles" that the Preacher and his minion have in their tent. Jesse startles Penelope who alerts the camp. Her investigation foiled, she goes to bed dragging along her bungling husband. As the wagon train draws near the town, Indians attack. As Jesse fumbles with his six-shooter, Penelope expertly shoots the attackers. Jesse, believing that he was responsible, is proud of his accomplishment and is treated as a hero by the wagon train and the entire town that hears of his deeds. The Preacher and his minion, believing Jesse to be the undercover federal agent, hires the local outlaw Arnold the Kid to challenge Jesse to a gunfight. In the yard as Jesse practices for his gunfight, Penelope meets with her contact in town. Around the corner, Arnold listens for Jesse to use up his rounds and after the sixth shot challenges Jesse, even offering him the first shot. Penelope, feeling pity for Jesse, kills Arnold from the window. Haywood inadvertently becomes the legendary "Doc the Heywood" after he guns down "Arnold the Kid" and performs other exploits (all with covert assistance from Penny). Later that night, as Penelope leaves to search the church where the Preacher resides, Jesse confronts her, demanding where she is going. Penelope explains her situation and Jesse offers his help, believing himself to be a crack shot. Penelope, not wanting Jesse to hurt himself, tells him the truth about her assistance on the wagon train and with Arnold. Penelope leaves, apologizing to Jesse, who is now heartbroken. Penelope investigates the church and is kidnapped by the Preacher and his minion, who take her to the Indian village outside of town. Meanwhile, Jesse walks into the saloon and admits the truth of his deeds to the town...who now find him a joke. As a drunken Jesse stumbles out of the saloon, he sees Penelope being taken out of town by the Preacher. Jesse follows them to the Indian village to save Penelope. In disguise as a squaw, Jesse maneuvers around the village and frees Penelope, suggesting they wait for the entire village to get even more drunk. Eventually Jesse is discovered and the Preacher and his minion challenge Jesse to a gunfight. Jesse is confident, as he knows Penelope is armed and ready in the shadows. As Penelope sets her sights, she is grabbed by two Marshals who sneaked into the village to save her. Two gun shots rang out and Penelope, crestfallen, leaves the village. Jesse however stands victorious with the Preacher and his minion shot dead. Jesse is surrounded by the rest of the village and appears doomed. Back at the town, the gates are barred and the townspeople prepare for a battle. To everyone's surprise, Jesse rides with the Chief at his side and the remainder of the tribe behind them. Jesse has made peace with the Chief, using his dentistry skills to replace his missing teeth and orders him a rare steak. Jesse and Penelope reunite and hug. There are a couple of scenes which parody similar scenes in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance with John Wayne and James Stewart. The stagecoach holdup scene is the first encounter that both city dudes have with the "Wild West". In the gunfight scene, both "dudes" are about to be shot down in duels with experienced gunfighters, when they are saved by one of the good guys, who shoots the villain from a hidden position, which makes the shooting look like the underdog won a legitimate gunfight. 

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The book follows Muo, a French psychoanalyst, who returns to China to rescue his university sweetheart. She is referred to as "Volcano of the Old Moon" (the characters of her family name represent "old" and "moon," and her given name is composed of the characters for "fire" and "mountain"); while her given name is never revealed, her initials are H.C. Volcano of the Old Moon never makes an appearance in the book, but is thought of often by Muo. (A reviewer noted the similarity to the device of J. D. Salinger in The Catcher in the Rye, where he refers to a Jane Gallagher who never appears.) The story is not always told chronologically. It sometimes tells where Muo is, then later accounts for how he reached a particular place. The book switches into the point of view of Muo by use of his journal entries or letters, but is otherwise written in the third person. 

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In the 1950s, Win Berry and his wife have five children, John, Franny, Frank, Lilly and Egg. The Berrys decide to open a hotel near the prep school that John, Franny, and Frank attend; they call it the Hotel New Hampshire. John loses his virginity to the hotel waitress. Frank comes out to Franny and John; Franny is raped by big man on campus Chip Dove and his buddies, and is rescued by Junior Jones and other black members of the football team; John confesses that he's in love with Franny; the family dog, Sorrow, dies and Frank has him stuffed. Sorrow's reappearance at Christmas causes Berry grandfather Iowa Bob to suffer a fatal heart attack. A letter arrives from their friend Freud, inviting the Berrys to move to Vienna and run Freud's gasthaus. The family flies to Europe; tragically, the plane carrying Mrs. Berry and Egg explodes, killing them. In Vienna, the family moves into the gasthaus and renames it Hotel New Hampshire. An upper floor houses prostitutes and the basement is occupied by various political radicals. Assisting Freud, who has gone blind, is Susie the Bear, a young lesbian who lives her life almost completely in a bear costume. One of the radicals, Ernst, resembles Chip Dove and Franny becomes infatuated with him. Susie and John, who are both in love with Franny, try to keep her away from him. Susie is initially successful in seducing Franny but soon she ends up with Ernst. Lilly, who is a dwarf, begins writing a novel called Trying to Grow. One of the radicals, Miss Miscarriage, grows very fond of the family, and especially of Lilly. She invites John to her flat and sleeps with him, then warns him to get the family out of Vienna. For her trouble, another of the radicals murders her. Back at the hotel, John and the rest of the family are caught up in the radicals' plan to blow up the Vienna State Opera with a car bomb. The blind Freud, to spare the family, volunteers to drive with one of the radicals. As he leaves, the Berrys attack the remaining radicals and Freud detonates the bomb right outside the hotel. Ernst is killed and Win is blinded in the explosion. Hailed as heroes by the Austrians, the Berry family decides to return home. Lilly's novel is published and the interest in the Berrys' story leads to a biopic, written by Lilly and starring Franny as herself. The Berrys are in New York City when John and Susie run into Chipper Dove on the streets. They lure him to their hotel suite and take their revenge upon him, until Franny calls it off. Meanwhile, John's love for Franny has not abated. She finally calls him over to her room and, in hopes of getting him over it once and for all, has sex with him for almost a day. Franny's Hollywood career is beginning to take off, with Frank acting as her agent and with Junior Jones back in the picture. Lilly's writing career has stalled and, depressed and suffering from writer's block, she commits suicide. Later, John is staying with his father at the latest Hotel New Hampshire, which stands empty. Susie comes to stay with them and she and John become involved. Win heartily approves because, as he puts it, every hotel needs a bear. 

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The film (often categorized as a tragicomedy, but the comedic elements are limited) concerns two Israeli car salesmen who initially think the world is their oyster after a rare 1985 Lincoln Continental limousine – curiously with Quebec license plates (perhaps a nod to the largely Québécois production crew, although real plates in Quebec are actually only available in the rear of a car, not the front like in the film) – falls into their laps at their used-car dealership in Tel Aviv. After reviewing a publication by the corporate German dealership Auto Decker in Düsseldorf, they are led to believe that the car could net them as much as €50,000 and sail with the vehicle to Germany in order to sell it. While learning that the task may not be as easy as hoped, they are also confronted with a number of emotional episodes. Shmuel (portrayed by Avi Kushnir) is an Ashkenazi Jew, whose parents were Holocaust survivors, and is surprised to find how affected he is by the voyage. His companion Siso (played by Moshe Ivgy) is a Mizrahi Jew of modest means who, unlike his companion, has no working knowledge of English (spoken routinely by Shmuel to the various German characters they encounter), and is therefore often overwhelmed and confused during their experience. To Siso, Shmuel's history is largely unknown, and a tragic curiosity. The dialogue between Siso and Shmuel is in Hebrew, but due to the circumstances, much of the film is also in English and German. 

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Nomad (Patrick Swayze), a swordsman, wanders through the desert in a post-World War III world. He searches for his mentor's killer, the assassin Sho (Christopher Neame). In the past, Nomad had a position of privilege as a soldier of the elite guard. Nomad's family were killed and this continues to torture him. Nomad encounters a group of settlers in the town of Meridian. Damnil (Anthony Zerbe), a local landowner, and his gang are attacking the town to gain a monopoly on the local water supply. Nomad stays at a local farm owned by the widow Kasha (Lisa Niemi). She has a son, Jux, who quickly endears himself to Nomad. Kasha reveals to Nomad that she has a source of pure water under her land and plans to eventually irrigate the whole valley. Nomad teams up with Kasha's foreman, Tark (Brion James), to oppose Damnil and his bullying tactics. Meanwhile, Nomad and Kasha's relationship becomes romantic. Sho and some of Damnil's men show up in town, leading to Sho and Nomad having a brutal staff fight. Tark gets in the way and is stabbed in the abdomen by Sho and dies. Jux is kidnapped by Damnil's men. Nomad plans to rescue Jux, but is locked in a safe with his sword by Kasha. She goes to Damnil's farm alone, offering to reveal her source of water if they free Jux. A stand-off ensues, allowing Jux to escape. As Damnil's men chase him down, Nomad comes just in time to save Jux's life. Nomad and Jux return to Damnil's farm to rescue Kasha. Nomad has a final battle with Sho. Nomad is victorious and kills Damnil as well. The valley begins Kasha's irrigation project. Nomad bids farewell to Kasha and Jux. They watch as he walks into the desert. 

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Katharine Hepburn and Cheryl Walker in Stage Door Canteen The film, made in wartime, celebrates the work of the Stage Door Canteen, created in New York City as a recreational center for both American and Allied servicemen on leave to socialize with, be entertained or served by Broadway celebrities. The storyline follows several women who volunteer for the Canteen and must adhere to strict rules of conduct, the most important of which is that their job is to provide friendly companionship to and be dance partners for the (often nervous) men who are soon to be sent into combat. No romantic fraternization is allowed. Eileen (Cheryl Walker) is a volunteer who confesses to only becoming involved in the Canteen in order to be discovered by one of the Hollywood stars in attendance. She ultimately finds herself falling in love with one of the soldiers (William Terry). 

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Cosmo Reif, an affectless mob bookie who lives in the basement of a retirement home, is promoted to hitman against his will. He learns his new trade from Steve, a seasoned killer, and proves to be a natural marksman despite having no experience with firearms. He falls in love with a yoga teacher, Jasmine, and must figure out a way to leave the mob so they can be together. 

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Dosti is the story of Ramnath "Ramu" Gupta (Sushil Kumar) and Mohan (Sudhir Kumar). Ramu’s father Mr. Gupta, a factory worker, dies in an accident. When the factory refuses to pay compensation, his mother passes out in shock, falling down the stairs. Ramu is injured in an accident and he becomes crippled. Thrown out of his home, crippled and penniless, he roams around the streets of Mumbai. Here he comes across Mohan, a boy who is blind and has a similar tale of woe. Mohan comes from a village. His sister, Meena, had migrated from the village to Mumbai to find work as a nurse so that she could pay for her brother’s treatment. Mohan left the village after his caretaker died. Ramu is good at playing the harmonica, while Mohan is a good singer. They team up and sing songs on the roadside and start earning money from travelers. Ramu wants to finish his studies, and they both befriend a small girl, Manjula (Baby Farida), who is the sister of a rich man, Ashok (Sanjay Khan). Manjula suffers from rheumatic heart disease and both the boys hope she would help them out. Ramu and Mohan visit Manjula and ask for a loan of sixty rupees, the amount required for Ramu's admission in school. Manjula's brother rebuffs them and gives only five rupees. Feeling insulted, Mohan decides that he will raise the money by singing, which he successfully does. Ramu is admitted to the school after performing brilliantly on the entrance test (he scores 294 out of 300). They move to a new house in a slum after someone tries to steal their hard-earned money while they were sleeping on the footpath. Their new neighbor is Mausi, who lives with her teenage daughter and school-going son, Nandu. Mausi treats them as her own sons. In school, Ramu excels in studies despite being a regular target of ridicule of richer students who do not consider him their equal and often degrade him for being a "street beggar." The headmaster and teacher Sharma Ji take Ramu under their wings. Sharma Ji also declares himself the guardian of Ramu. During a visit to Ramu's house, Sharma Ji notices that the neighborhood is not fit for study and suggests that Ramu move in with him, but Ramu does not want to leave Mohan. Meanwhile, one day, while singing, Mohan hears someone (Ashok) calling out to Meena and rushes to embrace his long lost sister. But Meena is ashamed that Mohan has become a beggar and refuses to recognize him. Meena is looking after Manjula and there is a budding romance between her and Ashok. However, soon Meena confesses to Ashok. Ashok is sorry for her and consoles her that soon she will be together with her brother. Mohan senses Manjula while sleeping and tells Ramu about it. Both decide to go and meet her, but she dies. Ashok brings Mohan home one day and gives him Manjula's chime as her remembrance. When he tries to tell Mohan about Meena, Mohan lashes out in rage and says that he considers himself alone in this world, save for his friend Ramu. Soon after, Ramu gets in trouble with some ruffians and as a result, is mistakenly arrested by police during a burglary. Sharma Ji goes to the police station and bails out Ramu, on the condition that he will live with Sharma Ji and keep no contact with Mohan. Mohan is heartbroken and decides to visit him. But Sharma Ji doesn't allow him to talk to Mohan. Sad, Mohan roams the streets singing sad songs. Sharma Ji suddenly dies, leaving Ramu shattered. Ramu decides not to appear for the final exam, as he is unable to pay the fees. Hearing this, Mohan decides to raise the money once again by singing in the streets in spite of his ill health. He successfully earns the money and pays the fees without Ramu knowing, but himself falls prey to illness and is admitted to the hospital. In the hospital, without telling him, Meena cares for Mohan as he recuperates. Ramu comes first in the exams and comes to know of Mohan's sacrifice. He rushes to Mohan in the hospital to ask for forgiveness where Mohan says that he was never angry with him. The doctor tells Mohan about Meena and he forgives her. The movie ends with all of them in a loving embrace. 

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Widowed Govindi (Leela Chitnis) lives a poor lifestyle in Haripur along with two sons, Gungaram and Jumna. Ganga spends his days working with his mother as a servant in the home of the zamindar's obnoxious family while Jumna, a promising student, focuses on his schoolwork. While Jumna is studious, Gungaram is the opposite, but has a good heart and decides to use his earnings to ensure his brother gets a decent education. After her employer, Hariram, accuses Govindi of theft, their house is searched, evidence is found and she is arrested. The entire village bails her out but the shock kills her. After their mother passes away, Ganga pledges himself to supporting his younger brother as they grow to adulthood. The adult Ganga (Dilip Kumar) is a spirited and hardworking fellow, unafraid to take on the zamindar when necessary, while his brother Jumna (Nasir Khan) is more measured and cautious. Ganga sends Jumna to the city to study, and supports him with funds that he earns driving an oxcart and making deliveries for the zamindar. But things get complicated when Ganga saves a local girl, Dhanno (Vyjayanthimala), from the zamindar's lecherous assault. The zamindar (Anwar Hussain) gets his revenge by trumping up a robbery charge against Ganga, landing him in prison. Upon his release, Ganga learns that his brother has become destitute and attacks and robs the zamindar in a rage. Soon Ganga finds himself an outlaw, and, with Dhanno at his side, he joins a gang of bandits camping out in the wilderness. In the meantime, Jumna meets a fatherly police officer (Nazir Hussain) and becomes a police officer himself. It isn't long before Jumna's professional wanderings take him back to the village of his birth, where he must square off against his outlaw brother in a showdown between duty and family. 

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The last day of school contains many problems for both teachers and students of Riverside High School, and there are multiple storylines about this. The principal, Harold Lewis, must discipline English teacher William Pratt, who has let his professional frustrations get the better of him, while guidance counselor Vanessa Jones attempts to get through to student drug dealer Wex Presley, who is ruining her students. Meanwhile, Principal Lewis' daughter, Karen, is having trouble with her boyfriend, Tommy Bruno, outcast Dara McDermott craves drugs, a pregnant girl named Robin Walters argues with her boyfriend, Kevin Rhodes about her future options; and bully Ricky Herman begins to recognize the consequences of his actions. Unbeknownst to these people, two bullied students and best friends Daniel Lynne and Barry Shultz are about to shoot up the school as an act of revenge against their tormentors. Barry, however, is having second thoughts, while the seething Daniel prepares to unleash his rage. Daniel decides to attack his high school on the last day, insisting that he does not care if he lives or dies, tired of constant harshness and abuse from his uncaring father, Artie and from bullies at school; Ricky among them. On the last day, Daniel carries out his plan, aided by Dara who spontaneously joins him. Daniel confronts three of his past tormentors: Paul, Ricky, and Jeff and kills them. Kevin is shot and killed when he and Robin come into the line of fire, much to Daniel's regret while Robin is spared. Meanwhile, Dara walks into her English class and kills Mr. Pratt, and Karen, who had been a rival for the attentions of Tommy. Dara is then subdued by bully Donny Pritzee and is turned over to the police. Barry walks away from the school, having bailed out on the plan, believing there are other responses to the abuse he and Daniel suffered in the past. A lone gunshot then rings out as Daniel commits suicide. As the film ends, a reporter informs the public of the school shooting, revealing that Daniel committed suicide, and the camera turns away from the TV to show Barry's and Daniel's shocked parents watching. At Daniel's home, the phone begins to ring, but Artie cannot bring himself to pick it up. The film then ends as a voice lists off major incidents of violence perpetrated by minors. 

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Kammo (Nargis) lives a wealthy lifestyle with her widowed multi-millionaire dad, Girhdari Lal (Gope). He would like her to marry someone who is not after their wealth. To his dismay, she chooses to marry a pilot named Sumankumar (Pran), who is known for womanizing and greed. When he disapproves, she runs away from ship. The news of her running is announced on radio and newspaper offering a reward of 1.25 lakhs for her safe return. On the run, she decides to go by bus to meet Suman. A free-lance reporter Sagar (Raj Kapoor) in search of a story is also going to Bangalore to get advance from his editor. An auto owner cum driver Bhagwan sees the news of reward and goes with his wife to find Kammo. The first encounter of Kammo and Sagar in the bus starts with a tiff. After night's journey full of tiffs the bus stops for passengers to eat snacks. Kammo wanders off and Sagar sees the news of her running and thinks that it will be good story. She misses the bus and Sagar also let it go for his scoop. They catch the next bus, in the bus a poet (Johnny Walker) bores her by reciting his poems at that point Sagar comes to her rescue claiming to be her husband. Midway through the journey the bus breaks down and they take a room in Banwari's (David) inn where only married couples are allowed. They share room and make a partition of bed sheet. The comic situation brings them closer. Kammo spends all the money to buy toiletries, etc. They start walking the next 7 km to Bangalore. Kammo falls in love with the simple life of villages. They spent night in the open where Bhagwan spots them. In the confusion of the melee they escape with auto and take a room in Madarilal's (Mukri) inn with promise to clear rent on check out. The adventure of journey and facing situations together bonds them and they fall in love with each other. Deciding to marry Kammo, Sagar goes to Bangalore to get advance from his editor, leaving a note, while Kammo is still sleeping. The editor gives him cheque which takes time to cash. Meanwhile in the morning the Madarilal's wife humiliates Kammo and throws her out as she does not have money to pay. Kammo thinks that Sagar has abandoned her for story. She phones her father from a house and asks him to come and take her home. Coming back Sagar sees her motorcade going. He thinks she has left her. Both feel let down and dejected. He buys the auto from Bhagwan from advance money. Kammo has come of age and misses Sagar. Seeing her sad Girdhari Lal fixes her marriage with Suman. The news of marriage is flashed in papers. On the day of marriage a press conference is held to click the picture of bride and for QA. At the end of the conference when all are gone Sagar demands money, assuming he wants reward money the father gives him cheque of 1.25 lakhs. Sagar tears off the cheque and submits a bill for 15 rupees 12 annas for the expenses incurred during their journey. Misunderstanding over she again runs away with Sagar on the same auto but this time with the consent of her father to live happily ever after...... 

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Johnny, My Friend is narrated by 12-year-old Krille. Krille is a naive youth, having grown up in a safe, supporting family in 1950s Stockholm. A new boy, Johnny, appears in Krille's life, and quickly impresses the neighborhood boys with his bicycling prowess. His popularity aside, Johnny is a bit of a mystery, rarely saying anything about his life. The boys of the neighborhood do not know where he lives, and sometimes he disappears for long periods, only to turn up again without explanation. Krille determines to solve the mystery of Johnny. 

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The story is told through the eyes of Stanley Mitchell, a thirteen- year-old boy, the younger of two children. The Mitchells are the owners and proprietors of the only drive-in theater in Dumont. Stanley discovers a tin box containing a collection of troubled love letters that ultimately lead him to a burned-out house, the mysterious deaths of two young women and various secrets that the Dumont leaders would prefer remain buried. Stanley's ally is Buster Smith, the projectionist at the drive-in theater, an elderly black man whose attempts to drown his demons in alcohol are doomed to failure, but who has a depth that only Stanley is aware of. In attempting to solve the mysteries of the deaths of the two women, Stanley exposes himself, his family and his friends, to danger. 

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Dr Raymond Akande is Wexford's new GP and one of the few Black British people in Kingsmarkham. When Akande's daughter goes missing, and a body of a young black woman is found, Wexford is confronted by his own prejudices. 

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Raghu is one of two children born to Raghava Chakyar (Premji) and his wife. Born quite late in his parents' marriage, Raghu is brought up with immense devotion and love until adulthood. Now studying in an engineering college far from home, Raghu must return home for the engagement ceremony of his sister (Archana), but fails to turn up. His father Raghavan waits endlessly for his son to return. Raghavan takes daily trips to the local bus stop, waiting all day in the hope that Raghu will eventually come home. Soon it emerges, and the family come to know through newspapers, that Raghu has been taken into custody by the police for political reasons. Raghavan sets out to try to find his son, and he eventually reaches police headquarters. However the police pretend not to know about Raghu, or his whereabouts, and furthermore, deny the fact that Raghu was taken into custody. Raghu's sister eventually comes to the realization that her brother has probably died as a result of police torture, but hasn't the heart to tell her father. Raghavan slowly begins to lose grip of reality and starts to dream of his family reuniting once more. 

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Kosi (Arya) and Selva (Bharath), are contract killers working for a middleman with the ironic name of Sami (Cochin Haneefa). Vishnuvardan portrays this morbid telling of two orphaned youths with incredible realism of trust, friendship, and ultimate betrayal masterfully. Kosi is an unblinking man with a stubborn feel for life, thereby refusing to love and be loved. Selva, deaf and dumb, is equally intrepid, although he has a heart ticking beneath the dark, dire exterior. Saroja (Padmapriya Janakiraman), a salesgirl at a garment company, is an outgoing, sprightly girl and a friend of both Kosi and Selva. She is in deeply in love with Kosi, but the latter only finds her presence as a nuisance, whereas Saroja's chief manager stubbornly tries to make Saroja sleep with him. In stark contrast to this romance is the love between Selva and Sandhya (Pooja), who are smitten with each other after some fate-based encounters that bring some lighthearted humor to the film. As the film progresses, Kosi and Saroja end up sleeping together when Kosi begins to drink excessively, promptly making him start to realize his feelings for Saroja. Unfortunately, this newfound happiness does not last as their profession does not allow it to. Kosi and Selva set out to assassinate Avinashi Nachimuthu Gounder (Santhana Bharathi), a business tycoon and uprising politician, as instructed to do so by Sami. Kosi and Selva mutually agree to make this assignment their last, and to begin leading normal lives with their newfound loves Saroja and Sandhya respectively. A new twist occurs in the story where the people who hired Saami told him to finish off Kosi and Selva once the job is completed. Upon preparing for the assassination, Kosi becomes unable to think as he finds himself overwhelmed with feelings of love, at which point Selva decides that he should finish the execution himself and Kosi should go speak with Saroja. Kosi visits Saroja at her home where he finds her shivering and with bruises. Saroja then tells Kosi how her chief manager intruded the house and sexually violated her after she refused to love him. Infuriated at this, an emotionally shaken Kosi finds the manager and beats him to a horrific death. Meanwhile, Selva had cunningly assassinated Gounder and is returning home. The manager's boss, who happens to be a big don himself, finds out Kosi is the one responsible for the manager's death and seeks out revenge. He gets hold of Saami and blackmails him to bring Kosi to him for his life. Unknowingly, Kosi goes with Saami and is killed in the ambush from a gunshot to his head. Selva, who returns later, finds out about this unfortunate event and seeks revenge. He visits Sandhya and questions her about Kosi's murder and the people responsible for his death. He intrudes the don's house and kills everyone in his way, including the don. When Selva returned home, Sandhya was shocked to see him with many injuries. She tells him to wait by the door while she went to call for an auto rickshaw to get them both to the hospital. Meanwhile, the irritating boy who appeared before begging for a job stabs Selva in the same approach as Selva did in the introduction scene in the hotel room. The boy who was still recovering for the shock that he actually stabbed Selva stabbed him again multiple times when he saw Sandhya rushing towards him. Selva dies from multiple wounds and falls on Sandhya's lap. In the scene before the credits, a scene is shown where Saami is having a chat with the boy who committed the murder. The scene is shown as a deja-vu where Saami convinces Kosi and Selva that they're all part of this scheme together. Saami uses the same dialogue to the boy letting the audience connect that the boy will end being killed too. 

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Sivagiri (Vijay) is a bladesmith in a remote village near Thirupaachi. He has a lovable sister named Karpagam (Mallika). He runs into some hilarious incidents while searching locally for a groom for his sister. Sivagiri confides to his friend Kannapan (Benjamin) that he wants his sister to be in a good city after her marriage. Sivagiri also nods his acceptance when a city guy proposes to Karpagam. He accompanies the newlyweds to Chennai and finds a girl named Subha (Trisha) welcoming them, and they both fall in love after initial mishaps. On a trip to Chennai, Sivagiri rescues a court witness from Pattasu Balu (Pasupathy), a don dominating central Chennai. He also learns of a local don Pan Parag Ravi (Aryan), who controls North Chennai and troubles Karpagam's husband's canteen business. In an altercation in a cinema theater, Kannappan gets murdered by a thug Saniyan Sagadai (Kota Srinivasa Rao), who dominates South Chennai. Karpagam's husband told Sivagiri to leave Chennai if he wants his sister to be happy. After Kannapan's funeral, he leaves his hometown, stating that he got a job in a cloth manufacturing company. In reality, he comes with a mission in Chennai. Sivagiri warns Sagadai, stating that the latter will be killed by him. He also calls ACP Raj Guru (Manoj K. Jayan) and warns him that he will kill all the dons of Chennai, as the police department fails in their duty. Later on, Sivagiri's friend Veluchamy (Yugendran) who is a police inspector, comes to know about this. Sivagiri challenges Veluchamy that he will give up his mission if the latter keeps any one thug of Chennai in jail at least for a single day. Veluchamy fails in his mission and loses his son, as he was killed by Balu. This harsh lesson makes Veluchamy help Sivagiri. Thus, Veluchamy lists Sivagiri the entire mafia network of Chennai by providing the specification of who leads the various areas. Sivagiri writes their names in papers and randomly chooses Balu. He kills Balu, stating that he is not killing instead 'clearing'. One day, Subha meets Sivagiri in a temple and finds that he is not working in any cloth manufacturing company. Sivagiri manages to make Subha believe that he is working in a travels company. Thus, Subha gets a promise from Sivagiri that he should meet her and spend time with her frequently. Later on, Sivagiri provokes Ravi to kill his own brother (Sashikumar) by sticking funeral posters of Ravi and making him think that his brother is the person who is killing people all over Chennai. After the death of Ravi's brother, Ravi realizes his brother is not the one who stuck the funeral posters, so he hides himself in a politician's house to be away and safe from the hands of Sivagiri. The politician damages his car and house and makes the policebelieve that someone has attacked his house. The police decides to provide security for the politician. This makes Ravi feel happy, considering that Sivagiri can't come to his place by fooling all these inspectors and kill him. Veluchamy soon found out that Ravi is hiding in the politician's place. Sivagiri wants Veluchamy to disband the police protection, but Veluchamy refused because that is the police's responsibilities to protect. He can only inform Sivagiri, who has to kill Ravi. Later on, Sivagiri brings a group of people who rally due losing their money to a fraud financier who is hiding in the politician's place. With the rally, Sivagiri enters Ravi's fort and kills him. Raj inquires the people that involve in rally regarding identity of Sivagiri. However, nobody wants to tell anything because they think Sivagiri is doing the police's job while the police do nothing and wait for their salary. Raj's daughter (Meenal) is willing to die than reveal Sivagiri's identity because she was rescued by Sivagiri from Balu. Later on, Sivagiri decides to kill Sagadai, and warns him. This makes Sagadai seek the protection of a mass group of thugs from Chennai. Sivagiri uses this as a chance to destroy the entire mafia gang of Chennai. He ignites a war between the police group and mafia gang in a very diplomatic manner. Sivagiri disguises himself as a police inspector and enters Sagadai's fort. Veluchamy helps Sivagiri in his mission by hurting himself. Raj orders his squad to hit the thugs. Sivagiri enters the house in a police uniform, confronts a thug, and forces him to wear a police uniform. After that, Sivagiri shoots and kills the thug and throws him out of the window. Thinking that one of his fellow officers is dead, Raj orders for open fire. All the thugs were killed, but when they checked the dead 'police officer', they realize Sivagiri's trick and run upstairs to find him. However, Sivagiri already stabbed Sagadai and threw him to the ground right before the birth of a new year. Finally, Sivagiri surrenders to the police but releases after six months. Subha welcomes Sivagiri, Karpagam, and her husband once again after returning home. Sivagiri gives Subha the necklace that he is wearing, and they unite at the end. 

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The game has two story plots to play. One is "Team Kakeru" referring to the main heroes of the series, the other "Team Specter" which refers to enemy Specter and the monkeys. Each "team" has their own plot, which involves the same Gameplay, but the story has changed. In "Team Kakeru" mode, the story starts with the main heroes gathering in Tokyo. The professor's computer program in the form of the character "Chall", alerts them of the disaster happening in the city. It is shown that Specter has joined forces with an alien race, to take over the world once more. However, it's later revealed that the "alien race" are mutant versions of the breed "Pipotron" which take the DNA of the Pipotron Monkeys, and uses it to create other creatures to help dominate the globe. You are left to destroy any of the Specter's Robot's and Monkeys and restore order to the world. Once Specter has been defeated, monkeys run wild throughout the city, and the game takes a turn in a different direction, and you are left to save the globe from being destroyed by mutant creatures around the world. In "Team Specter", Specter is on vacation and is alerted by the Piposaru that the monkeys have started to take over the world, without his permission. He is shown that someone has created a Specter impostor, and Specter goes to save the world, before he is defeated. Once the impostor is defeated, it's revealed it was a Pipotron called "Meta" and it can take form of any living creature. The Pipotrons used Meta to take control of the monkeys, and now that he is gone, the monkeys have gone wild throughout Tokyo, and mutant creatures have taken over the city. It's now up to Specter and his team to save the world.Storyline | Official Website | Flash 

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Wanda Nash (Carole Lombard), an actress from Brooklyn, decides to masquerade as "Princess Olga" from Sweden in order to land a film contract with a big Hollywood studio. On board the liner Mammoth bound for New York, she runs into King Mantell (Fred MacMurray), a concertina- playing band leader with a criminal record in his past. Both are blackmailed by Robert M. Darcy (Porter Hall), and after Darcy is killed, they become two of the prime suspects for the murder, and must find the real killer before the five police detectives traveling on the ship can pin it on them. 

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Hercules is on the road to the court of King Pelias of Iolcus to tutor Pelias' son Prince Iphitus in the use of arms. Pelias' beautiful daughter Princess Iole updates Hercules on the history of her father's rise to power and the theft of the kingdom's greatest treasure, the Golden Fleece. Some suspect—and it eventually proves true—that King Pelias has acquired the throne through fratricide. Hercules and Iole are attracted to each other and a romance eventually develops. King Pelias is warned by a seeress about a stranger wearing one sandal who will challenge his power. When his nephew Jason, the rightful King of Iolcus, arrives in town wearing one sandal, Pelias takes fright and packs him off to retrieve the Golden Fleece from the distant land of Colchis. Jason and Hercules sail aboard the Argo with their friends Ulysses and his father, Laertes, Argos, the twins Castor and Pollux, the lyre-strumming Orpheus, the physician Aesculapius and others. After weathering a tempest at sea, the Argonauts dally in a lush garden-like country with Antea, the Queen of the Amazons and her ladies. Jason falls in love with Antea, but, when the Amazons plot the deaths of the heroes, Hercules forces Jason to board the Argo and secretly set sail in the night. On the shores of Colchis, the heroes battle hairy ape-men while Jason slays a dragon and retrieves the Golden Fleece. The Argonauts embark for home with their prize. In Iolcus, the populace greet the returning heroes but Pelias and his henchman Eurysteus steal the Golden Fleece, deny Jason's claim, and plot his destruction. A tense battle between Pelias' forces and the heroes follows. Hercules halts Pelias' cavalry dead in its tracks by toppling the portico of the palace upon them. The defeated Pelias drinks poison. Jason ascends the throne while Hercules and Iole set sail for new adventures. Subplots involve the death of Pelias' headstrong son Prince Iphitus, and exploits for Hercules resembling the Labors of the Nemean Lion and the Cretan Bull. 

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Desvendapur is an anti-social Thranx poet native to the colony on Willow-Wane who believes he can find new inspiration for his poetry by coming in contact with the physically repulsive humans, an intelligent mammal race that is unlike the insectoid thranx. Desvendapur's aspirations lead him to a secret thranx colony in the Amazon Basin on Earth where he meets a petty human thief turned murderer, Cheelo Montoya. Desvendapur is fascinated by the first native human he comes across so, with great resistance on the part of Montoya, chooses to follow the human, using him as the basis of a series of poems. The mismatched pair flee from the authorities, a pair of poachers who wish sell Desvendapur to a private zoo, and ultimately demonstrate how the two races can get along and work together on common challenges. By the end, the unlikely pair find a mutual understanding. The Thranx colony in the Amazon Basin is revealed to the Earth community and the diplomatic beginnings of the Humanx Commonwealth are greatly accelerated. Montoya becomes a celebrity despite his unwillingness to be in the spotlight and Desvendapur's poems he composed during his time on Earth become wildly popular amongst the Thranx. 

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It has been twenty years since the chance meeting of street thug Cheelo Montoya and thranx poet Desvendapur revealed the insectoid alien colony hidden deep within the Amazon Basin, and not much has changed. Humanity has recently discovered the planet Argus V, better known as Treetrunk, with the intention of colonizing the planet when their survey team is visited by a new alien race, the Pitar. At first the humans worry that the Pitar will want to lay claim to the planet, but instead of wanting to claim territory, the aliens instead simply want to observe the humans. The Pitar are a close human analog to humans, appearing to be perfectly human except for a wider variety of hair and eye colors (including blue and violet among them) along with nearly god-like physiques. Most humans almost immediately view the Pitar as perfect. This complicated matters for the insectoid Thranx who wish to form a closer alliance with the humans. Some xenophobic humans go so far as to invade the small Thranx colony in the Amazon, killing many of the insect colonists. While this causes a political nightmare for both humans and Thranx, it also brings together the human chaplain and Thranx spiritual advisor who form the United Church. While the three races continue their political dance, a massacre occurs on Treetrunk. All 600,000 humans are killed by unknown attackers who then leave the planet. After an extensive search for the murderers turns up no clue, a single survivor is found hiding in a lifeboat on the smaller of Treetrunk’s moons. Allwyn Mallory claims to have witnessed the massacre and has proof of the attacker’s identity, a memory sphere that recorded the Pitar not only killing the humans on Treetrunk, but also eviscerating the females for the reproductive organs. At first the Pitar deny the accusation, claiming that a single man’s accusations are groundless, but presented with the video proof the few Pitar on Terra at first flee, then either commit suicide when confronted or attack the humans attempting to place them under arrest resulting in their deaths. The humans form a space armada with the intention of bringing war and destruction to the Pitar’s twin homeworlds. As humanity has spent its resources on offensive technology in order to support an expansionist policy, the Pitar have focused their energies on defensive technology. Their twin planets and the two asteroid belts nearby are bristling with hidden armaments. The war quickly becomes a stalemate for the humans who, even with their new Thranx allies, cannot break through the heavily concentrated and well-backed Pitarian defenses. After some cooperation between species, Thranx scientists develop a new weapon - the SCCAM missile — and a clever delivery platform called a "stingship." Both vehicles possess small Kurita-Kita drives - the same that enable interstellar travel. These are not large enough for interstellar flight, but certainly powerful enough to evade interception. A starship's defensive screens are powered by its KK drive. If two KK drive fields intersect, the result is that the vehicles containing those drives are ripped apart. The SCCAM is designed to do just this - as soon as the drive is activated, the laws of physics cause it to automatically dive into the closest active KK field, destroying whatever is generating it. In cases where a starship deactivates its KK drive in order to avoid being ripped apart, the SCCAM has a backup plan - it has already locked onto its target, and the nuclear warhead it carries is sufficiently powerful to complete the missile's work. Although individual stingships might be blasted out of the sky, they are deployed in such massive numbers that it would be impossible to stop them all; and so a small, two-person craft - one human and one Thranx - could take out an entire warship by itself. This proves to be the tipping point of the war, though when a ground invasion of the Pitar’s homeworld was begun, the arrogant aliens refuse to surrender, fighting even when the obvious result would be death. None would willingly be taken alive, and those who were trapped either fought to the death or retreated into a voluntary, terminal madness. This results in the eventual extinction of the Pitar. Only after the Pitar are exterminated is it discovered why they had eviscerated the women on Treetrunk: they were an incredibly narcissistic people, and couldn't stand the thought of other life forms. They wished to exterminate humanity and all of the other races, who they viewed as inferior and undeserving of life. However, they were unable to produce enough offspring to mount such an attack. Their birth rate being the lowest of any sentient species in that area of the galaxy, they decided to use genetically modified human embryos to create Pitar fetuses. These would be gestated in the stolen uteri until they could be transplanted to suitable Pitar women. This would give them the strength needed to bring their genocidal plans to fruition. 

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Fred MacMurray and Carole Lombard in Hands Across the Table Brought up in poverty, hotel manicurist Regi Allen wants to marry a rich husband. Her new client, wheelchair-using hotel guest Allen Macklyn is immediately attracted to her and becomes her confidant. Despite his obvious wealth, Regi does not view him as a potential husband, and has no qualms about telling him about her goal in life. Exiting his penthouse suite, she encounters a man playing hop-scotch in the hallway, and declines his invitation to join him. He makes an appointment for a manicure as Theodore Drew III, scion of a socially prominent family. Unaware that the Drews were bankrupted by the Great Depression, she accepts his invitation to dinner. They have a good time, but Ted drinks too much and tells Regi that he is engaged to Vivian Snowden, heiress to a pineapple fortune. When Regi is unable to wake him from his drunken slumber, she lets him sleep on her sofa. He explains to her that he was supposed to sail to Bermuda last night (a trip paid for by his future father-in-law) and that he has nowhere to stay and no money. Regi reluctantly lets him live in her apartment until his boat returns from Bermuda, at which time he can return to sponging off of Vivian. Ted and Regi confess to each other that they intend to marry for money. Ted and Regi play fun pranks on each other. In the first one, Ted frightens away Regi's date by pretending to be her abusive husband. Later, in order to convince Vivian that he is in Bermuda, Ted persuades Regi to telephone Vivian while posing as a Bermuda telephone operator. When Regi repeatedly interrupts in a nasally voice, Ted hangs up to avoid laughing in his fiancee's hearing. However, this backfires, as Vivian discovers that the call came from New York when she tries to reconnect. She hires private investigators to find out what is going on. In the course of their stay together, Ted and Regi fall in love. On their last night before the boat returns, they admit their mutual love, but Regi ends the relationship, insisting that Ted would resent having given up his chance to be wealthy if he were to marry her. Early the next morning, Ted leaves without saying goodbye. Vivian has a nasty confrontation with Regi at the hotel. After Regi leaves and Ted shows up, Vivian makes it clear that she knows what happened, but is still willing to go through with the marriage. Ted, however, asks to be released from their engagement. Meanwhile, Regi goes to her regular appointment in Allen's suite, but breaks down in tears. Allen had intended to propose to her, but he secretly puts away his engagement ring after she confesses she has fallen in love despite herself. When Ted finds her there, she agrees to marry him. On a bus, Regi and Ted discuss what they should do first: eat lunch, get married, or find a job for Ted. They toss a coin to decide; Ted jokingly says he will get a job if it lands on its side. Sure enough, it does when it gets wedged in a manhole cover. 

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The film takes place over the course of a single evening. Tepper, played by Erik Palladino, finds a wallet on his way home from work. He contacts the owner of the wallet by telephone, and then later discovers that the wallet contains the winning ticket in a $6 million lottery. Complications arise when Tepper's friends come over for their regular poker night. One of the conditions of the game is that everyone purchase a ticket for the lottery, to be thrown into the pot. The game is played as a freezeout, with the winner collecting all the tickets and any prizes they may be worth. When the owner of the wallet, played by James Earl Jones, arrives, he realizes that the winning ticket is in the pot, and stays to play in the game. 

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The story begins in Rome during late spring, AD 71. Marcus Didius Falco and a group of the Praetorian Guard under the captaincy of Julius Frontinus are disposing of a decomposing corpse. Secrecy is paramount because he was the victim of a discreet execution, having been guilty of treason against the Emperor. In his position as imperial agent, Falco is involved with the tidying of the conspiracy (The Silver Pigs) and the emptying of the traitor's house. Anacrites and Momus are also involved with this. When Falco and Anacrites arrive at the Palace to report to the Emperor, Falco runs into the Senator Decimus Camillus Verus and his daughter, Helena Justina. He then reports to the Emperor, who wishes to destroy any evidence that his son, Domitian, was involved with the scheme. When a freedman bursts in to inform the Emperor that the Temple of Hercules Gaditanus is on fire, Anacrites is sent to the Transtiberina to find a freedman (Barnabas) who has been following Falco around, whilst Falco is sent to investigate the arson attack. There he discovers that Curtius Longinus, who had been summoned to Rome to account for his role in the plot, has been killed in the fire. He returns to the palace to be informed that Anacrites had been unable to locate Barnabas, the freedman immediately becoming suspect in the arson and death. Falco is then sent to Magna Graecia in southern Italy in search of Aulus Curtius Gordianus, the brother of Curtius Longinus, who may also be in danger from Barnabas. Arriving in Crotone, Falco is almost immediately caught up in a brawl in the marketplace, being rescued by Laesus, a ship's captain, with whom Falco then shares a meal at the mansio. Falco finally tracks down Gordianus at the Temple of Hera at Cape Colonna and informs him of the death of his brother. While Gordianus spends several days in mourning, Falco stays on the beach with a goat previously intended as a sacrifice, before an acolyte at the Temple informs him that Gordianus has returned. Falco suggests that Gordianus accept a better post in Paestum. This would be a generous gift from Vespasian to get the senator back on side with the new regime, but it would also put Gordianus closer to Rome and make it easier for Vespasian to keep him in line in future. Barnabas is once more implicated in an attack on the Deputy Priest, apparently mistaking him for Gordianus who would normally have been conducting the ceremony, but Falco is forced to return to Rome without tracking him down. At the end of June, Falco travels to the Bay of Neapolis. This time he is travelling in the company of his friend, Petronius, and Petronius' family, as well as his own nephew, Larius. This "holiday" is in fact a cover for Falco trying to track down Aufidius Crispus, a senator who had also been implicated in the plot. His plan is to masquerade as a plumber in the company of his nephew. In that guise they travel around various country estates. One estate that they visit is that of Caprenius Marcellus. There they run once more into Helena Justina. She is visiting her father-in-law. Due to the amorous nature of their ox, Nero, Falco and Larius are arrested in Herculaneum. They are taken to see the local magistrate, Aemilius Rufus. There they again meet Helena, as well as her friend, Rufus' sister. Falco becomes a harp tutor to the sister. Falco manages to track down Aufidius Crispus at the Villa Poppaea, where the senator is hosting a sumptuous banquet in order to gain support for his future political moves. On their return they once again find traces of Barnabas, but the freedman has vanished. After several days, Falco catches up with him, only to discover that "Barnabas" is in fact Atius Pertinax, the ex- husband of Helena Justina, believed dead. It is made clear that Marcellus expects to re-marry his ex-wife. Pertinax and Crispus flee Imperial questioning on Crispus' yacht, but Crispus is killed when the yacht is rammed by a trireme under the authority of Rufus. Pertinax escapes, returning to Rome and attempting to force Helena Justina to remarry him in order to regain his money. He is tricked and is finally killed by Falco. 

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In Last Act in Palmyra, Falco takes on a new spying mission for Vespasian to the east of the Empire. He also plans to investigate the disappearance of a young musician, Sophrona. Falco and Helena Justina travel to Petra, where they encounter a theatre group who have just lost their playwright due to drowning. Joining them, Falco attempts to fulfill his various investigations, whilst at the same time write his new play, The Spook Who Spoke. 

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In the third and concluding novel of this trilogy, an uncomfortable archaeological alliance of Thranx, humans, and AAnn, explores the well-kept secrets of the lost civilization of the Sauun on the frontier world Comagrave. After a series of accidents that occur where the AAnn are convenient for helping an injured or stranded human, the chief Thranx scientist starts suspecting an anti-Thranx conspiracy. Meanwhile, on the planet Dawn, such a conspiracy seems to be up and running, for terrorists there plan vicious destruction to crush the infant commonwealth. Unexpected players in this engrossing drama are the padres, human and Thranx, of the anything but dogmatic United Church, which ministers to both species with a decidedly untraditional religious outlook. 

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Turner and Snead are the two (self-declared) best pilots with United Space Mail. They are given the task of piloting a new ship, the Helios, on a mail run from Earth to Venus. The Helios has been fitted with a new force field that allows it to deflect solar radiation around itself, so it can safely pass within twenty million miles of the Sun, cutting the length of the trip from the usual six months to two. The field engages automatically as the ship approaches the Sun, but the two men discover to their dismay that in the absence of solar radiation, the temperature on the ship keeps dropping. The Deflection Field remains on until they leave the Sun's vicinity; by then, the temperature has fallen to minus forty degrees Fahrenheit. When Turner and Snead finally reach Venus, they are furious and threaten to assault their supervisor. The latter explains that if they had read the written instructions he gave them, they would have known that they could adjust the intensity of the Deflection Field, thus allowing some solar radiation through and keeping the ship's internal temperature at near-normal. 

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The film opens at the ruins of an old haveli in Calcutta, where a group of labourers are busy pulling down what remains. When the workers break off for lunch, the overseer (Guru Dutt) wanders through the haveli. As he sits at a place, there begins a flashback to the end of the 19th century. The lower-class and educated Bhoothnath arrives in colonial Calcutta looking for work. He lives in the grand haveli of the Choudhurys, a family of zamindars with his brother-in-law. He works at the Mohini Sindoor ('Aphrodisiac Vermilion') factory run by Subinay Babu (Nazir Hussain), a dedicated member of the Brahmo Samaj. Subinay Babu's daughter Jaba (Waheeda Rehman) is amused by Bhoothnath, whom she considers an unsophisticated rustic. Bhoothnath becomes fascinated with the goings-on in the haveli and every night observes the decadent lifestyle of the Choudhury brothers. One night, the servant, Bansi (Dhumal), takes Bhoothnath to meet the younger zamindar's (Rehman) wife Chhoti Bahu ('Young Daughter-in-law') (Meena Kumari), who implores him to bring her Mohini Sindoor, believing it will keep her unfaithful husband home. Bhoothnath is struck by her beauty and sadness and inadvertently becomes Chhoti Bahu's secret confidante. A bomb explodes in the marketplace and Bhoothnath is injured in the ensuing crossfire between freedom fighters and British soldiers. Jaba looks after him. Chhoti Bahu's repeated attempts to appease her husband fail until she becomes his drinking companion to keep him by her side. Jaba's marriage is finalised with Supavitra (a member of Brahmo Samaj), but after her father's death she declines the marriage. Bhoothnath becomes an architect trainee and goes away to work on a training project. After his return, he finds the haveli in partial ruins. Chhoti Bahu is now a desperate alcoholic and her husband is paralysed. Meanwhile, he learns that he and Jaba were betrothed as children. One night, Chhoti Bahu asks Bhoothnath to accompany her to a nearby shrine to pray for her ailing husband. Their conversation is overheard by the elder zamindar, Majhle Babu ('Middle Master')(Sapru), who suspects that Chhoti Bahu is having an affair with Bhoothnath (though actually it was not the case). He orders his henchmen to chase them. As Bhoothnath and Chhoti Bahu travel in the carriage, it is stopped by the henchmen. Bhoothnath is knocked unconscious and Chhoti Bahu is abducted. When he wakes up in hospital, Bhoothnath is told that Chhoti Bahu has disappeared and the younger zamindar is dead. The flashback ends. Bhoothnath's workers inform him a skeleton is found buried in the ruins of the haveli. From the jewellery on the corpse, Bhoothnath realises it is the remains of Chhoti Bahu. The last scene shows a nostalgic Bhoothnath riding away on a carriage with Jaba, who is now his wife. In this, the filmed version departs significantly from the novel, where Jaba and Bhoothnath do not get a happy ending. The film also depicts the decline of the old landed zamindari families of Bengal during the late 19th century. 

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In a Waco, Texas, diner, Cadillac Jack's, crazed killer Millard Findlemeyer opens fire on the Leigh family, killing Jeremy and James, but leaving Sarah and her mother, Betty, alive. Findlemeyer is arrested and sentenced to die in the electric chair. After the execution, Findlemeyer is cremated, and his ashes are sent to his mother, a witch who mixes the ashes with a gingerbread spice mix. The Bakery, a pastry shop run by the Leighs, is in dire straits, and Betty has been reduced to a shotgun-toting alcoholic; Sarah sends her home with Bakery employee Julia. Jimmy Dean attempts to buy Sarah out, so he can knock down The Bakery, which he bemoans as an eyesore. After exchanging hostilities with Dean's daughter Lorna, Sarah defers the decision. Sarah and Brick Fields, another Bakery employee, find a mysterious gingerbread spice mix left at their doorstep by Findlemeyer's mother. They set to using the mix, but Brick cuts himself, unknowingly allowing his blood to pollute the dough. Sarah permits him to leave early so he can pursue his amateur wrestling career as The Butcher-Baker at Wrestlepalooza. She makes a large gingerbread man with the contaminated dough and puts it in an industrial oven to bake. Lorna has returned and planted a rat in The Bakery so the health department will shut them down, but is discovered by Sarah. A fight ensues, during which Lorna hits a switch that causes a surge of electricity into the oven where the gingerbread man is cooking, animating it. Amos Cadbury, Lorna's boyfriend, who has gotten tired of waiting outside for her, arrives on the scene. Sarah removes the gingerbread man from the oven, at which point the newly dubbed "Gingerdead Man" leaps up, taunting them. They attempt to lock the living cookie in the freezer, and Sarah tries to call the police but the line is dead. Lorna calls her dad on Amos’s cell phone before the batteries go dead. Betty comes back to look for her stash of alcohol, and Julia comes back looking for Betty. Betty loses a finger and is put into the oven, while Julia is knocked out by a frying pan, encased in frosting, decorated, and left in the freezer. Amos returns to his car and retrieves a handgun. Jimmy Dean arrives to pick up Lorna. While he investigates Amos’s car, the Gingerdead Man takes Jimmy's car and, using a rolling pin to operate the accelerator and kills him by pinning him between the car and a wall. Amos and Sarah discover and rescue Julia from the freezer. Sarah tells Amos that she thinks the killer cookie is Millard. Lorna waits outside for her father, but discovers only his body sprawled over the hood of his car. She steals his ring and heads back inside, where she triggers a tripwire that lodges a knife into her forehead, killing her. Sarah and Amos admit their feelings for one another before they find Betty and attempt to rescue her from the oven, but the Gingerdead Man locks Sarah in the oven and knocks Amos out with a hammer. Amos recovers, shoots the oven door's lock off, and saves Sarah. Brick returns to help, but the Gingerdead Man grabs Amos's pistol and opens fire. Julia and Brick manage to subdue him, and Brick eats the cookie's head. Shortly afterwards, Brick is possessed by the Gingerdead Man. He attacks Sarah before she is rescued by Amos and Julia, who push Brick into the oven and turn the heat on full, finally killing him. Several months later, Betty, Sarah, and Amos are having a bake sale to raise money for the hospital, with a little help from two nurses. Two kids ask if they have any gingerbread cookies, and one of the nurses tells them that an older lady stopped by and dropped some off. The nurse opens the box, revealing five gingerbread cookies, who open their eyes. One of the gingerbread cookies is bought by a woman, who also buys a box full of pastries and ships them to her sister in Los Angeles. 

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Secret Agent 116 named Gopal has been assigned the case of homicide of a fellow secret agent (303) by the head of CID, who (303) found evidence that can help identify the perpetrators. During this investigation, Gopal meets lovely Sunita, and both end up falling in love with each other. The traitor responsible for the killing of Agent 303 has gone to meet 303's sister Kamla and tells her that he is a CID inspector and investigating his brother's case, warning that her brother's killer may attempt on her pretending as his colleague and friend. He elsewhere unsuccessfully continued on the life of agent 116. 116 goes to meet Kamla and sees 303's portrait and notes down the studio photographer's name, but Kamla is convinced that 116 is the killer of her brother. Kamla is approached by another mafia don, Damodar, for her help in eliminating 116, to which she agrees. Damodar turns out to be Sunita's father when Sunita introduces him, Gopal gets suspicious about him and commences a background check, which reveals that her father is a gangster. As he sets out his case against Damodar, he continues his romance with Sunita. During Sunita's birthday party, Damodar directs his henchman to kill 116, which 116 escapes after some car chase. 116 hesitantly reveals to Sunita that her father is a gangster. Heartbroken Sunita confronts her father, who tells her that he was forced into his life of crime and terrorism, and some other person controls them all, overheard by 116 and his assistant who are hiding outside. 116 goes out for his search for the real culprit to a skyscraper apartment where Kamla was plotted. Kamla seductively dances and mix some intoxicant pill in his drink which overlooked by 116, and acted as drunk and eventually senseless. Goons take him to their secret den in city outskirts, along with Sunita, who mistakes them as Hospital Ward boys. In the den, 116 captures one of the goon leaders and forced him to reveal some information. 116 fights his way with Sunita and escapes in a vehicle. In the meantime, CID agents trace a letter leading to clues regarding the Chinese conspiracy to destabilize the nation and accommodated by traitors inside, led by a person wearing a Mao uniform named Supremo, who only speaks a few broken English sentences. The rest of the movie follows the 116's efforts to thwart a foreign conspiracy against India. 

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Two plotlines run through this crime novel. The main adult protagonist is John Creevey who stumbles upon a series of hidden coded messages which he thinks must be the work of criminals or spies. John is unhappy and depressed. His wife Jennifer has left him for Peter Moran, her old fiancé, and he cannot accept that she will not return to him. He is still affected by the murder of his sister 16 years ago and Mark, her fiancé, is equally unhappy. John becomes obsessed by unravelling the codes, spending hours trying to break them. The coded messages are, however, being left by rival groups of public schoolboys. These boys are emulating the world of the 1980s spy fiction with the home team led by 14-year-old Mungo battling against Moscow Centre, run by boys at a rival school. Mungo is over six feet tall and has inherited the leadership from his older brother. The groups have moles and traitors. One of Mungo's team is Charles Mabledene, another 14-year-old, but Mungo is not sure if he is really on their side and sets out to test him. Jennifer and Peter come round to John's house in one of their attempts to get him to agree to a quick divorce and Colin, a friend of John's, recognises from when he was a juror. He tells John that Peter pleaded guilty to indecent assault on a male child under the age of thirteen. John wonders how he can use this information to turn Jennifer against Peter and is also worried because a 12-year-old boy has been abducted from where Peter and Jennifer live on an afternoon when Peter was on his own. John decides to intercept and alter one of the messages and gives instructions for Peter to be investigated. The message is sent to Charles and he interprets this as being the loyalty test he is expecting. John confronts Jennifer with his information on Peter saying, “You can't love a man who molests little boys”, but Jennifer stays loyal to Peter, to help him and to protect other boys. John then tries to cancel his instructions to Charles, but Charles ignores the new message, knows it cannot be from Mungo who is on holiday, and reads it as a trap. Charles goes to Peter's House and meets him on the pretext of offering to wash his car. He immediately senses that Peter is attracted to him. Charles looks very young for his age and tells Peter he is just twelve years old. He is just over five foot, has blond hair, an unbroken voice and is quite aware he is very attractive. His father is always telling him not to talk to strange men. Peter suggests a meeting in town. After they sit down, he leans forward to brush ice cream off Charles' cheek yet Charles maintains a cool exterior. On a later trip to the cinema, Peter puts his arm around the boy's shoulder. After the cinema, they go to eat supper in a derelict building, one of the boys' ‘safe houses'. Peter makes advances to Charles, talking about a ‘physically loving' friendship he had when he was Charles' age, and puts his hand on his thigh. Charles jumps up and in the subsequent panic, Peter is accidentally killed and Charles escapes, leaving a burning candle which destroys the building. 

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A plumber, Keld (Bjarne Henriksen), is bored with his job and his life. Rie (Charlotte Fich), Keld's wife, tries to interest him in a vacation or dance classes. When this last-ditch attempt fails, Rie, tired of Keld's apathy, divorces him and asks for DKK 50,000 (US $8,817). Keld continues in his downward spiral, ignoring his customers and closing his business indefinitely. Keld sells all of his and Rie's furniture and lives in the empty apartment. When the food in the fridge runs out, Keld starts eating every night at a Chinese restaurant across the street from his apartment. The pipes in the restaurant explode and Keld agrees to fix them in exchange for his meals. After about a month, the owner of the restaurant, Feng (Lin Kun Wu), offers Keld DKK 24,000 (US $4,000) to marry his sister, Ling (Vivian Wu), so that she can get a visa. Keld initially refuses, but when faced with the divorce settlement, Keld goes back to Feng and asks for DKK 50,000. Feng agrees. After a lavish wedding, Ling moves into Keld's apartment which is set up to fool the immigration service. Ling and Keld learn to live with each other despite the language barrier. Keld freely tells his wife and son that the marriage is purely "pro forma". Keld is concerned about Ling's health but Feng assures him she's perfectly fine. Ling's influence gradually lifts Keld up out of his apathy. Rie attempts to reconcile with Keld. When that fails, Rie threatens to call the cops on Keld and Ling's marriage unless she gets her money immediately. Keld goes to Feng to get his money, but Feng says the wedding cost too much and he doesn't have the cash. Angry, Keld storms home and has a fight with Ling, despite neither of them being able to understand the other. Keld goes over to Feng's restaurant looking for Ling. A fellow patron of Feng's restaurant advises Keld that love must be professed. Feng comes through with the money, so Keld pays Rie and crushes any hope of reconciliation between them because he is in love with Ling. When bringing his lunch, Ling overhears Keld practicing saying "I love you" in Chinese. That evening, washing the dishes as Ling waits for Keld to get up the nerve to say it, Ling collapses. Keld takes her to the hospital but it's too late. Feng confesses he knew Ling had a genetic heart defect, the reason why he had wanted her to live in Denmark. Ling is cremated and Keld flies to China to scatter her ashes in the ancestral river. 

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The film centers around three very attractive women who, after having many guy troubles themselves, decide to play a prank on a random man. Their goal is to seduce the man while catching the whole sequence on tape and ultimately humiliating him with the footage. Their plan runs into some snags, as the man they choose to prank knows what they are trying to do to him. A man named Mark Sellers (Bill Bellamy) then has sex with Andrea Collins (Vivica A. Fox) and Lauren (Carmen Electra) while they video tape the intercourse, only for him to change both tapes. He then goes on a date with Emily (Stacey Dash) only to fall in love with her after finding that they both have a lot in common and they "look good together". In the end, they admit everything to each other, and after five minutes of begging, disturbing a couple eating dinner who they think that they are on a hidden camera show, decide to forgive each other and start out clean and honest. 

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Valentino plays José Dalmarez, a Brazilian author who is also popular with readers in the United States. In the opening scene, young Vera Blaine (Marguerite Namara) is walking through a park in Florida when she encounters Dalmarez. He gives her his photo, the back of which has a love poem. Enchanted, Vera later gives José a book that's similarly inscribed. José tells her he has to return to Brazil and invites her to accompany him. Excitedly, Vera reveals that she'll take her mother's wedding ring for the ceremony, but José clarifies that he was only inviting her to be his travel companion, not his wife. Dalmarez proceeds to Brazil without Vera. In Brazil, he woos Inez Salles (Aileen Pringle, billed as Aileen Savage), the young daughter of a government official. Inez's protective brother, Alvarez, spies José and Inez kissing on a park bench; a fight ensues between the two men. Dalmarez returns to the United States. To obtain information on criminal law for a book he's writing, Dalmarez stops Hugh Conway's law office. Dalmarez is surprised when Vera, who is now Hugh's wife, drops by. Hugh invites him to join them for dinner that evening, and Dalmarez offers to drive Vera home. During the drive home Dalmarez asks Vera how her husband would react if he read the notes she'd written during her earlier infatuation. Vera replies that he'd understand she was young and naive at the time, but Dalmarez expresses his doubts. During dinner Hugh asks Dalmarez whether his new book is true to life. Dalmarez, casting the occasional side glance at Vera, replies: "I knew a girl who gave herself to a man in just the way I describe, and I could show you the letters and a book of poems to prove it." When Dalmarez returns home he surprises his butler taking a nip from the liquor cabinet. The two begin to struggle, and the butler grabs a dagger Dalmarez has hanging on the wall. Dalmarez overpowers the older man, sends him away and places the dagger on his desk. Vera arrives at Dalmarez's house to obtain the letters. He refuses to give them to her. She lunges for the place where they're concealed; Dalmarez grabs her and tries to kiss her. Struggling, she reaches down to the desk, picks up the dagger and strikes him in the face. He falls to the floor and she escapes, convinced she's killed him. In the murder investigation, police note that facial scratches on the victim point to a female suspect. Realizing that a thorough investigation would find the notes she'd written, Vera slips into Dalmarez's house that night to retrieve the books and letters. She's followed by another person on a similar mission: Alvarez Salles, who traveled from Brazil to retrieve letters his sister had written to Dalmarez. Alvarez tells police he came in the room and saw Dalmarez getting up off the floor. Alvarez admits to picking up the blade off the desk and delivering the fatal blow to Dalmarez, thereby clearing Vera of the murder. 

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18-year-old Annabel Hope Jayquith is both beautiful and famous in her world of wealth and prestige. Daughter to billionaire Hollings Jayquith and the deceased artist Eleanor Hope Jayquith, as well as niece to the famous television news anchor Theodora Jayquith, Annabel is fighting internal demons of loneliness and self- doubt. While at a charity event in Manhattan, she meets and falls in love with 22-year-old Daniel Madison Ransom. Daniel is the son of Senator Madison Ransom who was assassinated for trying to reveal a corrupt industry. Along with his mother, the insane Catherine Ransom, Daniel wants to reveal to the world the real killer, whom they believe is Hollings Jayquith himself. Meanwhile, Theodora Jayquith’s illegitimate 18-year-old daughter Jade O’Keefe has discovered the identity of her real mother after the death of her foster parents, and is now on her way to Manhattan to confront her mother and gain the fortune she feels she has been denied. In another strand of the plot, a young man who goes by the name Alex arrives in Connecticut seeking to avenge the murder of his brother. Annabel and Daniel meet again at their mutual friends Venice Pierce and Michael Theil’s wedding in Litchfield, Connecticut. He's a groomsman, she's a bridesmaid, and it seems to be a night of romance. Then Daniel reveals what he and his mother want to do, expose Hollings on his sister’s own show. Annabel, too shocked to speak, flees to her home to comfort herself. However, her solace is invaded by the entrance of Jade, who has used her likeness to Theodora to charm Hollings. After a kidnapping and rescue, it develops that Annabel's father is innocent of the murder, and the story ends happily. 

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The film follows the script of the play. George Barber (Tom McCamus) is a mathematician having strange dreams. He continuously meets a woman, Joyce (Tilda Swinton), at a bar. Sometimes, she is a scientist, sometimes she is a stockbroker, and she doesn't seem to remember him from a moment to another. He has also a dream about strange men who move stones here and there on a rocky waterfront. There is a man in this dream, the Guide (Gabriel Gascon), who is also a neuroscientist in real life. The neuroscientist is interviewed by two detectives (Sean McCann and Rick Miller) about a serial killer stealing the brains of its victims. After agreeing to follow him on a beach, Joyce with George, sees a distant red light flickering on the ocean horizon. In the neuroscientist's lab, many brains are connected to red lights, indicating brain activity. The neuroscientist lies near a machine containing a brain and tries to influence the brain by thoughts. George goes to see a doctor, who is the neuroscientist, about his strange dreams. The detectives arrest the neuroscientist, now understanding he is the one stealing brains for his experiments on consciousness. George's corpse was found without his brain, which is now kept artificially alive in the machine. Joyce Barber is told her husband's brain is still alive but experiencing life in a discontinuous dream state. In the final scene, George and Joyce are again reunited on the beach, but this time the red light on the horizon goes out for good. It is suggested the real-life Joyce agreed to end George's consciousness out of compassion. 

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Andy Bowman persuades her sister Laura to go on a trip to Burma after Laura’s husband and son were murdered during a home invasion and Laura had gone into a deep depression. One night, unable to sleep because of nightmares, Laura leaves her hotel in Rangoon and gets caught up in an anti-government protest. She is very impressed by the bravery of Aung San Suu Kyi. When her tour group leaves the country, Laura cannot leave with them as her passport was stolen the previous night. While staying behind waiting for her new passport, she meets U Aung Ko, who acts as an unofficial tour guide and drives an ancient Chevy. He takes Laura out into the countryside to a Buddhist monastery. The car develops problems, but fortunately they are able to coast to the house of some of Ko’s friends and former students. Laura learns that Ko used to be a college professor, who was banned from teaching because of his support for the anti-government activities led by his former student Min Han. She has a breakdown and tells Ko what happened to her family. The next morning they learn that the 8888 uprising began the previous day. Ko takes Laura to a station to get train back to Rangoon. She sneaks on board, but the soldiers start beating Ko and when Min Han intervenes, Han is shot and killed. Laura gets Ko into the car and they leave, pursued by the soldiers, but Ko is shot and wounded. They end up crashing into the Irrawaddy river, but get away from the soldiers. They get on a raft taking bamboo to Rangoon. Laura, who is a doctor operates on Ko to remove the bullet. The next day the raft stops at a village. Laura goes to find drugs to treat Ko. She reluctantly accepts a pistol from one of the crew. At a clinic Laura finds the drugs she needs, but has to shoot a soldier to keep from being raped. When they arrive in Rangoon, the city is in the throes of a full-scale revolt. When Laura attempts to get into the US embassy the military tries to arrest her for helping Ko. The student demonstrators rescue her and Ko. After they witness soldiers killing civilians they get put on a truck heading for the border. Near the border the group has to abandon their truck and make run through the jungle. They meet up with a group of Karen rebels. Laura has a dream where her son Danny tells her she has to let him go. Ko urges Laura to do so, telling her, "All things pass, Laura. They are shadows as we are shadows. Briefly walking the earth, and soon gone." The next day, Laura and her group of refugees make a harrowing river crossing into Thailand under mortar fire and reach a refugee camp. Having found a new purpose in life Laura begins helping at the camp’s hospital. 

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Immediately after their adventure in Lion in the Valley, the Emersons return home to England for the summer of 1896, as is their custom. Upon their arrival, Amelia finds that her despised brother James wants to dump his two children, Percy and Violet, on the Emersons for the summer. Amelia accepts, if only to instill some higher principles in the obviously spoiled children. Kevin O'Connell enters the story as he reports on a supposed curse on a mummy in the British Museum. He's competing against a fellow journalist, M. Minton, who always seems to "scoop" him, and he pesters the Emersons for their knowledge and expertise on Egyptology and detection. Imagine Amelia's surprise when M. Minton turns out to be a young woman! Meanwhile, Ramses and Percy hate each other on sight, Violet turns out to be an empty-headed doll who overeats and throws temper tantrums, and Ramses' belongings keep mysteriously ending up in Percy's possession. The mummy "mystery" begins to take on more sinister portent as a masked figure stalks the Museum, a woman from Emerson's past turns up as the owner of an opium den, and the Emersons (including Ramses) are subjected to the usual attempts at injury and kidnapping. Eventually, Amelia, Emerson, and Inspector Cuff of Scotland Yard find themselves trapped in a cellar which is about to be flooded, with no backup and only Amelia's corset to save them... 

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Rosie (Michelle Pfeiffer) is a 40-year-old divorced mother who works as a scriptwriter and producer for a TV show You Go Girl. Rosie is insecure about her age, and uses cosmetics to maintain her appearance. She has a very close relationship with her thirteen- year-old daughter, Izzie (Saoirse Ronan), which becomes even closer when she learns that Izzie has fallen for a boy in her class named Dylan (Rory Copus). Despite her ex-husband's urging that she start dating again, Rosie has no man in her life. To the dismay of Rosie and David (David Mitchell), her British co-writer, her boss Marty (Fred Willard) decides that the show may no longer cover controversial subjects, so Rosie decides to cast a new character for the show. She is taken by Adam (Paul Rudd), a bright and charming young man from one of her auditions, and decides to cast him as a new, nerdy character to fall for the character played by her arrogant and self-centered lead actress, Brianna (Stacey Dash). Adam's character is well received by test audiences, and Rosie persuades Marty to give him a chance. As she continues to offer Izzie advice on Dylan, Rosie becomes smitten by Adam, who suggests they go out to a club together. When he comes to pick her up, Adam bonds with Izzie immediately, helping her complete a mission on a video game she was playing in order to impress Dylan. While there, Rosie lies about her age and says that she's 36, while Adam says that he is 32. Rosie is nervous about the age difference, but when he goes onto the dance floor at the nightclub, she realizes he is as free spirited as her, and joins him. The two kiss in Adam's car, during which Rosie admits that she's actually 40, only to be startled when Adam reveals that he's actually 29. Adam assures her that he doesn't care about their age difference at all, and the two continue their relationship. Nevertheless, Rosie's insecurity over her age begins to come out, egged on by her internal conversations with Mother Nature (Tracey Ullman), and she confesses to Adam that she is not sure that their relationship is going to work, to his confusion. Meanwhile, their relationship draws the jealousy of Rosie's secretary, Jeannie (Sarah Alexander), who begins to sabotage them by stealing Adam's gifts to Rosie, and then by stealing Adam's phone, taking a photograph of Brianna in a compromising position with it, and then putting it in Rosie's handbag, which does not succeed. Rosie continues to be nervous when she hears a recording of Adam flirting with Brianna (he had been encouraged to in order to keep her calm and the center of attention). Things become worse when Izzie has a failed double date with Dylan, and she starts to become insecure about her own appearance, something that concerns Rosie. When Adam is first shown on television, he is an instant hit, and he starts to become famous from it. This leads to Rosie becoming even more insecure, and worrying that Adam will take advantage of his fame and start looking at younger women. Her situation worsens further when her show is unexpectedly cancelled. Shortly after, Adam is given a role in an upcoming sitcom, and she is shocked to discover a speeding ticket sent to Adam showing him in a car with Brianna. Already in a foul mood, Rosie is forced to berate Izzie when, during a chance encounter with her friend, Henry Winkler, he reveals that Izzie and her friend had prank-called a number of celebrities in her phone book. She confronts Adam with the photograph of him with Brianna, and he is shocked, having never been in a car with her before. Rosie angrily breaks up with him. Despite this, Adam makes numerous attempts to reconcile with her, including refusing to film the new sitcom he has been offered to take part in until she is named a co- producer. Meanwhile, Rosie is looking through a bloopers reel of her old show, when she realizes that it was filmed at the time that the speeding ticket claimed Adam had been driving with Brianna, and deduces that the only person who could have sent it was Jeannie. She proceeds to confront Jeannie when Marty calls her to his office to offer her a job on Adam's sitcom, and hits her in the face, reducing her to tears. She then reconciles with Adam. Later, at a school talent show, she sees Izzie has finally succeeded in winning Dylan over, and watches as the two kiss. Mother Nature reminds her that, in growing older, she is making way for a girl like Izzie to replace her. 

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A high-school student named Freya McAllister (Navi Rawat) begins hearing voices in her head and is misdiagnosed with schizophrenic catalepsy. She spends nine years in an institution before a government doctor (Peter Horton) for the fictional "National Security Administration" realizes Freya might instead be telepathic - and he promptly whisks her away from the institution and commences training her on an isolated farm for the NSA (not the actual National Security Agency). Teamed up with Homeland Security agent Brendan Dean (Joe Flanigan) to track down an elusive assassin known as Gazal, Freya has been ordered not to reveal her powers to her new partner. They manage to uncover Gazal's identity and bring him to justice. 

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The series begins when a five-year-old boy named Matsui Takahiro is playing with his friend Teru and his dog; suddenly, they both notice a blue-haired young man staring at them named Yuuji. Matsui doesn't know him but is surprised to hear Yuuji say, "I want a dog" before leaving the scene. Many years later Matsui is now a teenager and is seen hanging out with his best friend Eiichi Yoshino, then after watching a high school swimming competition, he falls in love with the swim captain and decides, upon entering his freshman year of high school, to take up swimming. The two eventually become involved in a relationship. However, the swim captain's old gang isn't so keen on this new boy who is constantly occupying their friend's time and thoughts. Matsui's own friend is against the relationship, as well. 

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On a midnight train trip on the way to Limmeridge House as a drawing teacher, Walter Hartright sees a strange woman dressed entirely in white, apparently fleeing from someone and desperate to share a terrible secret with him. The signalman is scared because although he saw no-one, it was predicted a year earlier that in a 'year to this day', someone would be found dead on the railway track. Walter meets his new students: Marian Halcombe and her pretty half-sister Laura Fairlie, who is heir to the estate which includes Limmeridge House. He tells them about his encounter, and they resolve to solve the mystery. A love triangle develops as Walter and Laura quickly fall in love but Marian also falls for Walter and those feelings are not reciprocated. The peasants on the Limmeridge Estate sing and dance to celebrate the harvest. A girl is excluded from the festival because her mother believes her to be 'telling tales'. She tells Hartright of a ghost of a woman in all white. Hartright goes to the graveyard where the child saw the 'ghost' and meets Anne Catherick, who tells him her name and the name of the man who she is scared of: "Sir Percival Glyde". Marian tells Walter that Laura is engaged to a man of 'titled property': Sir Percival Glyde. Later Glyde arrives at Limmeridge, pretending to be a long-standing friend to Marian. He suggests that they move the wedding up from spring to Christmas and Laura eventually agrees. Count Fosco, Glyde's friend and best man for the wedding, arrives and becomes attracted to Marian. When questioned by Walter about Anne Catherick, Glyde tells him that she is mad. He mentions that he tried to help her, and she thinks that he is her enemy. Laura is reluctant to marry Glyde, but Marian encourages her to honor her father's dying wish. Walter receives all this news angrily and leaves for London, but not before Laura returns a picture he drew of her. Laura and Glyde are married. Anne Catherick decides to travel to Laura's side to help her, because she insists that Glyde 'knows no mercy'. Marian moves into Blackwater House, Glyde's estate. Laura becomes angry and distrustful of Marian because her advice led her to marry a man whom she discovers to be a physically abusive husband; he only wants her for her money, to pay off his debt. Marian is determined to free Laura from this ill-fated marriage. The next day, Glyde presents Laura with a document to sign, but he will not tell her its contents. Laura is immediately suspicious, and refuses to sign something she knows nothing about. Glyde is furious, but cannot force her to sign the document. The girls go for a walk to calm down, and meet Anne Catherick. They witness Anne being taken back to the Asylum. They are then completely convinced that Glyde and his friend Fosco are villains. Laura and Anne realize how similar they are to each other. Marian eavesdrops on Sir Percival and Count Fosco, and overhears their evil plans to steal the Limmeridge Estate. She also overhears their plans for Anne Catherick, but Count Fosco figures out that he is being watched before he reveals anything important about the madwoman. He leaves the library to put Marian to bed. Marian, having gone to bed, starts to dream a montage of events that have occurred recently, mixed in with some noises. The noises, though not apparent to Marian, are actually Laura arguing and screaming. Marian shortly is woken up by Count Fosco, who tells her that Laura was walking in her sleep and fell out the window. Marian is quite shaken by the tragic news. Fosco, avoiding drama, heads off to his house in London. However, being infatuated with Marian, he gives her his address in case she needs anything. At the village funeral Glyde suggests to Mr Fairlie that they get to the papers that need to be attended to. In a show of grief Glyde tries to shake Marian's hand but she ignores him, but vowing revenge for her sister she heads to find Walter. In London, Walter has run out of money and gives his last coin to a beggar. Having heard the news through the grapevine of Laura's death, Walter expresses his grief at losing the love of his life. Coincidentally, Glyde, who is frustrated with paperwork, also shares Walter's feelings for Laura. Marian goes to London in search of Walter. When Marian finds Walter, he joins her in her quest to learn the secret of Anne Catherick and avenge Laura's death. Marian believes that Anne's location is in a document that she witnessed Count Fosco sign the night she eavesdropped. Meanwhile, Glyde is happily betting the money that he has not yet received, which infuriates Fosco and leads to a split in their friendship. Marian and Walter are ready to leave for their visit to Count Fosco's. Marian is dressed specifically with the intent to use her feminine wiles against Fosco, which makes Walter suddenly realize his true feelings for her. Fosco, pleased with his part in the manipulation of everyone, gloats to himself and his pet mice. Marian and Walter go to Fosco's home to retrieve the document, where he attempts to seduce Marian, not realizing that she is purposefully playing along. She sends him to the bathroom to shave as a diversion, whilst she searches for the document. She finds it, and discovers the location of Anne's asylum. When Fosco returns from the bathroom he discovers that Marian is visiting for another purpose. A rejected Fosco admits if Marian were really interested in him, he would have proposed marriage. Marian and Walter go to the asylum to get the secret from Anne Catherick. However, when they arrive at Anne's cell, they find not Anne but Laura. Laura explains that Glyde put Laura in Anne's place at the asylum, killed Anne, then buried her in Laura's grave. In desperation the threesome head to Limmeridge House to try to learn the secret from Mr. Fairlie, who knows more about Anne Catherick than he says he does. Meanwhile, Sir Percival Glyde has convinced Mr. Fairlie to give the Limmeridge Estate to him because he was married to Laura. Fairlie signs the document and Glyde goes off to catch a train. Marian, Laura and Walter arrive at Limmeridge House after Glyde has left for the train. Mr. Fairlie reveals that Anne Catherick is in fact Laura's half-sister, and they look identical. Marian tells him of the conspiracy, but Fairlie sadly tells her that he already signed the document. The three run to the train to stop Glyde from getting away. While still in Anne's white clothing, Laura pretends to be Anne and attempts to haunt Glyde if he does not tell the truth about the secret. "I had to drown your bastard child!" he exclaims. Laura reads between the lines and figures out the secret: Glyde had raped Anne, and drowned their child at Blackwater Lake. He tries to kill Laura to silence her but is run over by a train. The signalman's prediction comes true, but it is Glyde, not Walter, who lies dead on the tracks. Walter and Laura are happily married, Walter inherits Limmeridge House, and Marian is left heartbroken. 

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Ajay (Sohail Khan) is head of his college group named the Aryans. Ajay is introduced to a girl named Ayesha (Sameera Reddy) and they become friends. Gradually, Ajay and Ayesha fall in love with each other. This enrages Ayesha's father (Kabir Bedi) because of his status. Ajay challenges to get Ayesha back to him in the nick of time. Mr. Varma's friend and business partner Chopra (Dalip Tahil) also becomes enraged and decides to finish off Ajay, but Chopra has an ulterior motive, for Chopra's son (Raja Bherwani) to marry Ayesha to acquire the Verma family's wealth. So Chopra appoints a notorious criminal Bhaijaan (Sanjay Dutt) to finish off Ajay. But Bhaijaan refuses as he does not do any wrong deeds in the month of Ramadan. So Bhaijaan appoints his two head henchmen Munna (Rajpal Yadav) & Chhote (Sarfaraz Khan). Ajay at first empowers them during a fight but no sooner the formers appoint a gang to beat up Ajay brutally and leave him for dead on the street. Soon Ajay recovers from his injuries and enters Varma's mansion. An enraged Ajay challenges Varma to get back Ayesha at any cost. Verma too keeps a condition, if within 24 hours he didn't get back to Ayesha, he will have to get out of her life forever. Ajay accepts this deal. Chopra again plans a conspiracy and arrests Ajay without any crime. The police inspector (Aashif Sheikh) first beats Ajay and the inspector gets equally beaten up brutally and Ajay runs from the jail. Now Chopra calls Chhote to kill Ajay and promises to give him loads of money but Chhote replies that Ramadan is ended and Bhaijaan will finish Ajay. This conversation gets taped by Ayesha's little sister. Ajay gets surrounded by henchmen and knocks each one but interrupted by Bhaijaan. Just before Bhaijaan is about to kill Ajay, the former says he is a lover and will die once. This made Bhaijaan save Ajay. The reason was Bhaijaan had a brother Irfan who committed suicide because Bhaijaan didn't care for his love feelings. During Eid ul Fitr Bhaijaan thanks Allah for giving a boy like Ajay in turn of his deceased brother and decides to help him. The very day, Ajay arrives at the Verma's mansion within 24 hours and decides to stop the wedding of Raman and Ayesha. Bhaijaan, who has a change of heart and helps him but soon interrupted by Chhote. Chhote disobeys Bhaijaan and soon a fight ensues. Bhaijaan requests Ajay to go but he is beaten up badly. Ajay interrupts wedding and points gun on Verma. Soon Ajay and Ayesha get married. Just about Verma is about to kill Ajay, Mini plays the tape of the deal to her father and soon Chopra and Raman are kicked off. Bhaijaan kills all the henchmen and finally slits Munna and Chhote with a sword. The film ends on a happy note with Ayesha and Ajay are united and Bhaijaan reconciles with Ajay. 

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Friends Hermie (an aspiring artist), Oscy (a jock), and Benjie (a nerd) graduate high school in the spring of 1944, under the looming threat of World War II. At a post- graduation party, Hermie and Oscy are startled when Benjie tells them that he's enlisted in the Marines. While Hermie and Oscy spend the summer working at a loading dock, Benjie goes to basic training; at summer's end, they see him off on his way to fight in the Pacific Theater. At their fathers' behest, Oscy and Hermie go to college. Much of the film consists of slice of life vignettes depicting college life during wartime, with the effect of the war on the home front as a constant recurring theme. While Hermie is serious about his studies, Oscy primarily sees college as an opportunity to pick up girls. On the campus newspaper staff, Hermie meets and falls in love with Julie, a well-to-do coed. At her suggestion, Hermie and Oscy join a frat and successfully pass through the requisite hazing rituals. Shortly after moving into the frat house, though, Oscy is expelled for bringing girls to his room, and Hermie finds himself saddled with an annoying roommate. Oscy, seeing no alternative, enlists in the army. Hermie and Julie have a falling out after Julie tells him she intends to go out on a non-romantic date with an old boyfriend coming into town on shore leave. Hermie expresses his distrust of Julie and they break up. Back at the frat house, Hermie receives a phone call from his mother that his father has died unexpectedly. Returning home for the funeral, he's reunited with Oscy, who has passed basic training and is now a typist on Governor's Island. Oscy takes Hermie out for a night of drinking in his father's memory, culminating in a bar room brawl. Back at Hermie's house, a drunk Hermie voices his inability to accept his father's death before passing out. Oscy stays up through the night, watching over Hermie. Hermie returns to college and is about to call for a cab at the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad train station when Julie arrives in her car. She tells him that Hermie's mother told her about his father's death, and that she's come to reconcile with him. Julie further tells Hermie that she's learned he passed his final exams for the semester and has successfully completed his freshman year. Hermie and Julie reconcile and climb into the back seat of Julie's car as the film ends. 

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Walter Hartright, a young art teacher, encounters and gives directions to a mysterious and distressed woman dressed entirely in white, lost in London; he is later informed by policemen that she has escaped from an asylum. Soon afterwards, he travels to Limmeridge House in Cumberland, having been hired as a drawing teacher on the recommendation of his friend, Pesca, an Italian language teacher. The Limmeridge household comprises the invalid Frederick Fairlie and Walter's students: Laura Fairlie, Mr. Fairlie's niece, and Marian Halcombe, her devoted half-sister. Walter realises that Laura bears an astonishing resemblance to the woman in white, who is known to the household by the name of Anne Catherick, a mentally disabled child who formerly lived near Limmeridge and was devoted to Laura's mother, who first dressed her in white. Over the next few months, Walter and Laura fall in love, despite Laura's betrothal to Sir Percival Glyde, Baronet. Upon realising this, Marian advises Walter to leave Limmeridge. Laura receives an anonymous letter warning her against marrying Glyde. Walter deduces that Anne has sent the letter and encounters her again in Cumberland; he becomes convinced that Glyde originally placed Anne in the asylum. Despite the misgivings of the family lawyer over the financial terms of the marriage settlement, which will give the entirety of Laura's fortune to Glyde if she dies without leaving an heir, and Laura's confession that she loves another man, Laura and Glyde marry in December 1849 and travel to Italy for six months. Concurrently, Walter joins an expedition to Honduras. After six months, Sir Percival and Lady Glyde return to his house, Blackwater Park in Hampshire; accompanied by Glyde's friend, Count Fosco (married to Laura's aunt). Marian, at Laura's request, resides at Blackwater and learns that Glyde is in financial difficulties. Glyde attempts to bully Laura into signing a document that would allow him to use her marriage settlement of £20,000, which Laura refuses to do. Anne, who is now terminally ill, travels to Blackwater Park and contacts Laura, saying that she holds a secret that will ruin Glyde's life. Before she can disclose the secret, Glyde discovers their communication, and believing Laura knows his secret, becomes extremely paranoid and attempts to keep her held at Blackwater. With the problem of Laura's refusal to give away her fortune and Anne's knowledge of his secret, Fosco conspires to use the resemblance between Laura and Anne to exchange their two identities. Sir Percival and Fosco will trick both individuals into travelling with them to London; Laura will be placed in an asylum under the identity of Anne, and Anne will be buried under the identity of Laura upon her imminent death. Marian overhears enough of the plan to understand they are conspiring against someone's life but not any of the details, but becomes soaked by rain in her hiding place and contracts typhus. While Marian is ill, Laura is tricked into travelling to London, and the identity switch is accomplished. Anne Catherick succumbs to her illness and is buried as Laura, while Laura is drugged and conveyed to the asylum as Anne. When Marian visits the asylum, hoping to learn something from Anne, she finds Laura, who has been treated by her attendants as a deluded Anne when she protests her true identity as Laura. Marian bribes the nurse, and Laura escapes. Meanwhile, Walter has returned from Honduras, and the three live incognito in London, making plans to restore Laura's identity. During his research, Walter discovers Glyde's secret: he was illegitimate, and therefore not entitled to inherit his title or property. In the belief that Walter has discovered or will discover his secret, Glyde attempts to incinerate the incriminating documents but perishes in the flames. From Anne's mother (Jane Catherick), Walter discovers that Anne never knew what Glyde's secret was. She had only known that there was a secret around Glyde and had repeated words her mother had said in anger to threaten Glyde. The truth was that Glyde's mother was already married to an Irish man, who had left her, and was not free to remarry. While he had no problem claiming the estate, Glyde needed his parents' marriage certificate to borrow money. He therefore went to a church in the village where his parents had lived together and where the vicar (Church of England priest), who had served there, had died long ago, and added a fake marriage to the church register. Mrs. Catherick helped him obtain access to the register and was rewarded with a gold watch and an annual payment. With the death of Glyde in a fire while attempting to destroy a duplicate of the register, the trio is safe from persecution, but they still have no way of proving Laura's true identity. Walter suspects that Anne died before Laura's trip to London, and proof of this would prove their story, but only Fosco knows the dates. Walter works out from a letter he received from Mrs. Catherick's former employer that Anne was the illegitimate child of Laura's father, making her Laura's half-sister. On a visit to the opera with Pesca, he learns that Fosco has betrayed an Italian nationalist society, of which Pesca is a high-ranking member. When Fosco prepares to flee the country, Walter forces a written confession from him in exchange for safe passage from England. Laura's identity is legally restored, and the inscription on her gravestone replaced by that of Anne Catherick. Fosco escapes, only to be killed by another agent of the society. To ensure the legitimacy of his efforts on her part, Walter and Laura have married earlier; on the death of Frederick Fairlie, their son inherits Limmeridge. 

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After their days at a prestigious Eastern university, eight devoted women friends go their separate ways. Wealthy and very beautiful Lakey, always regarded as their leader, leaves for Europe to begin a new life on her own. The domestic lives of the others go mainly awry. Priss marries an overbearing, controlling doctor and has two miscarriages before she gives birth to a son. Kay, who was Lakey's pet and was always less sophisticated and wealthy than the other members of the group, weds an abusive playwright who cheats on her. After an unhappy affair with a cold, sarcastic painter, Dottie gives up a flamboyant lifestyle in Greenwich Village to settle down with a dull Arizona businessman. Pokey has her hands full with two sets of twins. Helena travels the world but is unable to find happiness at home, while catty and ambitious Libby becomes successful in the literary world despite lacking depth. Polly has an affair with a married man, but later finds real happiness with a kind doctor. With the outbreak of war in Europe in 1939, Lakey then returns home. When the others discover that the woman with her is more than just a traveling companion, they realize that she is a lesbian. After a tragedy that results in the death of Kay in 1940, Lakey joins them at the funeral for one last time together as the group. 

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Shortly after the failed 20 July plot to assassinate him in 1944, Adolf Hitler appoints General der Infanterie Dietrich von Choltitz as military governor of occupied Paris. Hitler believes Choltitz will obey his order that the Allies should not be allowed to capture Paris without the Germans destroying it completely, similar to the planned destruction of Warsaw. The French Resistance learn that the Allies are not planning to take Paris, but are heading straight to Germany instead. The two factions within the Resistance react to this news differently. The Gaullists under Jacques Chaban-Delmas want to wait and see, while the Communists under Colonel Rol-Tanguy want to take action. The Communists force the issue by calling for a general uprising by the citizens of Paris and by occupying important government buildings. The Gaullists go along with this plan of action once it is set in motion. Initially, Choltitz is intent on following Hitler's order to level the city. After his troops fail to dislodge the Resistance from the Prefecture of Police, he orders the Luftwaffe to bomb the building but withdraws the order at the urging of the Swedish Consul, Raoul Nordling, who points out that bombs that miss the Prefecture risk destroying nearby culturally invaluable buildings such as the Notre Dame Cathedral. Choltitz accepts a truce offer from the Resistance (conceived by the Gaullist faction), but the Communists want to keep on fighting, in spite of a lack of ammunition. The truce is, therefore, shortened to one day and the fighting resumes. After learning that the Germans plan to destroy Paris (the Eiffel Tower and other landmarks are rigged with explosives), a messenger from the Resistance is sent across enemy lines to contact the Americans. He informs the Allies that the Resistance has already taken control of parts of the city and implores them to provide support to prevent the uprising being crushed as was then happening in Warsaw. He adds that France would never forgive the destruction of Paris. Afterwards General Omar Bradley gives the 2nd Armored Division under General Philippe Leclerc the go-ahead to rush on Paris. As the military situation deteriorates, Choltitz delays the order to destroy Paris, believing that Hitler is insane and that the war is lost, making the destruction of Paris a futile gesture. He chooses instead to surrender shortly after the Allies enter the city. As the Free French Forces and De Gaulle parade down the streets of Paris, greeted by cheering crowds, a phone receiver off the hook is seen with a voice in German repeatedly asking "Is Paris burning?" From the air, Paris is seen, its buildings still intact and standing, followed by a sudden switch from black and white to color. 

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Advertising executive Bill Compton, his wife Joan, and daughter Melissa are a wealthy family living in New York's Upper East Side. Melissa has been living with her drug-dealing boyfriend. After Melissa overdoses and is sent to a hospital, Compton goes to her boyfriend's apartment to get her clothes. He confronts and kills the boyfriend in a fit of rage. At a nearby bar he hears factory worker Joe Curran ranting about how he hates hippies, and Compton blurts out that he just killed one. Joe reacts favorably, but Compton says it was a joke. A few days later, Joe sees a news report about a drug dealer found slain a few blocks from the bar. He calls Compton and meets him. At first Compton is wary that Joe may be attempting blackmail, but Joe assures him that he admires Compton for killing the drug dealer. They become friends, and Compton and his wife have dinner at Joe's house with his wife. Melissa escapes from the hospital and returns to the family apartment, where she overhears her father discussing the murder. She storms out of the apartment house, saying to Compton, "What are you gonna do, kill me too?" Compton tries to restrain her, but she breaks away. Joe and Compton search for her, and meet a group of hippies at a bar in downtown Manhattan. They join the hippies at an apartment, where the hippies share their drugs and girlfriends with the pair. They then abscond with drugs brought by Compton, which he had taken from the drug dealer, as well as Joe's and Compton's wallets. Joe beats one of the girls until she tells him that their boyfriends often spend time in an upstate commune. Joe and Compton drive to that commune, with Joe bringing rifles. In a confrontation at the commune, Joe and Compton kill all the hippies there, and Compton unwittingly kills his own daughter. 

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Three rookie cops, Roy Fehler (Stacy Keach), Gus Plebesly (Scott Wilson), and Sergio Duran (Erik Estrada), report for duty with the Los Angeles police department. Roy is married with a daughter and intends to eventually become a law student. Gus is a father of three. Serge is a native of East L.A., who never expected to end up patrolling its streets. Each is assigned a veteran partner. Roy's is the greatly experienced Andy Kilvinski (George C. Scott), who has been on the force for nearly a quarter-century and has his own unique style of law enforcement. For example, he will drive a group of hookers, who he has supplied with liquor, around the city streets for hours, in a paddy wagon, simply to keep them off the streets for a night. Gus rides with Whitey Duncan (Clifton James). As they answer a burglary call, at a market, Gus opens fire on a suspicious figure in a dark alley, only to discover, to his horror, that it is the owner of the store. Roy begins to frustrate his wife, Dorothy (Jane Alexander), by becoming obsessed with police work, neglecting his family, and dropping out of law school. He likes the life on the street. But during a convenience store holdup, Roy tells a couple in a parked car to move. Because he was careless, he does not realize that they are the get-away crew for the robbers. Without warning, the man shoots Roy with a sawed-off shotgun before escaping, leaving him gravely wounded on the sidewalk. Gus and Serge discuss their fear of being shot. Serge temporarily partners with Andy, and together they handle a call involving a slum landlord. During this encounter, Andy becomes enraged and threatens the landlord for exploiting the "wetbacks" living in the apartment, in deplorable conditions. Roy gradually recovers and quickly encounters a shootout, but doesn't flinch. As the rookies mark a year on the job, Andy reaches his 25th anniversary and mandatory retirement. He discusses the difficulties of police work with the younger men. Roy is assigned to the vice squad, where the job is anything but glamorous—mostly arresting "fruits" for homosexual behavior in public parks. Dorothy has had enough, saying she does not care about him anymore. She leaves for San Francisco (where she meets a real estate agent) and takes their daughter, Becky, with her. The young cops are delighted to get a visit, at the police station, from Andy, who has retired to Florida but misses police work. He regrets never having spent more time on his personal life. After speaking with Roy one last time, on the telephone, Andy puts his service revolver in his mouth and kills himself. Depression gets the better of Roy, who begins to drink on the job. He answers a burglary call and the victim turns out to be Lorrie (Rosalind Cash), a nurse who helped him after he got shot. Later on patrol, a prostitute (Bea Thompkins) named "Silverpants" driving a Lincoln Continental, speeds off with Roy hanging from the car door. He barely avoids serious injury and Lorrie helps patch him up, but he draws a three-week suspension for being drunk on the job. Roy begins seeing Lorrie socially and comes to his senses, appreciating the need for personal relationships, remembering what led Andy to end his life. He goes on a shots fired call, which leads to a car chase, followed by a foot chase. Exhausted after booking the suspects, he is on the way to ending his shift, when he encounters a woman on the street who appeals for help with her threatening husband. Reluctantly, Roy, Gus, and Serge decide to investigate. As Roy takes the back stairs, the husband suddenly appears and, without warning, fires a single shot from a handgun. Roy dies in Gus's arms. 

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In the times before Christianity, only a few people believed in one God. Most people believed in many gods. It was mainly the believers in Jehovah who stood against a multitude of some 65,000 strange and different gods. Of these, two of the most notorious were Baal and Astarte, the male and the female. Gods of the flesh, not of the soul. They were supposed to renew the fertility of the earth every year. In exchange, they demanded of their believers the sacrifice of money, jewelry and human life. Out of these times comes our story, based upon the Parable of the Prodigal Son as told in Luke, Chapter 15. The story is loosely based on Jesus Christ's parable of the prodigal son, from the Gospel According to Luke 15:11-32, although considerable liberties are taken with the source material, chief among them being the addition of a female lead in the form of the high priestess of Astarte, Samarra. Micah (Edmund Purdom), a young Hebrew farm boy, sees Samarra (Lana Turner) and says he will have her. He demands that his father give him his inheritance and journeys to the city of Damascus. There Samarra seduces him into losing his inheritance and betraying his religious faith. Enduring a number of difficulties, Micah finally realizes where he belongs and returns home to his father, who forgives Micah all of his sins and orders a lavish celebration of his return. 

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Laura Reynolds is a free-spirited, unwed single mother living with her young son Danny in an isolated beach house in Big Sur, California. She makes a modest living as an artist and homeschools her son out of concern that he will be compelled to follow stifling conventional social norms in a regular school. Danny has gotten into some trouble with the law through two minor incidents, which are in his mother's eyes innocent expressions of his natural curiosity and conscience rather than delinquency. Now, with a third incident, a judge orders her to send the boy to an Episcopal boarding school where Dr. Edward Hewitt is headmaster and his wife Claire teaches. Edward and Claire are happily married with two student sons, but their life has become routine and their youthful idealism has been tamed by the need to raise funds for the school and please wealthy benefactors. At an initial interview, there is a momentary immediate attraction between Laura and Edward, but this quickly turns into tension brought on by their greatly differing world views and Laura's dislike of religion. Finally she storms out. She attempts to flee the area with Danny but the police quickly catch them and take the boy away to the school. He initially has trouble fitting in because his mother's homeschooling has placed him far in advance of boys his age in many subjects; the standard course of instruction at the school leaves him restless and bored. At Claire's suggestion, Edward visits Danny's mother to learn more about his upbringing. Laura's unconventional morals initially disturb Edward, as they conflict with his religious beliefs. After visiting her several more times he finds her irresistible and cannot get her out of his mind. They begin a passionate affair. At first Laura tells herself that Edward is a fling like her other lovers, but to her surprise she finds herself falling in love with him, becoming jealous of his wife Claire. He struggles with guilt, while she urges him to accept their love. Meanwhile, Danny flourishes after Edward relaxes school rules and allows the boy to choose more advanced classes. A jealous former lover of Laura's exposes the affair by making a remark to Edward within earshot of his wife. At first Claire is distraught, but later they quietly discuss it in the light of how their lives diverged from the idealism of the first years of their marriage. Edward declares that he still loves Claire and that he will end the affair. Still, they agree to a temporary separation while each decides what they want to do with their future. When Edward tells Laura that he confessed to his wife, she is outraged at what she perceives as an invasion of her privacy, and they part angrily. He resigns his position at the school and decides to travel. The school year over, Laura tells Danny that they can move away, but he has put down roots at the school and wants to stay there. As a parting gift, Edward arranges for Danny to attend tuition-free. His mother has a moment of pain but realizes Danny's need to make his own choices and agrees. On Edward's way out of town, he stops at Laura's place for a silent farewell, she and the boy down on the beach, he high up on the bluff above looking down at them. 

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Eddie Keller is a U.S. Army conscript Corporal who was captured with his pants down. He was held in a POW camp for years. Due to his resistance in signing a confession admitting to committing war crimes he ends up being one of the last POWs to be brought home from Vietnam. Keller endures several years of torture and deprivation at the hands of the North Vietnamese Army. He finally relents to signing a "confession" admitting to war crimes to save the life of his cell mate. Having returned home, Eddie finds the world has moved on without him. His wife has fallen in love with someone new, and had a daughter, just after he became a POW. His mother has suffered a stroke, and requires constant (and expensive) medical attention. Eddie is initially called a hero when he is finally released, but when his signed confession is discovered (and no one can track down the other prisoner he tried to save), his veteran's benefits are suspended by the U.S. Department of Veteran's Affairs pending further investigation. Eddie tries to reintegrate into society, but finds himself stopped at every turn. The Army refuses to help, he cannot find a job, and he is running out of options. The only bright spot in his life is Toni, a high- priced prostitute who picks Eddie up at a bar. Despite Toni's profession, the two begin a romance. While trying to secure a loan, Eddie is witness to a bank robbery. He begins to plot a way to gain the funds he needs to provide for his mother, and also to avenge himself on a system that abandoned him in Vietnam, then turned him into a traitor. Eddie plans to hold up a bank, but fails repeatedly in his efforts to embark on a life of crime. Eventually, he succeeds in stealing a briefcase full of bonds, which he arranges to sell to a mobster for $100,000. The mobsters plan to kill Eddie and take the bonds. Eddie turns the tables on the mobsters, leading to their arrest at his hotel. Trapped, Eddie calls Toni, confessing to his crimes & tells her he'll turn himself in. She pleads him to escape with her, and they confess their feelings for each other. As the police evacuate the building, Eddie decides to confront them in his Army uniform. Much to his surprise, the officers are very patriotic, and assume him to not be their suspect. He is then rushed away from the scene, where Toni arrives and picks him up with both the $100,000 and the bonds. In one of the closing scenes, a bank employee is seen delivering a large envelope to a man in an office. The envelope has the bank's address and is marked as being for the attention of the bank's president. The man opens the package a finds the bonds that had been stolen from them, and a note from Pryor's character saying 'Thanks for the loan'. 

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An attractive British Home Office assistant named Judith Farrow (Julie Andrews) is on vacation on the Caribbean island of Barbados after ending a failed love affair with married Group Captain Richard Paterson (David Baron), the British Air Attaché in Paris. She meets Feodor Sverdlov (Omar Sharif), a Soviet military attaché who is also on vacation staying in an adjacent bungalow. The two spend time together exploring the island, visiting museums, and going out to dinner. When British intelligence learns that Sverdlov is spending time with the assistant of a British minister, they begin monitoring their actions. Judith and Sverdlov share details about their private lives—about her husband who died in a car crash, her recent unhappy affair, his unhappy marriage, and his disillusion with the Soviet Union. During one of their outings, Judith becomes fascinated by the story of a slave who was hanged from a tamarind tree and how that tree has since borne seeds in the shape of a human head. The skeptical Sverdlov thinks the story is a mere fairy tale. On her way back to London, she opens an envelope he gave her and finds a tamarind seed (with a human head shape). British intelligence officer Jack Loder (Anthony Quayle) is convinced that Sverdlov is planning to recruit Judith as a spy. Loder is already concerned about an unknown Soviet spy within the British government with the code name "Blue". When he meets with British diplomat Fergus Stephenson (Dan O'Herlihy), he learns that Stephenson suspects that his wife was given secret intelligence information and wants the man identified. Loder knows that his own assistant George MacLeod (Bryan Marshall) has been having an affair with Stephenson's wife Margaret (Sylvia Syms) and is the source of the leak. Later, Stephenson reveals to Paterson that British intelligence knows about his affair, and that his former mistress has been identified as a security risk based on her contact with Sverdlov. Paterson is instructed to break off all communication with her. Loder visits Judith in her London apartment and interrogates her about Sverdlov, who is assigned in Paris to Soviet General Golitsyn. Loder instructs her that if he contacts her again she should tell him immediately. Meanwhile, when Sverdlov returns to his Paris office, he is told that his longtime secretary was taken ill and returned to Russia, replaced by another secretary he suspects is a plant. He tells General Golitsyn that he's made a contact in Barbados, and that he believes he can recruit her. Soon after, Sverdlov meets Judith in London, and she reveals that British intelligence knows about them—just as he suspected. He tells her that he's told the general that he intends to recruit her—a pretext for seeing her again. Meanwhile, Stephenson's suspicious wife Margaret figures out that her husband's cigarette lighter is a miniature camera and that her husband is in fact a Communist spy. She does not know that British intelligence has been searching for the identity of her husband—given the code name Blue. Soon after, Judith receives an important message for Sverdlov, who is back in Paris. When she phones him, he asks her to deliver it to him in Paris. When she arrives, she conveys the message—that his former secretary was taken to Lubyanka for interrogation by the KGB, and that he should not return to Russia. When Sverdlov shows interest in seeking asylum in the West, Judith contacts her former lover Paterson, who communicates her request to Loder. The next night, Sverdlov is brought to Judith's apartment to meet Loder and asks for asylum. He offers to provide the identity of the secret Communist spy Blue, in return for a safe new life in Canada. Loder agrees to the deal. To help Sverdlov pull off the defection, she agrees to accompany him back to Barbados so that his cover story with the Soviets will be convincing. Loder agrees to help arrange their rendezvous. Meanwhile, at a party at the British ambassador's house in Paris, Paterson's wife reveals to Stephenson's wife that she overheard Judith tell her husband about a Soviet official looking to defect. Stephenson's wife reveals this news to her husband, who suspects Sverdlov to be the defector. The next day, Stephenson meets his Soviet contact and communicates the information. In Paris, Sverdlov meets with General Golitsyn and assures him that he only needs a few more days with Judith to recruit her. At the Soviet embassy, Sverdlov steals part of the secret file on the Communist spy known as Blue—papers he intends to offer to British intelligence in exchange for his asylum. As he is leaving, however, he is spotted hiding the papers inside his jacket. When General Golitsyn is informed, he orders Sverdlov's public assassination at Heathrow Airport in London before he can fly to Barbados with Judith. At the airport, the Soviet assassins await his arrival, but Sverdlov avoids them with the help of Loder. General Golitsyn sends his assassins to Barbados to complete their deadly mission. Meanwhile, Loder meets with Stephenson and updates him on Sverdlov's defection and the secret Blue files that will reveal the identity of the Soviet spy in the British government. In Barbados, Judith and Sverdlov enjoy a beautiful sunset together and finally make love. The next morning, the Soviet assassins arrive at the island by boat disguised as vacationing businessmen. They blow up Sverdlov's bungalow with napalm grenades and a fierce gunfight ensues between the killers and the British intelligence agents protecting Sverdlov. Afterwards, news reports indicate that Sverdlov was killed and Judith was taken to the hospital with injuries. Back in London, after telling Stephenson that the Blue files were destroyed in the fire, Loder reveals to his assistant that he knows that Stephenson is Blue and will be taken care of in time. Loder then travels to Barbados to visit Judith who is recovering from her injuries at St Patricia Nursing Home, Barbados. He tells her that actually Sverdlov was not killed as reported, but was taken out of the bungalow just before the attack. He is safe in Canada and if she wants to visit him, it could be arranged. Sometime later, Judith and Sverdlov are reunited in Canada. 

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The movie follows the chronological events of the battle. Some of them are shown in situ, from the heart of the battle, at Dien Bien Phu, while others are reported by civilians at Hanoi city or by paratroopers at Hanoi's civilian airport. The Hanoi action is mostly focused on British-born American writer-reporter Howard Simpson (Donald Pleasence). Simpson's sources of confidential information include French Union military men (Patrick Catalifo, Eric Do), an Agence France Presse correspondent (Jean-François Balmer), an influential Vietnamese nationalist (Long Nguyen-Khac), a Chinese contrabander (Thé Anh) and a Eurasian opium dealer (Maïté Nahyr). Simpson sends scoop-worthy news to the San Francisco Chronicle daily newspaper, through a Hong Kong-based agency, in order to elude French military censorship that existed at the time in Hanoi and the rest of Indochina. War scenes are seen through the eyes of several character archetypes illustrating human nature. At Dien Bien Phu, there were two kinds of men: the cowards and the brave. The first are mainly illustrated by the unnamed "Nam Yum rat" (Fathy Abdi); an example of the second type is the philosopher-friendly artillery Lieutenant (Maxime Leroux), who refuses to obey orders to retreat and eventually dies for the sake of honor. Since they are archetypes, these characters have no name. The main characters have fictitious names, but are members of real units, like the 5th Bawouan Vietnamese para Lieutenant Ky (Eric Do) or Captain de Kerveguen (Patrick Catalifo)'s Foreign Legion company. Schoendoerffer's movie contains autobiographic elements that sometimes appear in dialogues and is particularly illustrated by the military cameraman character. Actor Ludovic Schoendoerffer plays the role of a young Army Cinematographic Service cameraman using the same camera type as his father, Corporal Pierre Schoendoerffer, did in 1954. 

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