In post-WWII Tokyo, Japan's undefeated boxing champion, Masahiro trains in the winter wilderness for his upcoming battle against the American challenger, Clint Sullivan. Sullivan, who's haunted by memories of the war, must overcome the Yakuza's influence to preserve his honor. Pitted against political tensions, the fighters' parallel journeys will test the very limits of human spirit.

Sunset Jones is a beautiful red-headed woman and wife in East Texas, 1930's. One night during a cyclone Sunset gets fed up of all the rape and abuse being done onto her by her husband, Pete, that she shoots him dead. Her husband Pete however was the constable of the nearby town known as Camp Rapture. Soon the town gets a new sheriff as Sunset's mother-in-law arranges for her to take over Pete's duties. This was not accepted by some of the residents in town. Soon Sunset will find out more about the town as a double homicide takes place. Her investigation to seek justice and answers will pull her into a journey filled with greed, deceit, double-dealings, and unthinkable acts of maliciousness. Sunset will need to uncover the truth of what is really going on with the help of her own posse.

A group of marines in the Philippines prepare themselves for an amphibious raid against a group of Moro outlaws on Patian island in Mindanao.

Veli Jože belonged to the people of Motovun, who did not treat him nicely.

Similarly to Raold Dahl's 1982 novel, Jože is described as a friendly and good-hearted giant. He is both a giant and a giant-looking serf. The action begins when the ''provveditore'' Barbabianka, ''šjor'' Zvane and the guard of Motovun forest go about Istria to mark with lime the Turkey oaks that they will cut down and take away to Venice. It is a hot summer day. The ''provveditore'' is riding on a donkey, which at one point jumps up, for he sees a haystack next to some shack where a beautiful Turkey oak is growing. Barbabianka then decides that this Turkey oak will warm him this winter in Koper. As he begins to mark the tree, someone's strong hands grab the donkey and throw it up to the top of the tree. Beside the stack and the dead donkey stands the serf Jože, looking gloomily at the ''provveditore''.

The ''provveditore'' is frightened and tells ''šjor'' Zvan to do something. Proto, the forest ranger, has a little fun at first because it is funny to him to watch the ''provveditore'' shaking, but then he calms the giant. Barbabianka and šjor Zvane put a stick in his hands and order him to strike and tame the giant. At first he is afraid to approach him in any way, but then he goes on and hits him. Jože is ordered to kneel down and kiss the gentleman's hand, which he does. ''Šjor'' Zvan explains to Jože that this is a gentleman, and that he would take him through the forest to the city. Along the way, Barbabianka realizes that Jože is an obedient serf, but he is still afraid. He questions him as to whether he has had enough food and how old he is. The giant then explains to him that his masters let him eat, but that they constantly curse him and that he is three hundred years old, although he "thinks he might be older". Jože tells him that everything was better back then, that his father helped build the city, and that there were many more giants like him, but he was left alone. Then the idea comes to Barbabianka to take Jože with him to Venice, keeping the giant on a leash like a dog. The streets in Motovun are crowded with armed people, the bell rings because Jože is seen coming, even though he is forbidden to enter the city because it is his duty to work in the fields and in the woods for the municipality. But the townspeople are surprised to see that Jože is carrying Barbabianka. The latter is congratulated in the town hall for taming the giant, and Barbabianka, although he did nothing, believes in his own heroism.

''The indulgence and delight seemed to Barbabianka so sincere, that he almost saw for himself that his mother had given birth to him as a hero, and he stood up even more magnificently in the armchair.''

In the town hall, they decide not to feed Jože anymore, they discuss whether to poison him and how to restrain him. Civetta, the city economist, says that Jože is valuable and needed by the city. He explains to them that he is plowing the land and hunting game for them, and defending them from the enemy. As they are deciding whether to kill him or just banish him, the ''provvediotre'' says that Jože will go to Koper with him for Easter, and that they will feed him as before.

At one point when he is being ridiculed, Jože gets angry, and the people who were used to look at his benevolent face are now frightened. When Jože starts shaking the Motovun bell tower, they run away screaming. It is not clear to Jože why his masters flee before him as if they were mice. He wonders whether it is possible that they fear him, whether it might be the master who lives to enslave them fears the serf.

When Easter comes, Jože is satisfied with his life. He doesn't know that the people of Motovun are discussing his fate in the town hall. Proto and a few others ask Jože to stay in Motovun because he is worth a lot to them, citing numerous examples of serfs helping them out, but most are still in favor of him leaving in the hope that he will drown during the trip. From Koper, Jože sails to Venice with the ''provveditore''. Although he is not happy to be far from the Istrian forests, he cannot complain too much because Barbabianka treats him well. For the first time in his life, Jože, in his grief and nostalgia for Motovun, thinks that his masters are unjust to him because they are sending him away from his country.

They are sailing on sails, but when the wind dies down, oars appear from the ship's sides. From the bowels of the ship comes the clatter of chains and a sad song. Jože lifts the lid on the deck, and a large head appears from the opening. At that moment, two giants watch each other without a word. The chained giant says his name is Ilija (Elijah). He tells Jože that he's a slave, and he cannot escape because he was beaten, and now is lame, as well as chained. He tells him all about life on the galley and that he too will become a slave. When Jože tells him about his life, Ilija gets angry and tells him that he has to fight, not to allow his masters to take advantage of him.

''"We are people like them," said Elijah. "But did we ever enslave them like cattle even though we are stronger? The dog does not give up on a bone and chases the stranger out of his yard; but you, Jože, let the little people trample on you and suck your spirit - you, who are so strong. Shame on you, brother!''

He tells him to fight them, to free himself because he can out of his strength, and to work for himself. Then Jože remembers the moment near the Motovun tower when his masters were fleeing from him, and now he understands. Ilija tells him that there will be a big storm, in which he will sink with the ship, because he cannot move, but that Jože will escape. Then Jože promises Ilija that he will fight for his freedom. The storm begins, Jože jumps into the water and wakes up ashore in the morning.

Jože has been carried ashore by the sea on the shore of Raška draga, people who see him instantly say that this giant must have destroyed the ship. Here, Jože meets Jurić, who was also a giant serf and whom Jože manages to persuade to stop serving his masters as in the previous two hundred years and to come with him. Jože gathers around him twenty giant serfs who together go to the hills between Pazin and Motovun. People are afraid of them and tell each other stories whereby the giants will soon attack them. The giants, however, settle on the hills. Meanwhile, the nobles and lords are figuring out what to do now that the serfs have deserted them. The vineyards and gardens are deserted, and there is none to do the job.

The townspeople discuss whether attacking the giants or try and persuade them to return. Eventually they send out an army and two knights to the hills. On ''Psoglavčevo brdom'', Joze and the other giants start cultivating the land, and see how nice it is to work while they are free and working for themselves. They even start arranging the walls. Jurić comes across gold while digging, not even knowing what it is. Jože sees that the people of Motovun are like crazy about the gold. Jurić then continues to dig the pit, not caring about the gold and silver he has dug.

When the knights and the army arrive, the giants decide not to shed blood. Because the knights think that the serfs are standing still because they are afraid of their perennial masters, they order an attack. When the giants see that mass climbing up on them, running, trying to overcome them, they obey Jože and easily sweep them away. The giants use the strong oak trees of the nearby forest as brooms to sweep away the enemy in the battle.

After managing to retreat, the army encamps on ''Štrigina glavica'', where Civetta laughs at their failure and advises them to send someone to talk to the needed serfs and persuade them to return. The masters have no answer when Jože tells them that they do not wish to return because they are free up here. The common people do not realize that these serfs are becoming aware of their freedom and the value of it. The serfs tell them to work on their own fields, because they are not returning. When they are ready to return to the city as penitents, Jože decides to give them the silver and gold that Jurić has excavated, for which they were so mad about. After returning to the city with this loot, all citizens and nobles seek a share of the gold, claiming that the gold once belonged to their ancestors and that the giants have the least rights to it.

Upon hearing of the gold, the citizens start digging on all sides of the hill at night, but find nothing. One night, Jože catches several citizens digging, and tells them that if they want gold, they'll have to earn it. The citizens then conclude that it is better to work for Jože rather than the nobles because they would surely earn more, and so they agree. When people in the city hear that the citizens are working for the serfs, they consider it the greatest shame and betrayal, and decide to punish whoever is accountable for it.

More citizens come to work for Jože, the harvest around ''Psoglavčeva brda'' is rich. Jože almost becomes friends with the former masters, he gives everyone money and more than deserved. When, after the harvest, everyone heads back to the city, Civetta says that he is staying because he thinks the serfs have not yet achieved freedom, and that gold was the only reason why the citizens were workings with Jože. After a while of enjoying working for themselves and their freedom, the giants begin to resent that someone's estate is bigger or better than someone else's. Jurić is mad at Jože because he did not tell him of the value of gold, which he then squandered, gold that Jurić was the first to find.

When the grain and corn are divided, a big quarrel arises because everyone thinks that most of it belongs to them. Jože is all affected and angry, so he leaves the meeting. That evening Civetta sees a fire burning on the hill. Jože comes, looking for wine, telling Civetta that he is the one who set fire to the grain out of anger. He tells him what happened at the meeting. Jože says that he will not serve Liberat, that he will rather live alone.

The next day Civetta goes to the giants, who are discussing what to do now, they tell him that Liberat is now their chief, but that they think it better to be Civetta because the gentleman is a gentleman after all. Civetta is a little reluctant at first but agrees after the giants promise to listen to him in everything. News come from the town that the Motovun forest is deserted, and there s no more gold on ''Psoglavčevo brdo''. At Christmas, Civetta decides to create a rift among the serfs by telling them that the land shall be divided. Thereupon everyone breaks out in panic and starts scrutinizing the land, looking for the best piece of land that is fit to them and that they deserve most.

The biggest dispute is over the valley between ''Psoglavčeva brda'' and ''Štrigina glavica'': Civetta suggests that it belongs to Jože because he cultivated it, but the serfs now think that that is the best piece of land. After two days, it is decided that half of it shall be Jože's, and half will belong to Mark and Liberat. Jože tells Civetta which part is his. He gets angry because he is not allowed at the meeting where the partition is formalized. All the giants swear after signing the contracts that Civetta has prepared, that they will respect everybody except Jože, who is not there and who just told them that the valley is his and that they should not come over there.

However, one day Mark descends into the valley, so Jože attacks him and beats him. When Mark returns bruised to the city, Liberat persuades his friends to gather and go and attack Jože because he's not stronger than all of them together. The other giants secretly rejoice that Jože attacked Mark, because they were also sore at the fact that Liberat and Mark got a better piece of land.

Liberat gathers his courage and goes down to the land he considers his own, showing Jože the contract book he thinks guarantees him security and full ownership over the land. All this only angers Jože all the more. He gathers the giants, and asks them to work together and share everything. In what ensues, Jože kills Liberat in a rage.

''Jože got up and knelt down. Blood dripped from his nose and mouth; a wild flame burned in his eyes. There was a moment of stupor, with those bloody streams on his chin and neck, his eyes wide, his hair disheveled. He felt a storm in his chest, a noise in his ears, and before his eyes Liberat's image trembled, blurry like the image of a beast in the twilight mist''

No one is allowed to approach the corpse for two days, and Civetta takes advantage of the situation by exaggerating events to the serfs, instilling in them even greater fear. In the morning they tell Civetta that they would like to return to their masters, that they have nothing to live on, that they have always been serfs, and that this is what they do best. In this insidious way, Civetta manages to create a rift among the giants and to force them to return to servitude voluntarily.

The last to leave the spot is Civetta, taking with him the great Jože to Motovun, feeling like the greatest winner of all, the one who succeeded in what neither the knights, the army nor all the citizens put together managed to do. The closer they get to the city, the slower Jože walks because he knows what he's returning to. He now knows what it's like to be free, to work for yourself, but on the other hand he considers himself a sinner because he killed a man and a friend, harmed them, and thinks he deserves to be a serf again.

''He saw the procession of citizens and remembered the suffering, the insults and the shame. To be a toy in the hand of those people again? He experienced freedom; knew what it means to be your own; he was convinced that the citizens were worse than him, that there was nothing to fear from them''

At one point Jože looks at the sea and a sailing ship and sees oars. He then remembers Ilija and his words: "You are a man too". He seems to hear his sad song in the bowels of the ship again and remembers the promise he had made to him. He decides not to make the same mistake again, not to agree to be a slave. Civetta is hitting his ass more and more to get to the city faster because he hears the crowd clapping and shouting at him. Everyone rushes to him, to see him, to thank him for having managed to get the big Jože back where he belongs. But when they get close enough to him, they become furious, threatening him. It's not clear to Civetta what's going on, but the moment he turns around, he realizes that the great Jože has disappeared without a trace.

A group of women sitting on the veranda of a resort hotel. First the woman arrives, and later the man. The film then shows their friendship progressing as they dine together, ride in a carriage together, and boat together. When they are boating, the boat turns over, and the man rescues the widow. A later scene shows a box of flowers being delivered to the widow, and the camera moves in to a close-up of the woman as she admires each flower and back out to show the arrival of her suitor. The denouement takes place later in a dry goods store. The widow walks in and promptly faints when she discovers that the ribbon clerk is none other than her gallant summer beau.Kemp R. Niver, ''Early Motion Pictures: The Paper Print Collection in the Library of Congress'', Library of Congress, 1985, p. 365.

The film concerns a man called Mr. Purvis (O'Donnell) trying to arrange car insurance after he has been convicted of drunk driving. Kelly plays Mr. Bowes, the deranged insurance broker.

As the Civil War begins, Carson is sent by President Lincoln to protect a frontier outpost. Accompanied by youngster Danny, Carson thwarts a band of stagecoach robbers and saves a wagon train.

Liz Evans is a hairdresser and leader of a youth theatre in Carmarthen, Wales, who started a campaign in 1993 to save the Lyric theatre from closure. She and a local councilor will enlist the help of Steven Spielberg, securing a special premiere for ''Jurassic Park''.

Under pressure from his family to find a suitable wife, Charles, Prince of Wales proposes to Lady Diana Spencer. Diana celebrates her engagement and, on the advice of the Buckingham Palace staff, immediately moves into the Palace. On her arrival, she irritates Princess Margaret and has difficulty following royal protocol. She is more warmly received by the press, though Charles is evasive when asked in a television interview if the couple is in love. Charles then departs on a foreign tour, leaving Diana alone.

Diana is sternly tutored in the royal way of life by her grandmother, but is otherwise left to her own devices in the Palace. She is comforted by the wealth of supportive letters she receives from the public but is unable to arrange a meeting with Queen Elizabeth and develops bulimia. At lunch with Camilla Parker Bowles, a meeting encouraged by Charles, Diana is embarrassed over how little she knows about her fiancé in comparison to the other woman. She then discovers designs for a bracelet, apparently a gift from Charles to Camilla; she again attempts to contact Elizabeth, insisting the marriage cannot go ahead.

On his return to the country, Charles first visits Camilla but claims to Diana that both this and the bracelet were intended to end their association. Concerned by what she saw at the wedding rehearsal, Margaret later speaks out against the marriage to Elizabeth and Prince Philip. Elizabeth speaks to Charles, insisting that his duty requires the marriage to go ahead and he will come to love Diana over time. While the public celebrates their union, Charles and Diana solemnly prepare for their wedding.

Izumi Hazuki transfers to a new high school in Fukuoka, where she quickly makes friends with two boys, Mao and Ukiya. Both boys become infatuated with her, and Ukiya consults his fortune teller friend Miki to see whether he might have a chance with her. Miki curtly informs him that their signs are not a good match. Mao and Izumi begin to steadily grow closer, spending time together as Mao drives Izumi home from her high dive training.

During a water-throwing festival, Miki shows Ukiya a new fortune predicting that Izumi will suffer a potentially fatal accident. Ukiya shows the fortune to Mao who initially dismisses it, but also notices that the predicted date of the accident coincides with Izumi's upcoming diving competition. Meanwhile, the city is plagued by strange events. A drought has resulted in severe water shortages, many people are afflicted by a mysterious illness that causes one's internal organs to petrify, and two meteorites land simultaneously in the mountains nearby, one of which is found and taken to an astrophysics laboratory.

At home, Izumi is shown a photographic slide of three petrographs by her older sister Yo, taken as part of her husband's research. The first carving depicts an exploding supernova, the second an evaporating stone, and the third shows a shamanic ritual, the image of which Izumi likens to a person high diving. Yo suggests that the petrographs are related to current events.

The day of Izumi's competition arrives. Mao and Ukiya watch nervously from the stands as Izumi takes her dive from the platform. As she falls, the surface of the water briefly appears to turn to stone, causing Izumi to falter and slam into the water. Mao dives into the pool and rescues her, whereupon she is rushed to hospital. There, doctors inform her sister that she has fallen into a coma and may not survive.

Fortunately, Izumi soon regains consciousness and returns to school. However, her personality after the accident is markedly different. She talks of having a raised awareness of herself and the surrounding environment on a subatomic level, and becomes increasingly preoccupied with the mountains near the city. Mao and Izumi later hike to the mountains, where they find a stone circle hidden among the trees. At the center of the circle is a large, round boulder, its surface carved with petrographs resembling those shown in Yo's husband's research.

Some time later, Mao receives a phone call from Yo, telling him that Izumi has gone missing. While Mao looks for Izumi, the police search for a man believed to be in possession of the missing meteorite, who has murdered a scientist and stolen the second meteorite from the laboratory. Eventually, both Izumi and the man are found in the mountains, lying together on the boulder along with both meteorites. Later, under questioning by a doctor, she explains that the man is a member of a tribe of stone beings who wish to take over Earth and return it to stone, and that she must take measures to prevent this from happening. The doctor suggests to Yo and Mao that Izumi may have sudden schizophrenia brought on by the shock of the diving accident. Izumi later returns to school, where rumours have spread due to a magazine article suggesting that Izumi can psychically communicate with dolphins and plants. Later, Miki shows Mao and Ukiya a historical record referring to a village being struck by a drought and a "stone disease" after the appearance of two meteorites. It also mentions that these events were only brought to an end after a person, chosen to restore balance, performed a ceremony that takes place on a full moon.

Yo collapses after contracting the petrification illness and is hospitalised. Mao meets Izumi at the hospital, where she tells him that she can't wait any longer and must take action. She leaves the hospital followed by Mao and makes her way to a nearby river. There, under the light of the full moon, Izumi psychically communicates with Mao and ruminates on why she survived the accident, before saying her goodbyes and walking into the river, eventually fading from sight. The next morning, storm clouds appear over the city as Mao makes his way to the stone circle. He is later found unconscious atop the boulder and taken to hospital, where he is diagnosed with amnesia, having lost his memory of the previous night. Rain begins to fall and the drought ends.

After the rain storm passes, many people recover from the illness. News about the petrographs and Miki's record spreads worldwide, and scholars come from various countries to study the stone circle. Mao volunteers in the study, hoping to find clues about Izumi's disappearance. He eventually becomes a researcher studying special remains found around the world, using a diary Izumi had kept as the basis for his studies. Years later, an elderly Mao visits the stone circle, now named the "Hazuki Circle", and lies down on the central boulder. As rain begins to fall, Izumi appears before him, unchanged in the years since her disappearance. The two embrace, and then vanish.

Sugiko works as a waitress in a café in Tokyo's Ginza district. Her boyfriend Machio proposes to her, although his family has arranged a marriage with a woman from a wealthy family for him. She is also approached by Yukihiko, a talent scout for a film studio which is looking for a new star actress. When she steps onto the street absent-mindedly, she is hit by the car of Hiroshi, the heir of the Yamanouchi family. Machio sees her being taken away in Hiroshi's car, believing that she is dating Hiroshi and has decided against his proposal, and leaves town. Hiroshi starts dating Sugiko, despite his mother's and sister's objections against his liaison with a girl of lower class descent, but when he insists on marrying her, they eventually give in. Meanwhile, Sugiko's friend and colleague Kesako has successfully applied for the job at the film studio, which puts the relationship to her boyfriend Shinkichi to the test. Sugiko soon feels uncomfortable in her new home, and Hiroshi, unhappy with his family's overt reluctance to his wife, starts drinking frequently. After Sugiko leaves him, Hiroshi has a car accident and is hospitalised. At the hospital, Sugiko blames Hiroshi's mother and sister for never having accepted her. Hiroshi dies soon after, and Sugiko returns to her job in the Ginza café, reunited with Kesako and Shinkichi who quit the film studio.

''Genesis Noir'' plays as a metaphorical narrative between a film noir-style detective movie and aspects of the creation and potential destruction of the universe. It plays out the events of the Big Bang as a metaphor for a broken romance between No Man (representing time) trying to stop Golden Boy (representing energy) from killing Miss Mass (the mass of the universe).

No Man, a watchmaker, has fallen into depression after breaking up with Miss Mass, a nightclub singer. He tries calling her and hears her crying for help, and racing to her apartment finds that she is about to be shot by Golden Boy, the saxophone player from her band. After touching the spent bullet casing with a strange spiral marking, No Man finds he can pause time, and determines he can stop Golden Boy's bullet by creating a black hole. He then proceeds to track down more of the spiral symbols through events that would occur without the black hole and turn them golden; these are told through various vignettes that follow the creation of the universe and stages of life on Earth to obtain these. Among these, No Man befriends the Huntress, the Ronin, the Musician, and the Scientist. Further, these vignettes reveal that Golden Boy has found his fame through Miss Mass, and became jealous of when No Man started a relationship with her.

Eventually collecting enough spirals, No Man converts their energy to create a black hole that begins consuming all of reality. A white figure, an amalgamation of the Huntress, Ronin, Musician, and Scientist, appears to comfort No Man and shows him he can see all the possibilities in time, and that he does not have to save everyone. With this revelation, No Man returns to the point where he first had his encounter with Miss Mass and forces himself to turn away, changing the timeline to allow Golden Boy to kill Miss Mass, and allowing the universe to be created.

An Uzbek comedy, the plot of which revolves around our two main characters. Beautiful Lola, who graduated from a foreign university and returned to her homeland, and about Azamat, a typical Uzbek guy, whose life spends more time on the streets of Tashkent.

In 1994, Deena and Josh Johnson restrain Sam, Deena's girlfriend who is possessed, and travel to C. Berman's house for help. Initially reluctant, Berman allows them inside and begins recounting the events of the Camp Nightwing massacre.

On July 19, 1978, Ziggy Berman from Shadyside is accused of stealing by Sheila, a Sunnyvale camper, and her friends. They accuse her of being a witch and in retaliation, hang her from a tree and burn her arm with a lighter before camp counselors Nick Goode and Kurt intervene. Ziggy's older sister, Cindy, and her boyfriend Tommy Slater are cleaning the mess hall when Nurse Lane, the mother of Ruby Lane, attacks Tommy, but he overpowers her and she is later removed from camp by police. The teenagers from Sunnyvale believe she was possessed by Sarah Fier, as was her daughter. While investigating the infirmary, Cindy and Tommy encounter counselors Alice, Cindy's former friend, and her boyfriend Arnie. They find Lane's diary which says that Fier made a deal with the devil by cutting off her hand on Satan's stone, thereby earning eternal life. They also find a map in the diary leading to Fier's house.

At the house, they find empty graves dug up by Nurse Lane and discover the witch's mark below the house. Alice and Cindy find a wall carved with the names of all the Shadyside killers and Tommy's name included. Tommy, now possessed, kills Arnie with an axe, and the girls escape into a cave. At camp, Nick helps Ziggy prank Sheila and lock her in the outhouse. As the two bond and share a kiss, Tommy reaches the camp and murders several Shadyside campers, including counselor Joan. Meanwhile, Cindy and Alice try to escape using the witch's mark in the diary as a map of the cave. They come across a pile of beating organs, which, when Alice touches, gives her flashbacks of all the past killers and their victims. After Alice injures her leg, she reconciles with Cindy and the two reach a cave opening beneath the outhouse.

After fighting an angry Sheila and knocking her unconscious, Ziggy and counselor Gary try to rescue Alice and Cindy until Tommy decapitates Gary. Ziggy hides with Nick until he is injured by Tommy and escapes to the mess hall. As the rest of the camp leaves via bus, Cindy finds a route to the mess hall while Alice stays behind. Tommy attacks Ziggy, but Cindy intervenes and kills him. Alice arrives and tells them that she found the witch's hand. She had started bleeding and realized that she was sitting near Satan's stone, where she dug it out.

The trio decides to end the curse by reuniting Sarah's hand with the body. Ziggy suddenly bleeds on the hand and sees a vision of Sarah Fier. This triggers the curse, resurrecting several Shadyside killers. A reanimated Tommy kills Alice before Cindy decapitates him. Ziggy and Cindy run to the tree where Fier was hanged, with the Shadyside killers in pursuit. They dig around the tree, only to find a rock with the words “The witch forever lives” carved. When Cindy realizes the killers are after Ziggy, she drops the hand and sacrifices herself. The two are murdered and the killers disappear. Nick later finds them and saves Ziggy via CPR.

Back in 1994, Deena and Josh realize that C. Berman is Ziggy, whose real name is Christine. They tell her that they found the witch's body and now, with the hand, they can end the curse. Deena and Josh go to Shadyside Mall, which was built after the closure of Camp Nightwing, and dig out the hand from under the same tree. They take it to the place where the body is buried and Deena reunites the body with the hand. Deena's nose bleeds and she finds herself back in 1666, where she is now Sarah Fier.

''1666''

After reuniting the severed hand of Sarah Fier with the rest of her corpse, Deena has a vision showing the events of 1666 from the perspective of Sarah Fier. She lives with her father George and brother Henry in Union, the original settlement before it was divided into Sunnyvale and Shadyside.

One night, Sarah and her friends Hannah Miller and Lizzie meet a reclusive widow to gather potent berries for a party, where Sarah stumbles on a book of black magic. The group arrives at the party and Sarah and Hannah are harassed by Caleb. The two run off and share an intimate moment, unknowingly seen by Mad Thomas. The next day, Pastor Cyrus Miller begins to act strange, as the town's food and water supply are poisoned. Sarah confides in Solomon Goode and wonders if she is responsible for the town's bad luck. The town then discovers that Pastor Miller has murdered twelve children in the chapel, including Henry and Constance. Sarah is attacked by Pastor Miller before he is killed by Solomon. That night, a town meeting is held at which the townspeople decide that witchcraft is the cause of the events, and Caleb claims that Sarah and Hannah are the witches responsible. Hannah is captured while Sarah escapes and the town declares that Hannah will be executed at dawn.

Sarah sneaks into the chapel where Hannah is confined and the two profess their love. Sarah decides to retrieve the widow's book and use it to make a deal with the devil and save Hannah, but she discovers that the book is gone and the widow murdered. She flees to Solomon's house and hides after he is ambushed by men hunting her. While hiding, she finds tunnels under his house, discovering a ritual as well as the widow's book. Solomon reveals he took the book to make a deal with the devil, offering Pastor Miller to be possessed in exchange for power and wealth. He offers to share it with her, but she rejects his offer and a fight ensues with Sarah's hand being cut off in the struggle. She escapes to the chapel only to be captured by Solomon and the townspeople. At her and Hannah's execution, Sarah convinces the town to spare Hannah's life by proclaiming she is the witch and swears vengeance to Solomon before she is hanged. Later, Lizzie, Issac, Hannah, and Abigail grieve Sarah and properly bury her body.

''1994''

In 1994, Deena realizes that the Goode family is responsible for the Shadyside curse, as the firstborn of each generation repeats the ritual begun by their ancestor Solomon. Because of this, Sunnyvale has always prospered while Shadyside has become worse. Deena and Josh are found by Sheriff Nick Goode, but the two escape in Nick's car and arrive at Ziggy's house. The trio deduces they must kill Nick to end the Shadyside curse. After they recruit the help of Martin, the mall janitor, the group concocts a plan to lure Nick to the mall and set traps to have the Shadyside murderers kill him.

The group manages to trap the killers and Ziggy pours a bucket of Deena's blood over Nick, causing the killers to attack him. As Nick escapes into the tunnels, Deena and a possessed Sam follow him while the others fight off the killers. Sam attacks Deena, but she breaks Sam out of her possession temporarily before incapacitating her. Nick nearly kills Deena but she exposes him to the pile of beating organs in the tunnel, which gives him a vision of all of the killers' victims. Deena kills him, breaking the curse and reunites with Sam. The Goode family is later exposed for their actions, Josh meets his online friend in person, Ziggy reunites with Mrs. Lane, and Deena and Sam have a picnic date at Sarah Fier's grave.

In a mid-credits scene, an unknown person takes the widow's satanic book from the tunnels.

On Christmas Eve 1991, the British royal family prepares to spend the Christmas holidays at the Queen's Sandringham estate in Norfolk. Among the attendees is Diana, Princess of Wales, whose marriage to Prince Charles has become strained due to his affair with Camilla Parker Bowles. The staff of Sandringham prepare for the royals' arrival, and Diana drives around the Norfolk countryside. On the verge of a breakdown, she avoids heading to Sandringham until running into Royal Head Chef Darren McGrady. She notes that the long-abandoned neighbouring estate, Park House, used to be her childhood home. Then she notices a scarecrow in the distance and eagerly runs towards it with a nostalgic expression. Diana takes off its jacket, which once belonged to her father John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer, and goes back to her car.

When Diana arrives at Sandringham, her sons William and Harry are excited to see her, but she does not attempt to socialise with the royal family, who mostly ignore her. Diana's only friend at the Estate is Royal Dresser Maggie, who encourages her to both combat the royal family and fulfil the obligations expected of her. Diana finds a book on Anne Boleyn in her assigned bedroom. She begins to have dreams about Boleyn (including a hallucination of her at a Christmas Eve dinner where she imagines herself destroying a pearl necklace given to her by Charles and eating the pearls in her soup), eventually coming to believe that Boleyn's ghost is haunting her in her capacity as a fellow abandoned royal wife. Diana tries to visit her childhood home but she is stopped by royal guards, who initially mistake her for an intruder.

On Christmas Day, Diana attends the service at St Mary Magdalene Church, Sandringham, where she notices Camilla among the gathered crowd and is photographed by numerous intrusive journalists. She holds a difficult conversation with Charles, who rebuffs her concern over William and Harry's participation in a pheasant shoot the next day and advises her to develop a stronger sense of separation between her public and private lives. Charles privately arranges for Maggie to be sent to London and spreads rumours that she had planted the Boleyn book in Diana's room and made critical comments about her mental health; McGrady denies that she had done so when Diana questions him. Major Gregory attempts to encourage Diana to conform to the pressures of royal life by reminding her that the soldiers of the British Army die attempting to protect the interests of the Crown (and by extension her interests); Diana responds by stating that she never asked anyone to die for her. After imagining wounding herself with a pair of wirecutters given to her by McGrady, Diana avoids the formal Christmas Day dinner, instead running to her childhood home and gaining access to it with the wirecutters. Memories of her happier girlhood overtake her, and she dances from room to room while imagining her younger selves. She considers committing suicide by throwing herself down a flight of stairs, but the hallucination of Boleyn stops her. Instead, she rips apart her pearl necklace.

On Boxing Day, Diana wakes up in her room to find that Maggie has been called back from London. The two travel to a nearby beach, where Diana talks about her mental and marital problems. Maggie responds by confessing that she is in love with Diana. After bidding Maggie farewell, Diana goes to the pheasant shoot, walks out in front of the crowd of hunters, and announces that she is taking William and Harry to London, to which Charles reluctantly agrees. Diana bids farewell to McGrady and Major Gregory returns the Boleyn book to the library. As they drive away, Diana and her children sing along to the song "All I Need Is a Miracle" by Mike & the Mechanics, passing the scarecrow again, now dressed in one of Diana's outfits. They drive to London, where they order KFC and eat by the River Thames. Princess Diana looks across the river, uncertain of her future but no longer feeling burdened by royal responsibility.

A little girl named Alexia annoys her father during a drive. As she removes her seatbelt, her father turns around to scold her, causing a car crash. Alexia suffers a skull injury and has a titanium plate fitted into her head. When she gets out of the hospital, she shuns her parents and embraces their car passionately.

Years later, Alexia, now an adult with a large scar on the side of her head, works as a showgirl at a motor show. One night, after a show, a male fan follows Alexia in the showroom's parking lot, declares his love to her, and forcibly kisses her; she then brutally murders him using her large metal hairpin. As she returns to shower, Alexia hears a banging coming from the showroom. She finds the car she modeled with earlier has turned on by itself and enters it naked, has sex with the car, and eventually climaxes.

It is revealed that Alexia is a serial killer who has murdered several men and women in the past few months. She still lives with her parents, who seem unaware of her connection with the crimes and with whom she has a distant relationship.

Alexia attends a house party, where she starts to have sex with her coworker Justine. However, motor oil begins secreting from her vagina, so she takes a pregnancy test which returns a positive result. She tries to perform an abortion with her hairpin but fails. Alexia comes out of the bathroom and murders Justine, then proceeds to kill the other guests, but one woman manages to escape. Alexia returns home and tries to burn a bloody blanket, but it sets the house on fire. She locks her parents in their bedroom and leaves.

Now wanted for murder, Alexia alters her appearance to pretend to be Adrien Legrand, a young boy who had disappeared ten years before at age seven, by cutting her hair, taping down her breasts and pregnant belly, and breaking her own nose. She then goes to the police claiming that she's Adrien, where his father, Vincent, a fire captain, accepts Alexia as his missing son and refuses to do a DNA test.

Vincent takes Alexia to the station where he lives and works and introduces her to his men. The firefighters are puzzled by the mute, androgynous, and apparently traumatized "Adrien", but they refrain from questioning the captain's behavior. Alexia becomes an apprentice at the station, under Vincent's supervision. As Vincent gives more responsibility to his "son" over the other experienced firefighters, one firefighter confronts Vincent about "Adrien's" identity. However, Vincent immediately shuts him down and tells him to never speak of his son.

Vincent tries to preserve his strength by injecting steroids into his aging body, but he finds that he seems to be building an immunity to them. Alexia is increasingly disturbed by his possessiveness and considers escaping from the fire station. However, after Vincent experiences a cardiac arrhythmia from injecting a large dose of steroids, Alexia decides to stay with him.

Vincent's long-estranged ex-wife comes to see her "son", and ends up discovering a now-heavily pregnant Alexia without her body taped down. She nevertheless keeps the secret for herself, not wishing to interfere with her ex-husband's delusion, and begs Alexia to take care of him. Vincent at one point acknowledges his delusion, telling Alexia that "whoever you are, you are my son." When he inadvertently uncovers her breasts, he is clearly shocked but continues caring for her.

At a party at the fire station, the firefighters urge "Adrien" to dance to the music. Alexia breaks out her showgirl choreography, confusing everyone. Vincent, disappointed, walks out of the crowd. After the party, Alexia has sex with a fire truck.

Alexia's body gradually breaks down, as the skin of her stomach tears to reveal new metal plates. When her pregnancy comes to term, Alexia reveals her real name to Vincent, briefly attempting to seduce him and then begging for his help. Vincent helps Alexia give birth, the titanium side of her skull splitting open on her final push, killing her. Vincent holds the baby, whose body appears with patches of titanium, and tells it repeatedly, "I'm here."

Noa, a woman from Portland, is increasingly disillusioned with online dating and the rude men she interacts with. One day at the supermarket, a man named Steve flirts with her and they exchange numbers. On their first date, the two quickly hit it off and have sex. After several dates, Steve invites Noa for a weekend break away alone with him. Against the advice of her best friend Mollie, Noa agrees to the trip. Planning to travel early the following day, Noa spends the evening at Steve's luxury home. Steve drugs Noa's cocktail and she falls unconscious.

Noa wakes up in captivity, chained to the ground. Steve explains that he is a butcher of human meat, which he sells to wealthy clients for consumption and eats himself. They prefer the meat of young women, so he regularly lures and abducts women on dates. He says that he will keep Noa alive as long as possible in order to keep her meat fresh as he surgically removes different pieces of her body. Steve allows Noa to take a shower, but she tries to escape. Steve captures her and harvests her buttocks as punishment. Noa speaks to a woman named Penny who is being held captive in an adjacent room.

Meanwhile, Mollie becomes concerned about Noa's disappearance and begins investigating with her friend Paul, a bartender who served Noa and Steve drinks on their first date. Searching online, Mollie discovers Steve is actually named Brendan, and is married to a woman named Ann with whom he has children. Believing he is having an affair, Mollie visits Ann and informs her of her suspicions. During their conversation, Brendan arrives, and when confronted by Mollie denies any knowledge of Noa. As she leaves, Mollie calls Noa's phone, which begins ringing in Brendan's pocket. Ann, revealed to be Brendan's accomplice, knocks Mollie unconscious. It is revealed that Ann has a prosthetic leg and was one of Brendan's victims before he fell for her.

Noa gains Brendan's trust by flirting and pretending to be interested in what human meat tastes like. Brendan invites her to dinner and persuades her to taste a lavish meal containing human meat, which Noa pretends to appreciate; she later vomits in her cell. Meanwhile, Brendan takes Mollie away for harvesting. Brendan invites Noa to another dinner, providing her with a pink dress as a gift. Before dinner, Brendan shows Noa a hidden compartment filled with items belonging to the victims. He feeds Noa breast meat, which Brendan connotes as possibly tasting "familiar." Noa recognises Mollie's phone among the stolen victims' phones. Following dinner, Noa persuades Brendan to have sex with her and let her perform fellatio on him; she instead bites off his testicles. With Brendan injured but in pursuit, Noa helps Mollie and Penny escape from their rooms.

The three encounter Brendan in the kitchen and fight him, then escape into the woods with Brendan pursuing them with a gun. They manage to attack him again, with Noa taking the gun and shooting Brendan dead. Ann arrives at the house and finds Brendan's body. She encounters Noa in the woods and tries to strangle her, but Noa stabs Ann in the neck with car keys. As Ann recovers and attempts to strangle Noa again, Mollie bludgeons Ann with a shovel. As she and Mollie relax at last, Noa receives a text from a man she went out with at the beginning of the film.

A mid-credits scene depicts five of Brendan's clients in a white room, seated at a table with bleeding human meat at the center. A Satanic symbol is displayed during the end credits, indicating that Brendan and his clients are part of a Satanist organisation.

A king and queen announce a royal ball to find a bride for their son, the prince. One maiden who knows the prince from battling alongside him is not excited to attend, but at the urging of her mother she goes nonetheless. Guests at the ball, including the king and queen, encourage the maiden to dance with the prince but she panics and steals away to a balcony to get some air.

The prince's sister encounters the maiden on the balcony and the two sit together and speak. As they are talking, the maiden takes the princess's hand, realizing she has fallen for her instead of her brother. The king and queen find the pair on the balcony and remark that they are well-suited for each other. After the maiden asks the princess to dance, they kiss. Later, the couple spends a great deal of time together and eventually get married.

Sampath, a Radio Jockey whose ambition is to be an actor, loses his wife and his voice in an accident that occurred on a rainy day. As he can only make blowing noises, he is nicknamed "Gaali Sampath". Years later he lives with his son Suri who's a trucker with respiratory problems. Suri falls in love with the village head's daughter. He convinces the chief by assuring him that he would only marry his daughter if he is capable of settling in life. He gets 5 Lakh rupees cash from a bank manager with a promise that he would return the money in a week and store it in a cabinet.

Sampath gets a chance to participate in a competition, but he has to pay the guy who booked the slot to give up his chance for 5 lakh rupees. Sampath asks his friend who is in love with the chief's daughter, who tries to sabotage Suri's marriage by asking Sampath to create a ruckus so the chief would cancel their marriage. Sampath not knowing that his son loves her beats the chief and reports to his friend who betrays him.

Sampath takes the money in the cabinet with hopes to repay his son after winning the competition for prize money of 8 Lakhs. He acts as a mime unable to feed his baby due to poverty. The audience is moved by his performance. On the same day, his son feels betrayed by his father for sabotaging all his plans and leaves the house. Sampath, depressed tries to curse the rain for taking away everything perfect in his life and slips to fall into a deep well and is knocked out of consciousness. Sampath overhears his son telling him that he is better on his own and tells everyone that his father is better dead than alive. Sampath after hearing this desperately tries to kill himself.

Suri meanwhile learns the real intentions from his father's friend, upon learning what his father had to sacrifice for his well-being, he begins searching for his father. Desperate, he stops near the well where the chief asks Suri to stop searching for Sampath and marry his daughter to move on with his life. Suri refuses and speaks highly of his father, upon hearing this Sampath motivated tries to get out of the well.

As he makes progress with items he finds inside the well, he nears the brim of the well only for it to start raining and him losing his grip to fall down. Meanwhile, Suri goes into a panic attack and loses his breathing, while Sampath starts cursing the rain he finds out that the rain facilitates him to swim to the top and get out of the well. Although injured, he provides medication to Suri and passes out of exhaustion from his attempt to escape the well. After a few days, Sampath wins the first prize in the competition and uses the money to repay Suri's debt along with helping him buy a new truck. On the same day when it starts to rain instead of cursing it, he starts to dance and enjoy the rain showing his new take on life.

A college professor, who has never got over the death of his brother in Vietnam, hears rumours about a famous professor working on a time machine. He meets him and persuades the doctor to send him back in time in order to stop the John F. Kennedy assassination and the Vietnam war, but things don't go according to plan, and he ends up getting blamed for the killing until his girlfriend and the professor travel back to help him, which causes additional issues.

inRishikesh "Rishi" is a modern-day misogynist who feels that women are not allowed to be independent. The reason for his condition is because his mother unwillingly left him at a young age, to take care of her elderly parents. Rishi was raised by his paternal aunt Rani, a cruel and cunning woman who hates Rishi's mother. While Soorya Kaimal, is a determined and headstrong girl, who wishes to make a mark on the society and feels that women must be independent.

Soorya comes from a middle-class family, her father, Shivaram, who was once a businessman, had gone bankrupt. Soorya has no desire to marry, as she wants to learn and pursue higher jobs so that she can help her family. Her mother, Devamma and elder sister Arya supports Soorya. Arya was married to a cruel man named Mohan, who wishes to inherit wealth from the Kaimal family. Her father wants her to marry.

Shocked, Soorya escapes from the marriage hall, and take shelter in her teacher, Aditi's house. Aditi becomes Soorya's mentor. Aditi is none other than Rishi's mother who left him at a young age. She regrets her mistake and wants to reconcile with her son. Meanwhile, Rishi is engaged to a beautiful and wealthy girl named Mithra. However, Mithra is unready to marry and goes to US to pursue higher studies.

A goon named, Basavanna attacks Aditi and she is taken to the hospital. Soorya and Aditi's estranged husband, Aditya is much worried about her condition. Aditya's sister in law, Lakshmi asks Rishi to meet a hospitalized Aditi. However, Rishi is reluctant as he hates Aditi for leaving him. However, hesitant, Rishi meets Aditi. It is shown that Rishi is not a bad person, feeling sorry about his mother Rishi sees her. However, Rani who learns of this, confront Aditi. Rishi overhears their conversation and once again hates her. Recovered, Aditi manages to gain admission for Soorya in Adi Keshava college with the help of Aditya. Rishi bombards Soorya with questions but she wins the interview.

However, as the college starts the students take instant dislike towards Soorya and mistreat her. Especially, Neetu and Neema, who are Rishi's spoilt cousin sisters. One day, while writing a scholarship exam, Rani decides to plot against Soorya, she asks her nieces Neetu and Neema for help. Eventually, they falsely accuse Soorya of cheating. However, Rishi gives her a last chance. Soorya plans to leave the college unable to bear the humiliation. Rishi convinces her not to.

Soon, Rishi starts to feel jealous of the closeness between SP Sooraj and Soorya. Soon, Rishi falls for Soorya. He tries to help her everytime but Soorya feels that Rishi is using her to gain fame for the college. However, she too falls for Rishi. Unfortunately, Mithra makes a re-entry to disrupt Soorya and Rishi's closeness.

Rishi is always hostile towards Mithra. Meanwhile, Shivaram lied to Soorya, Arya, Shekar and Devamma that he is working in a good company as the assistant of its owner. However, Devamma and Arya discovers that Shivaram was lying to them after Devamma finds a security uniform in Shivaram's cupboard. Shivaram reveals that he works as the security of the company godown.

Arya is shattered, knowing the truth. Fortunately, Aditi calls Arya to send her qualifications so that she can find a job. Successfully, Aditi consults her best friend, Ramadevi "Rama". Rama is the head of the same company in which Shivaram works. Shivaram learns that Soorya and Aditi are coming to his company, fearing, his truth will be revealed, he hides from them. While, Rama is fascinated by Arya's qualifications and agrees to provide her a job.

However, things turn bitter, when Sabu, a goon comes to Soorya's house, while they were away. He collects Soorya and Aditi's number. In the past, Sabu had attempted to abduct Soorya but she was saved by Rishi. Sabu goes to Rishi's house and manipulates Rani against Rishi. Sabu manages to receive Rishi's number. Meanwhile, Shekar decides to sell his house to make both ends meet.

Meanwhile, Mithra is disappointed to see a sudden change in Rishi's behaviour. She tries her best to win his heart, but all in vain. Soon, Mithra, Rani, Anandan (Rani's brother), Kunjiraman "Kunji" (Rani's husband) starts to suspect if Rishi is attracted to Soorya. While, Aditi and Soorya are worried if Sabu would cause troubles to them and Rishi. Aditi contacts Aditya and asks him to alert Rishi of the problem.

Later, Devamma and Shivaram are celebrating their wedding anniversary. This time, Mohan makes a re-entry and acts as if he is a changed man. He buys gifts for Devamma and Shivaram and expensive clothes for Arya, so that Shekar can be jealous. Arya refuses to accept Mohan's gift. Later, when Arya gets a job, Mohan coerces her to come with him in the car so that he can drop her to the office.

Problems, keep arising when Rani and Sabu plots to ruin Soorya's life. They call upon Soorya's cruel ex-fiancé to take her away when the time comes. They also plot to perform Rishi and Mithra's marriage without Rishi's knowledge as Rishi don't want to wed Mithra. Rani and Kunji visit an astrologer to finalize Mithra and Rishi's wedding. The astrologer objects as Rishi and Mithra's kundlis don't match.

One day Soorya visits Sabu's grandmother on Sabu's request however he tries to abduct Soorya and lock her up in a room. Rishi gets to know about Soorya's visit and rescues her from Sabu and gang and finally they reveal their feelings each other and fall in love in the rain . Meanwhile, Mohanan and house owner enters Shekaran's house and tries to harass Arya but Shekaran saves Arya and fatally injures Mohanan and they go from this house.

Arya and Shekar get married secretly. On Aditi's advice, Rishi and Soorya take shelter in Aditi's ancestral house, Aalanchery. There, they are warmly welcomed by Aditi's uncle, who is unaware that Rishi is Aditi's son. However, another problem starts when Aditi's cruel cousin, Jagannathan "Jagan" comes. Rani tries many ways to bring Rishi back home and Mithra vows to take revenge on Soorya for spoiling her life and she decides to act like a good person . Rani and jagan join hands to bring rishi back home He tries to trouble Soorya and Rishi. Aditi's uncle reveals about how many hardships Aditi faced in her life because of Jagan and Rani. He also mentions that Rani had conspired against Aditi to take Rishi away from her. Rishi realises about how much Aditi loved for him. Rishi calls Aditi to invite her over Aalanchery to perform her father's Sraddha. After Aditi's arrival, Rishi grows more close to her and realises her value. One day, as Jagan creates a commotion to inherit Aalanchery, Rishi stands up against him and supports Aditi. For the first time, he addresses Aditi as his mother in the public. Aditi is much overjoyed. As they are about to return, an unknown car causes an accident to them planned by jagan.Meanwhile, Devamma and Shivarama kaimal gets to know about mohanan's intentions and furious kaimal goes berserk and thrashes mohanan in hospital.

Meanwhile, Rishi and soorya return to college however Mithra, Rani, Neethu and Hima plan to ruin soorya's life. The college announces exam and Mithra tries to reduce Soorya's score and give her low marks. Soorya believes she has got good marks and warns college staff that she will protest if her paper is not re-evaluated

Trouble brew up for soorya and Rishi when Jagan threatens Soorya and her parents and Rani forbids Soorya from meeting Adithi if she wants to marry Rishi. Jagan realizes that Rani cheated her.Rani then makes a plan to finish soorya along with Neethu and Hima by organizing a trip along with soorya ,Rishi and Mithra to a place called Thevermala a dangerous place. So they start for trip and reach at the place and start exploring but a stranger hired by Rani and Jagan follows them and Rishi notices the stranger and tries to confront him Neethu watches this and she decides to finish the task by pushing soorya down by organizing selfie. But unfortunately Mithra gets pushed by Neethu and Soorya tries to save her but Mithra loses grip and falls down putting everyone shocked and sad state including Soorya Rishi and Mithra's parents.They reach her at the hospital and the police arrive to investigate the incident . Neethu gives false testimony against Soorya on the advice of Rani.Rishi gets to know this and tries to help Soorya by escaping her with Adithi but Soorya gets arrested . These police officers working under rani and jagan tried to harass Soorya but Rishi protects her by sitting for her whole night at police station .Sp sooraj saves them and lashes out at the officers. Then Soorya faces backlash from teachers by protesting that they will continue teaching if Soorya is suspended resulting in soorya's suspension.Will Soorya innocence be proved?

Ad Libitum Corporation is able to fulfill absolutely any desire. But, if a person has several desires, he will have to pay dearly for their embodiment.

The novel is set in the early 1990s in the Crimea. All the characters in the novel are both human (racketeers, drug addicts, mystics, prostitutes) and insects.

It is an allegory of human life, realized by comparison with the life of insects (which is an obvious parallel to the play by the Czech writer Karel Čapek Pictures from the Insects' Life (1921). The characters chosen by the author are typical representatives of the society of the early 1990s. But this dating does not play a role in itself because the types chosen are quite universal and suitable for all periods. The book has deep connotations with the teachings of Carlos Castaneda, Marcus Aurelius and Buddhism.

Although titled novel the book consists of fifteen short stories that are not related to each other. The heroes of these short stories appear in the first pages as ordinary beings who could be human. Then, Pelevine introduces the delirious details by describing, with great precision and a perfect knowledge of entomology, which allows the reader to know that they are insects.

The first publication of the novel was in the magazine Znamya in 1993. The author was awarded the 1993 Znamia magazine prize for "the best work on the life and exceptional adventures of democracy in Russia". This prize is traditionally awarded by the magazine to one of its own best publications, with sponsorship from Materik Publishing. Published in English in 1996.

This novel is the story of a former fox-woman called A Huli. The female model she represents is one of the few in Pelevin's novels to escape her usual sarcastic irony. The narration is conducted from a feminine point of view, that of A Huli. Her feelings of love are described with tenderness. She is smarter and more sensitive than her male partners. The mystery of her attraction to Pelevin remains intact, despite the differences she presents in comparison to the heroines of her other novels.

The motif of the animal-woman is frequent in Pelevin's novels. The short stories in The Life of Insects and the present work The Sacred Book of the Werewolf are two examples. This motif does not devalue the gaze towards the woman but makes it more original. It also helps to translate the idea that woman is never what she appears at first sight, that she has a double nature, that she is a mystery. Pelevine likes in Buddhism and oriental mythologies the role of the female deities rivaling the male deities but possessing more power than the latter.

The fox-woman also evokes the Chinese mythology in which she is called Huli jing (in traditional Chinese: 狐狸精). In the traditional tales and legends of Japan she is called Kitsune.

She is still, in Pelevin, an immortal spirit who reincarnates into a luxury prostitute, in Moscow, for example, in the 1990s, after the dissolution of the USSR. Always precise in his details, the writer lends both human female and animal features to his heroine. She wears stiletto heels, but gives free rein to her instincts as a hen-hunter. She is asexual, without a reproductive system. But her clients are deceived mainly because she manages to suggest, in the form of a hallucination, a sexual relationship that does not take place. She is of a rare beauty, with very small breasts, because of her delicacy, the color of her hair. But its main attribute is its red tail which can become more or less large in the same way as the phallus of a man, depending on the sexual hallucination to be provoked. At times during the story, we can see androgynous characteristics in his image, but it is rather, as Isabelle Després notes, a superior form of human being that allows him to use his beauty to achieve a form of hyper sexuality. We can still see the superman of which Nietzsche speaks, realized in a woman.

Victor Pelevin's most tender, simple and sad novel, devoid of acute relevance and therefore almost impervious to the current of time, according to some literary critics the best love story in his oeuvre. The relationship of the main characters - a foxy werewolf named A Huli and a "werewolf in uniform," a young FSB general - unfolds against the backdrop of a pinching impoverishment of the Russian land, the collapse of the usual (though far from flawless) way of life. Lyrical and musical (not by chance that the first edition of the book in Russia was accompanied by a disc of music tracks played in the novel) and truly touching "Holy Book of the Werewolf".

The feminine principle of wisdom, of the soul of the world takes the form here of the sexual energy on which A Huli feeds to live eternally. Published in English in 2008.

The genre of this work is a piece written in the form of a chat between the characters. But in Pelevin's production, on his site, it is listed in the novel category, and several articles on the subject also use the name novel. But some critics refer to the work as a play genre, or as a dramatic narrative.

Eight characters are participants in a very strange chat. Each of them, in an unknown way, finds himself in one of the very similar rooms with a keyboard and a computer. Soon they understand that they have become participants in the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. But the situation is much more complex than it seems at first glance.

Each character has his or her own labyrinth behind the door of his or her room.

Catherine "Kya" Clark is a resourceful young girl growing up in a North Carolina marsh on the coast during the 1950s. Her poor family live in a shack with their alcoholic and abusive father who gambles their money away. As Kya's mother and older siblings, one by one, flee the household due to the abuse, Kya is left alone with him. In time, her father softens, but then, without warning, he abandons her a few weeks after the only day she ever spends at school. Left completely alone at the age of seven, she still learns to survive, and the only way she earns money to buy gas for her boat and food is by digging and selling mussels at Jumpin' and Mabel Madison's small country store. The couple protects her and offer what care they can to Kya over the years. The townspeople of Barkley Cove know little about Kya, nicknaming her "The Marsh Girl".

On the same day that her father left, Kya takes her boat as far as the ocean and turns around, but gets lost while trying to find her way home. Fortunately, she comes upon a slightly older boy named Tate Walker, who guides her home safely. He was a friend of her older brother Jodie, and had known Kya since she was a very little girl. Tate then begins visiting her in the marsh, and they become good friends over their teenage years. He teaches her to read, write, and count, even lending her books. Both share an interest in nature and they eventually begin a romantic relationship. However, Kya gets left behind once again when Tate leaves for college and fails to keep his promise of returning to her on the 4th of July.

Over the next few years, as her art skills and knowledge of biology grow, Kya sends her nature drawings and research writings to a publisher, as previously encouraged by Tate, and the income from the book helps her keep her family's property. The publishing of Kya's book leads to her rediscovery by her older brother Jodie, now a military veteran. He informs her that their mother had wanted to find and reunite with the other children, but she became sick and died from leukemia. Jodie promises to visit her when he can.

By 1965, now 19 years old, Kya becomes drawn into a romantic relationship by Chase Andrews, Barkley Cove's popular quarterback, who promises her marriage. Chase gives a small shell to Kya. She later makes a simple necklace of it and gives it to him as a gift. But when Kya discovers that Chase is already engaged to another girl, she is made to feel worthless, and she furiously ends their relationship. Meanwhile, Tate returns to Barkley Cove, brokenly apologizing to Kya for abandoning her. He wants very much to rekindle their romance, but Kya is unsure. Chase keeps pursuing Kya, wanting to continue their sexual relationship, but she rebuffs him. He then violently attacks and tries to rape her but Kya successfully fights him off and loudly vows to kill him if he doesn't leave her alone. This threat is overheard by a local fisherman; Chase later returns and aggressively vandalizes Kya's home, as she watches from the bushes.

Later, Chase is found dead at the bottom of a fire tower from which he has fallen. The tower is located in a wet and muddy bog that gets flooded at high tide. The surrounding area lacked any tracks from the killer, and no fingerprints were found on the tower. A shell necklace Kya had given him was missing from his body, and he had been wearing it the evening of his death. The following day, Kya is charged with first-degree murder and prejudged by the overly zealous and suspicious townspeople.

Despite the knowledge that Kya had been in Greenville to meet with a book publisher, the police still speculate that she might have disguised herself and made a quick, round-trip, bus ride back to Barkley Cove, then lured Chase to the fire tower during the night, returning to Greenville later that same night. The police have little evidence other than their unproven theory, the missing necklace, and the fisherman's testimony, so Kya is found not guilty at her trial in 1970.

Kya and Tate finally spend the rest of their lives together as loving partners. Over the years, Kya ends up publishing more illustrated nature books, and she is frequently visited by Jodie and his family. The film shows Kya and Tate progressing through the years, remaining devoted to one another. One evening, when Kya is in her 70s, she is boating through the swamp to return to the cabin. She imagines seeing her mother, finally returning on the same path she used to leave many years before. Shortly afterwards, Tate finds Kya lying dead in the boat at their small dock. As Tate is boxing up Kya's things, he looks at her journal and finds a passage saying that to protect the prey, sometimes the predator has to be killed. This is accompanied by a drawing of Chase. He then finds the missing necklace Kya had made for Chase, indicating that she had indeed killed him. This would have been evidence that could have convicted her. Tate then removes the shell and throws it into the water, forever hiding Kya's secret in her beloved marsh.

In late 2016 the narrator, a blogger, has feelings of ambivalence towards her boyfriend, Felix. She decides to go through his phone where she discovers a secret Instagram account where he espouses conspiracy theories, theories which he does not appear to believe in real life. She decides to break up with him.

The narrator recounts how she met Felix while on a pub crawl in Berlin and the two began a long-distance relationship with Felix eventually joining her in Brooklyn.

Feeling excited about the prospect of ending her relationship with Felix, she nevertheless decides to delay breaking up with him until after the 2017 Women's March, which she attends reluctantly. Felix does not text her during the March which angers her. She later receives a call from his mother that reveals Felix was killed while biking.

The narrator decides to quit her job and move to Berlin on a whim. Knowing no German (and with no plans to learn) she survives in the English language ex-pat community, taking an under-the-table job babysitting children. Bored, she also begins to aggressively date, making connections through online dating apps and coming up with different personas to try out on the men she is dating.

The narrator eventually receives a call from a former friend that reveals that several hours earlier Felix reappeared at a work event with his former colleagues, revealing he faked his death as a piece of performance art and is now living in Berlin. The narrator sends Felix an angry email to which he responds that he assumed she knew he faked his own death.

A short while later the narrator runs into Felix on the streets of Berlin. She mentions that in his new Instagram page he quoted something she once tweeted. He tells her that was the point.

Based on the works of H. P. Lovecraft, ''The Shore'' tells the story of Andrew, a fisherman in search of his daughter on a mysterious island overrun with nightmarish Lovecraftian entities.

Eric Black has recurring nightmares following the recent death of his pregnant wife Rachel. Thinking he needs some space, he answers to a newspaper ad for work as a shepherd on a remote island in the Scottish Highlands. En route, he drops by his childhood home but is rebuked by his mother Glenys, who blames the death of his father on Eric's decision to leave them for Rachel, whom she implied to have been adulterous. Eric throws his wedding ring into a lake and breaks down after considering suicide. He and his Border Collie Baxter are then ferried to the island by the half-sighted Fisher, his only contact, who hands him a journal to record his thoughts. They settle into a dilapidated cottage by an unlit lighthouse. Eric finds a ring in a freshwater spring and, at the cottage, a shelf of journals identical to the one Fisher gave him. In one of the journals, he finds frantic writings about a witch on the island. At night, he struggles to climb the stairs to his room due to severe acrophobia.

Strange events begin to occur. Eric wakes up the next day to see Rachel's old cup inexplicably filled with hot tea. After feeding the sheep, he sees Fisher entering the otherwise locked lighthouse and leaving the island in a hurry. One morning, he has a waking nightmare in which a demonic Glenys stabs him. When Baxter goes missing, he searches for him through heavy fog and finds an ancient luxury liner in a valley. On board, he picks up an old key and runs away after sensing the presence of a robed figure from his nightmares. While reading the journals, he finds a drawing of this figure, titled “The Wrecker”, holding a lamp to lure a ship to a rock, and is startled to also find a drawing of Baxter. He later finds that the ring he plucked from the spring is the wedding ring he threw away.

On the phone, Fisher implies that Eric is fated to be there as penance, making him confess that Rachel’s death was due to his drunk driving. Desperate to be saved, Eric uses the old key to the lighthouse and, after an arduous climb, turns on its light to Fisher’s dismay. As he exits, Eric finds his sheep ritualistically flayed and finds Baxter among them, but they all disappear the next day. When confronted by the robed figure, which takes on Rachel’s guise, Eric immolates it and the cottage with the lighter Rachel gave him. Eric swims out to a boat but her ghost drags him underwater.

Eric wakes up ashore and is taken to the police. When questioned, the full extent of his confession is revealed: due to drunk driving, the car carrying him and Rachel veered off to the edge of a cliff; taken over by acrophobia, Eric exited the car, causing it to be unbalanced and fall to the ocean with Rachel. Fisher phones Eric to say that while his penance for Rachel's death was over, she is angered that he broke the rules by escaping. It is shown that Fisher has killed Glenys using Eric’s knife and planted his journal as evidence. Hearing the wind howl outside his interrogation room, Eric opens the door to see that he is emerging from the lighthouse back on the island.

Graham is a vlogger who will do anything for a laugh. He is driven by his social presence online and does it all for the likes. However Graham's videos are not bringing in the viewership that they once did in the past. One night when Graham is recording he catches an alleged haunting on camera in his flat. His video goes viral and his viewership and likes seem to be going back up. He's audience however seem to be torn. Some are calling it fake and others are calling it truly terrifying and genuine.

Graham catches the attention of an online ghost hunter named Steve. Steve suggest they do a live séance in Graham's flat. Along with Graham's partner Erin they carry out the séance which reveals a ghostly figure. This video too goes viral. After a few more videos Graham claims that the videos were fake. Claiming they were all staged. This causes Graham's fans to turn on him. His viewership and likes stop. His hauntings however, do not. Now Graham is "crying wolf" trying to get everyone to believe him again. Friends and viewers alike but his attempts seem futile.

Graham, who was once caught up in the limelight an addicted to all the attention is now in a downward spiral and is blurring the lines between reality and fantasy.

The story is told both in found footage style and through interviews. It can be considered a mockumentary.

A young man named Roman Aleksandrovich Shtorkin becomes a vampire. This happens when Roman accidentally meets another vampire, Brama, who decided to kill himself after a vampire duel. But before he does, he is obliged to give the other man his "tongue" - the special essence that makes a person a vampire. With the help of the "tongue," a vampire can read the mind of a human or another vampire by tasting their blood. As vampires say, "tasting."

This is how Roman becomes a vampire. Having changed his name to Rama according to vampire tradition, he must now change his way of thinking. To do this, like every young vampire, he takes a course in the two main vampire sciences: glamour and discourse. The vampire's socialization is paradoxical: on the one hand, he was and, to some extent, remains human. On the other hand, he becomes a vampire, who must by nature control glamour and discourse instead of succumbing to it. For the vampire, this is the primary way to control humanity and, at the same time, to feed on it.

Rama quickly settles into vampire society. Gradually he becomes more and more accustomed to the fact that all his new acquaintances and himself bear the names of gods, that the word "blood" is indecent to say aloud, and that he is no longer human. Vampire society lives with little overlap with human society and is built on values that have nothing to do with humanity. At the same time, humanity is pervaded by vampire agents, the "Chaldeans," who set the cultural and social direction the vampires want. A vampire can have a full love relationship only with his own kind, and the book describes Rama's complicated relationship with a new vampire named Hera.

Rama learns that, contrary to everything that is said, written and filmed about vampires, they are a special race of symbiote creatures whose vampiric part, the "tongue," passes from host to host over time. The ability to read a person's mind allows vampires to control people, and the control of discourse and glamour allows them to do the same with the entire society. Actually, the main goal of any vampire is to control humanity, the main means being the tasting of the "red liquid.

Rama's life after his conversion consists of more than study. He struggles with being a vampire, pondering the eternal questions, "Where did the world come from?", "What happens after death?", "What is truth?", "What is God?" and actively seeking answers to them. Trying to understand what is happening to him, he takes notes, which make up the book. The older vampires consider such feelings to be a common, empty bliss for young people, but this does not stop Rama, who tries to learn more about the meaning of his life, now - the life of a vampire. Osiris, an atypical vampire-tolstoyan, provides some help.

At the end of the novel it turns out that Rama was left undertrained on purpose, but that is what allowed him to remain more human than vampire.

Rama is a young vampire who has already mastered the vampire craft, he already knows the basics: he can stealthily bite a person's neck, so that from the little red liquid all the secrets of that person's soul are revealed to him. As we already know from the first part of the novel - vampires rule the world.

Now Rama faces another great challenge: trained as a diver, he plunges again and again into uncertainty, into the realm between life and death, and also meets the supreme vampire, the eternal Dracula, who shares with him the secrets of this world.

Modern culture in general, the actual world order as a whole (both in Russian and Western variants) in Pelevin evoke a passionate aversion. In generalized form, the essence can be conveyed as follows. There is an elite in the world, more or less understanding the essence of the processes taking place (the vampires and the Chaldeans chosen from among the people serving them), and the rest of humanity. The elite control people with discourse (ideological twaddle) and glamour (the cultural contentlessness of consumer society). Simply put, by messing with the minds of the average person. The media, the Internet, computer games, and so on serve the same purpose.

The main intrigue of the novel is that in the Russian situation of social and legal disadvantage, these tools no longer work.

As described in a film magazine review, Peter Maddox, a poor but capable geologist, is disappointed in love. He vows, "no more women." Wealthy Peggy Van Dyke decides that she will marry him. She follows him to his camp, pretends that she is ill, and removes a necessary part of his automobile engine to keep him with her. When she falls asleep, he leaves. Thieves seize her, so her dog goes after Peter. He returns and rescues her. He then declares his love for Peggy.

''The Last Gasp'' is a novel in which industrialization leads to oxygen depletion, causing mass deaths, social upheavals, and mutations.

As described in a film magazine, Anatole Picard (MacDonald) and Pierre Dupont (de Rochefort) are two French volunteers in the Algerian campaign, brother and sweetheart of Gabrielle (Bellamy). Before embarking for Africa, Pierre wins the young woman's promise to await his return. Serving as a bugler in headquarters company, Anatole is captured by the enemy and commanded to blow Retreat. He outwits his captors and blows the Charge, resulting in a French victory. Returning home, they find their native village devastated by the Prussian war of 1870, and the young woman gone. Pierre never tires of narrating his chum's courageous exploit, until he makes himself a laughing-stock. He believes, however, if he tells the story often enough, his crony will eventually receive governmental recognition. Years pass. Finally, the French government, in search of a hero on whom to bestow a decoration, hears of Anatole's exploit and sends for him. Unwilling to desert his chum, and to prove himself as much a soldier as ever, he, accompanied by Pierre, declines the offer of railroad transportation and sets out on foot for the capital. His strength gives out, and he dies en route. Pierre, to perpetuate his friend's memory, changes uniforms with his dead companion, borrows his credentials and, assuming the dead man's identity, continues on to Paris. There he receives Anatole's decoration. The dead man's sister, Gabrielle, finally located by the French government, is there to witness the ceremony, and sees through Pierre's deception. She keeps silent, however, and accompanies him back to the body of her dead brother, upon whose tattered regimentals they reverently pin the long-awaited decoration.

''Balance of Power'' is a novel in which the planetfalls of the 'recontact' ship ''Daedalus'' continue.

As described in a review in a film magazine, Lafayette Jordan (Davis), financier, plans to inundate Caribou Canyon and turn it into a reservoir, but the villagers will not sell him their land. Among the resentful villagers is Judson Forrest (Harlan), who wants to be an inventor. Mary Jordan (Bellamy), daughter of the financier, is hurt and spends a night at his home. Learning of his attitude toward her father, she poses as a domestic at the Jordan home. Later, in New York, Judson looks her up. He is trying to sell his invention and, to get funds, he mortgages his home. The village banker, in league with Jordan, sells the financier the mortgage, and a foreclosure threatens when Jordan's business agent Henry Mogridge (Miljan) double-crosses Judson. The youth thinks Mary working against him. Friends come to Judson's aid and he pays off the mortgage in the nick of time. He learns that Jordan knew nothing of the methods employed by his agent and that Mary loves him.

''Orbitsville Departure'' is a novel which is a sequel to ''Orbitsville''.

The tiger overhears the conversation of a mother with a crying baby, and after hearing consistent crying of the baby despite the mention of tigers coming to get the baby, the tiger misunderstands it as babies not fearing tigers. However, the crying of the baby is stopped by mention of the dried persimmon, which makes the tiger think of the fruit snack as a being scarier than the tiger. In the same house, a cow thief sneaks into the house and rides the tiger. The tiger, thinking the thief was the dried persimmon, runs for its life, and when the thief realizes that he rode a tiger he flees.

As described in a film magazine review, Alan Randolph and Spain's idol, singer Rosita Mendez, fall in love while Alan is visiting Spain. When reminded by a friend of his fiancée Violet Beaton back in Louisiana, he goes back. Rosita follows him by making an American tour. When they meet again, Alan, realizing the danger regarding Rosita, elopes with Violet and marries her at once in secret. Rosita, infuriated, threatens to kill him with a revolver and in a scuffle is wounded. Determined not to let anyone else have him, she has Alan sent to jail for five years. Rosita outlines a plan of escape to Alan, but he refuses. However, when he receives word from Violet of the birth of a baby, he accepts the plan and escapes, going back to his wife. Consumed with jealousy, Rosita informs on him and Alan is returned to jail, but, when she sees the baby, she relents and has him freed.

Ryota Hayama is a sensitive loner, disliked by his schoolmates, and always downcast and unhappy. He is called Jesus by schoolmates because of his perpetual sad look. Koharu Uemura takes a liking to him, and they start a relationship. The relationship continues until unexpectedly, Koharu breaks up with him, telling him that her grandmother dissaproved of their relationship. Hayama is devastated, however he is approached by Emiri who is in love with him, and they start going out. Hayama however, realised that he is still in love with Koharu, and splits up with his new girlfriend, telling Hayama that he still loves her. He approaches Uemura to try to rekindle their relationship, however is once again rebuffed. He then finds out that all is not what it seems.

In 2018, the Japanese national team finished 16th in the FIFA World Cup. As a result, the Japanese Football Union hires the soccer enigma Ego Jinpachi. His master plan to lead Japan to stardom is Blue Lock, a training regimen designed to create the world's greatest egotist striker. Those who fail Blue Lock will never again be permitted to represent Japan. Yoichi Isagi, an unknown high school soccer player who is conflicted about his playing style, decides to join the program in order to become the best player in the world.

Strange events befall the crew of the merchant ship known as the ''Demeter''.

In Macau, China, Liu (Jui Huang) stole 1 billion euros from a casino – not knowing it belonged to the Chinese mafia – through a digital transaction, the data of which was recorded on a flash drive. Pursued, he flees to Portugal and the device ends up in the suitcase João (Ricardo Pereira), who is moving to Brazil, causing the boy to also have to travel to the country to try to recover it. He goes to live in Parque das Nações, a suburb of Rio de Janeiro, where he falls in love with the martial arts fighter Flor de Lys (Bruna Marquezine), but the two have to face Wu (Anderson Lau), a Chinese mercenary and Liu's cousin, who also wants the money and put an end to the hacker. In addition, there is also Stelinha (Fernanda Rodrigues), who returns to the country after years living in Asia, where she joined another Chinese faction that also wants fortune, in addition to rivaling Flor on the mat.

Meanwhile, João falls in love with Lívia (Grazi Massafera), who struggles to raise her son Théo (Eike Duarte) on her own, the result of a troubled marriage with Heitor (Fábio Assunção), whose mothers Luli (Eliana Rocha) and Suzete (Yoná Magalhães) tormented the two until they separated. After Heitor is murdered - for finding out about the flash drive -, the girl starts to live a romance with João, but is also harassed and persecuted by the psychotic Ramiro (Rodrigo Mendonça). In the final stretch, the relationship is shaken when Lívia approaches the doctor Otávio (Dalton Vigh), who is enchanted by her. Son of Julia (Natália do Valle) in an artificial insemination, Diego (Thiago Fragoso) spent his life trying to find out who his father is and, little by little, gets to Adriano (Herson Capri). The boy is dating Antonella (Fernanda de Freitas), but the couple faces the scheming of Celeste (Juliana Didone), an ambitious girl who sees the chance to leave the suburbs, being a model and was Diego's first love, not admitting to losing him.

Ending

Liu manages to retrieve the flash drive and send Wu to prison, with Flor convincing him to donate all the money to charity. Stelinha tries to blow up the neighborhood, but is stopped by the couple and ends up blind. João and Lívia can finally live in peace, after Ramiro is arrested after kidnapping, while Otávio is interested in Celeste, who became disillusioned with Diego.

Characters

''' ''' – The Ultimate Detective of Hope's Peak Academy, who investigates a series of disappearances at a mysterious mansion after being hired to do so.

''' ''' – The player character and "Normal Freshman", who assists Kyoko in her investigations after almost hitting her with his car.

''' ''' – A mysterious hybrid doppelgänger of Kyoko, made from her DNA and spliced with a unicellular organism whose DNA was half-animal and half-plant. In the non-canon ''Extraterrestrials vs. Earth Plants Against Invaders Defense Force'' chapter, Kyoka is an alien commander; in the shared dreamscape-set ''Extra Scenario'' chapter, Kyoka is depicted as the twin sister of Kyoko, who has become addicted to day trading virtual currency over the internet.

''' ''' – The Ultimate Botanist of Hope's Peak Academy, who is implied to have created Kyoka in the canon route. In the non-canon ''Extraterrestrials vs. Earth Plants Against Invaders Defense Force'' chapter, he takes on a more prominent role in the fight against the Rhinogradentia, developing a romantic relationship with Kyoka; in the shared dreamscape-set ''Extra Scenario'' chapter, he briefly appears as the owner of the mansion, providing Matsudaira CPR while he dreams of kissing Kyoko, briefly awakening him from his coma.

''' ''' – The hybrid plant "siblings" of Kyoka created by Santa, depicted in the non-canon ''Extraterrestrials vs. Earth Plants Against Invaders Defense Force'' chapter as an alien force of plant hybrids known as the "Super Galaxy Level Invaders", with their role in the canon ''The Plant Girl'' narrative being replaced with a series of unnamed plant-human hybrids whom Kyoka lures humans to so that they may kill and eat them for sustenance, keeping them alive. In the shared dreamscape-set ''Extra Scenario'' chapter, Matsudaira sees a single Rhinogradentia alongside Hiro Hagakure while passing by a fireplace.

''' ''' – The Ultimate Clairvoyant of Hope's Peak Academy, whom Matsudaira briefly encounters by a fireplace in a shared dreamscape in the ''Extra Scenario'' chapter.

Story

''Kirigiri Sou'' has three main narratives based on the decisions of the player character; the canon narrative chapter, ''The Plant Girl'', depicts normal freshman Kouhei Matsudaira assisting Ultimate Detective Kyoko Kirigiri after she is contacted to investigate her apparent doppelgänger at a mysterious mansion. The non-canon narrative chapters ''Extraterrestrials vs. Earth Plants Against Invaders Defense Force'' and ''Extra Scenario'' are respectively depicted in the canon narrative as dreams being had by Kouhei Matsudaira after almost crashing his car during the beginning and ending scenes of ''The Plant Girl'' and ''Extra Scenario'', with the scenes of ''Extra Scenario'' depicting Matsudaira as awake being set an unspecified amount of time after the events of ''The Plant Girl''.

Peggy and Joe Blondin are husband and wife who show their dancing number in New York cabarets. Sick of tuberculosis, however, Joe is forced to leave for the West for treatment, leaving his wife alone. Now she must also work to pay for her husband's care, with his demands for money ever increasing, so much so that the situation leads to despair. In reality, Joe's correspondence is intercepted by Harlan Quinn, a millionaire who has sights on Peggy: the man rewrites the letters by falsifying their contents. After one particularly alarming letter, Peggy accepts an appointment with Harlan who promises his financial help in return. But before the man manages to win the favors of the dancer, Joe arrives in New York, fully healed. The two men have a fight in which Peggy's stepfather, a drug addict who has been tricked by Harlan, intervenes and shoots the millionaire. The police shoot in turn, killing the old man.

Arrested by the NSA for his involvement with the secretive organization Cicada 3301, hacker Connor testifies in front of the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court about the events that transpired. Connor explains that 29 days earlier, he inadvertently found the organization's recruitment game, which requires participants to solve a series of puzzles in order to join. Strong-armed by the NSA to help them shut down Cicada, Connor takes part in the game alongside Gwen, a librarian seeking to be recruited, and his best friend Avi. The three succeed in finding clues from the puzzles, but after nearly being killed by another group of participants, Gwen and Avi drop out. Connor, however, continues the game and eventually causes a massive power outage, earning him an invitation to Cicada's private party in England.

Recognizing that Cicada intends to bring chaos to the world, Connor informs Gwen and Avi that he intends to stop the organization at the party, prompting them to join him. The infiltration goes awry, resulting in Connor and Gwen being captured by Cicada's leader, Phillip Dubois. Dubois, who defends the organization as bringing equality to an unjust world, reveals Gwen is a treasonous NSA agent pursuing amnesty through Cicada. Connor escapes after killing Dubois' guards, but as a result of Gwen being shot, she provides Connor with a USB drive to obtain the information Cicada holds. Confronted by Connor, Dubois confesses he is an actor following orders from Cicada and was unaware anyone would be harmed. As the NSA storms the building, Connor succeeds in downloading the information before being knocked unconscious in his escape attempt, while the agents kill Dubois.

At the conclusion of Connor's testimony, the judges find fault in the NSA's tactics, but also inform Connor that he has incriminated himself in several felonies. However, Connor reveals that he was stalling the court with his testimony so he would be able to start leaking the private documents that he downloaded. Connor threatens to continue leaking information unless he receives $1 million for each document and Avi is released from custody. His extortion successful, Connor uses his new finances to assist others. He receives a message from Gwen, who is now a member of Cicada.

Valentina (Gala Montes) is a young woman who dreams of succeeding in the world of fashion. She works in a pasteurizing factory belonging to Ricardo's (Chris Pazcal) family, who makes her believe that he will help her fulfill her dream, but only wants to take advantage of her and has put a large sum of money in her name, which he has stolen from his father (Marco Muñóz). Valentina and Ricardo's plan to escape is discovered, which will condemn Ricardo to take a trip alongside his father Armando, a successful businessman who does not forgive the betrayal of his son and who threatens to send him to jail as well as his accomplice. Unfortunately the trip turns into a tragedy as the plane suffers an accident. Ricardo loses his memory, disappears and is presumed dead. After losing her boyfriend as well as her father (Adalberto Parra) in the accident, Valentina and her sister Nora (Ale Müller) will arrive to Mexico City looking for their uncle Horacio (José Elías Moreno), where they meet Claudio (Juan Diego Covarrubias), Horacio's adoptive son. Claudio is a noble man who as a lawyer will help the members of his community with the legal problems they will face. Immediately the flame of love will light between Valentina and Claudio after meeting, but Nora will try to get in the way to win over Claudio. Valentina tries to make it on her own and find a job at the fashion house of Yolanda Pratas (Frances Ondiviela), a famous designer. Valentina shows great talent but due to her naivety, she allows her designs to be stolen and is fired. Claudio discovers Valentina's ability to design and takes her to Helena's (Ana Belena) workshop, without imagining that a family mystery will unite them for life. Ricardo recovers his memory and looks for Valentina, surprising everyone with the news that he did not die in the tragic plane crash, however is revealed to have his own agenda with Valentina.

Alicia Montiel (Mayrín Villanueva) has the perfect family and is married to Sergio Carranza (Alexis Ayala), one of the most respected and recognized journalists in Mexico. They have 3 children and are icons and the synonym of the ideal family in society. Alicia's world falls apart when she discovers that Sergio has been unfaithful to her for the last 3 years with the co-host from his television show, Julieta Lugo. Alicia works up the courage to divorce him and will have to face all the challenges that her new life will bring including falling in love with a man much younger than her, Martín Guerra (Marcus Ornellas), who is also a journalist and has been the professional rival of Sergio. Alicia will give in to a new love, she will challenge whoever dares to question her and in freedom, she will give a chance to true happiness.

In the opening scene, an injured man struggles to escape through a wood at night, but is soon caught by his pursuer. When the victim is unable to tell his attacker the location of a missing woman, the attacker buries him alive.

The action moves to a police station, where Police Officer Martín is starting a new job. One of his first duties is to drive a prisoner transport vehicle at night. He will be partnered by Officer Montesino during the transfer of six prisoners. During the strip search of the prisoners prior to departure, Montesino displays an aggressive attitude, deliberately humiliating some of the men. Martín, who believes in obeying the rules, prevents Montesino from striking one of the prisoners.

The prison transport vehicle is escorted by a police car with two officers, driving ahead. When the transport vehicle enters a foggy patch on the road, Martín loses sight of the police car, as well as radio contact. Then the truck is brought to a sudden stop by a spiked strip lying across the road. Montesino goes outside to assess the situation, but then Martín also loses radio contact with him.

Martín gets out himself to investigate and finds Montesino dead. Someone then starts shooting at him from the trees. Running for cover, Martín finds the overturned police car with both officers shot dead.

Martín returns fire at the sniper, emptying his gun. He makes it back to the transport vehicle, but is shot in the leg. In the cabin of the truck, he tries to call headquarters, but when the sniper shoots at the windscreen he retreats into the prisoners’ section.

One of the prisoners had earlier managed to access a hidden lock pick, and used it to remove his handcuffs and open his cell. He tries to overpower Martín, but the officer holds him off with his gun. Then gasoline is poured into two of the cells (from tubes through the ventilation grilles) and set alight. Martín has to open the cells to save the prisoners, although one man, Pardo, has already died.

The freed prisoners open the other cells and Martín is surrounded. He still tries to hold them off with his weapon, but then a message comes through the radio, announcing to the prisoners that Martín’s gun is, in fact, empty, and that they should take his key and escape. All, that is, except a prisoner called Nano, who is wanted by the man who has staged the hijack. Nano responds to this by beating to death another prisoner, Mihai, a foreigner, whom Nano insists has masterminded the whole thing, and that it is nothing to do with him. Nano has also managed to get hold of Martín’s key.

The hijacker, Miguel, who has entered the truck's cabin, sends another radio message, telling the men that if they don’t hand over Nano they will all die. A brawl ensues, with the men trying to get the key off Nano, but he swallows it. Martín is overpowered and knocked unconscious by prisoner Ramis. When he comes to, he is locked in an area at one end of the truck, along with Nano, while the other men try to figure out a way to open the exit door. Ramis asks Martín if he remembers him? Apparently he performed in a band at Martín’s wedding.

Miguel starts the truck and begins to drive. In the back, the heating has been turned off and as it is winter the men are freezing. One of the prisoners, Rei, enters a storage compartment under the truck and tries to unscrew a panel.

However, Montesino, whom Martín had believed to be dead, has begun to revive. Although wounded, he finds Miguel’s jeep hidden in the trees. In the glove box is a gun, and also numerous photos of a young woman. Newspaper cuttings reveal her to be Miguel’s missing daughter, Soledad Garcia.

Montesino transmits a distress call to headquarters and then drives after the prisoner transport truck. When he catches up with it, he fires through the side window of the cab, but Miguel manages to drive him off the road. Montesino hits a tree, and dies from his injuries. Meanwhile, Rei has also died, having been impaled on a long metal screw in the storage compartment, while the truck was swerving about.

Inside the truck, Martín talks with Nano, trying to discover what this is all about. Nano insists he doesn’t know. Miguel had mentioned the name Chino in one of his radio messages, and Nano says that this is someone he grew up with, and who is like a brother to him.

Miguel continues to drive as dawn breaks over the snowy landscape. He drives the truck into the middle of a frozen lake and shoots at the surrounding ice so that the vehicle begins to sink. Then he walks off. As freezing water begins to fill the truck, Martín tells Ramis to release him so that he can reveal an emergency exit. Martín, Nano and Ramis escape through this exit, but the remaining prisoner, Golum, succumbs to the cold and dies.

Nano runs off after climbing out of the lake. Ramis and Martín shake hands before they part; Ramis wants to pursue his dream of opening a bar in the Caribbean. Martín makes his way to a nearby village, where he hears gunfire. Miguel is stationed in a high building, firing at Nano, who is hiding in the street below.

Martín creeps up behind Miguel, but is held off by Miguel’s shotgun. Miguel explains why he is doing this; he had allowed his 13 year old daughter Sole to visit a fair with her friend. Nano and his friend Chino separated Sole from her girlfriend, and persuaded her to drink some shots. Unused to alcohol, she was soon drunk and then the boys took turns raping her. They then tortured her, with cigarette butts, pliers and a bottle. Finally they tied her to a car and dragged her through the fields until she died.

Nano, already a hardened criminal, with numerous jail sentences behind him, was suspected of the crime, but the police couldn’t prove anything. However, Miguel tracked down Chino, who confessed under torture to what they had done - only he didn’t know where Nano had hidden Sole’s body (it was Chino who was buried alive in the opening scene). All Miguel now wants is to retrieve his daughter’s body so that he can give her a proper burial.

Martín says he cannot permit Miguel to kill Nano. Miguel says he understands, as he was once a police officer. The men grapple for the shotgun and Martín overpowers Miguel and takes the weapon, but Miguel runs off in pursuit of Nano.

Martín follows and finds Miguel beating Nano. Martín makes him back off, whereupon Nano sneers at Miguel, saying he will never reveal the location of his daughter’s body. Hearing this, Martín shoots Nano in the foot, and then blasts his hand off, demanding he tell Miguel where Sole is. In agony, Nano finally confesses that she is in a well on a farm. As he makes this revelation, a police rescue helicopter arrives.

In a final scene, Martín clears out his locker at headquarters and leaves the building, presumably having also left his police career behind him.

Seiichi Hiiragi is an overweight high school student who is bullied by his classmates for being a "loser." One day, his entire school is suddenly transported to a video game-like world of swords and sorcery. When he accidentally eats "the Fruit of Evolution," not only does his physical appearance change, but also his life as a successful "winner" begins.

Finding himself bankrupt, William Ziel is forced to return to the farm he inherited from his father to start a new life with his fragmented family.

Japan is preparing to commemorate the World Sports Games (WSG), the world's biggest sports games, hosting them in Tokyo. The Hyperlinear bullet train, the pinnacle of Japan's advanced technology, will begin operation to coincide with the WSG's opening ceremony, running at speeds of up to 1,000 km/h between Shin-Nagoya Station and Tokyo's newly built Shibahama Station. As the world watches, disaster suddenly strikes the host venue, where the sponsors of the Games are gathered. A crisis unfolds as several industry leaders are kidnapped in quick succession. In the shadows, Shuichi Akai waits, watching the crisis unfold, as FBI agents await his orders. Conan deduces the connection between the terrible WSG-related kidnappings that occurred in Boston, 15 years earlier, and it is revealed the investigation was handled by the FBI back then.

Jack Kincaid is The Guard, a superhero chosen by an alien artifact to inherit its powers and save the world, but his hero duties cause him to neglect his parental duties to his son Charlie, driving a wedge between them. When Charlie stays at Jack's house for his birthday, he invites his friends Berger, Lizzie, and Maya over, where they find Jack's underground lair and find out his secret identity. Meanwhile, a weapons CEO named Ansel Argon wants to use The Guard's power source for his own sinister schemes.

After the kids use Jack's gadgets, Argon's head mercenary, Sean Irons, brings his team to track down the power source. The kids fight back, and Jack manages to arrive just in time, but when Berger sends the source through a portal connected to his locker at school, Argon uses one of Jack's gadgets to get his own suit and kidnap Berger to find the source. Charlie leads his friends, plus Irons, to get their own gadgets to fight back. The showdown takes place during the school dance, ending with Charlie sending Argon through a portal to another dimension with a grenade. He ends up dancing with Maya and kissing her.

Charlie ends up joining Jack so they fight crime together.

Following the invasion of several giant lifeforms classified as the "S-Class Species", the Japanese Government establish the S-Class Species Suppression Protocol to eliminate further threats. Shortly thereafter, the SSSP address the monster Neronga's attack, when a silver extraterrestrial giant dubbed "Ultraman" appears to defeat the monster and save humanity, however, he inadvertently kills SSSP member Shinji Kaminaga during his battle with the monster. He subsequently takes Shinji's appearance and place, leaving the real Shinji's body in the forest where he died. Ultraman in the form of Shinji then bonds a friendship with SSSP analyst Hiroko Asami, but she is unaware of the original Shinji's fate.

The monster Gabora appears in the Japanese countryside, attacking a nuclear power plant. In order to prevent the monster's radioactivity from causing harm, Ultraman kills it and flies off with its radioactive corpse. Shortly thereafter, Alien Zarab reveals himself, claiming the government has signed a peace contract with him, but the SSSP discovers that he is seeking to conquer the Earth. Zarab kidnaps Shinji and impersonates Ultraman to undermine Ultraman's reputation and ruin his public image. Videos of these events surface online, revealing Shinji's secret identity. Shinji unintentionally left his "Beta Capsule" device, which allows him to transform into Ultraman, with Asami, leading her to discover the truth about the actual Shinji's fate. Asami frees Shinji from Zarab but is captured by Zarab herself. Shinji transforms into Ultraman, saving Asami, exposing Zarab's disguise, and cutting the alien in two with the "Ultra Slash".

Shinji is now regarded as a globally wanted criminal. Asami is transformed into a giant by Alien Mefilas to show humanity that they can become gigantic like Ultraman. Mefilas turns her back to her original size, to demonstrate good faith, and presents humanity with an object that functions like the Beta Capsule. Mefilas meets Ultraman to discuss symbiosis, but the latter declines after learning that Mefilas' machine can alter humanity's DNA, turning them into monsters; he also reveals to Ultraman that the government signed him up for affiliation, mocking his concern for humanity.

The SSSP assemble underground and decide to take Mefilas' Beta System. Due to Asami's gigantification earlier, the SSSP locate Mefilas' energy signature in an unoccupied factory. Ultraman confronts Mefilas, snatching his Beta System and throwing it into the SSSP's aircraft. An angry Mefilas transforms into his true form to combat Ultraman. Ultraman's superior, Zōffy, then appears, making Mefilas flee Earth out of fear.

Ultraman visits Shinji's body in the forest to reflect. Zōffy tells Ultraman that he must stand trial for sharing his lifeforce with a human because such an act is prohibited under Space Garrison law. Zōffy deploys the ultimate weapon of mass destruction, Zetton, to destroy humanity, believing that they would pose a threat if they could evolve into giants. Shinji leaves behind data for the SSSP on how to destroy Zetton in case he doesn't survive.

Zetton's artillery defeats Ultraman, hitting him with a fireball which sends him plummeting to Earth and returning to his human form. Because Zetton used powerful attacks to counter Ultraman, it overheats and must cool down before recharging, giving the SSSP time to study the information left behind by Shinji. Later, they find Shinji unconscious and nursed him back to health. The SSSP determines that the only way for Ultraman to defeat Zetton is for him to activate his Beta Capsule while in a transformed state. Thus, Shinji transforms into Ultraman one last time, flying into space as Zetton resumes its attack. Ultraman activates his Beta Capsule, creating a black hole that engulfs both him and Zetton. Zōffy rescues Ultraman, insisting that he must return to the Star of Light with him. Ultraman, on the other hand, wishes to stay on Earth and protect it. Zōffy refuses to compromise, thus Ultraman decides to sacrifice himself to resurrect Shinji. Zōffy questions Ultraman's decision to sacrifice himself to save an inferior race, but after witnessing his teamwork to defeat Zetton, he is forced to admire their tenacity in the face of death. Zōffy then takes Ultraman's corpse back to the Star of Light.

The SSSP watch Shinji as he opens his eyes, having received a second chance at life.

Billy Summers is a 44-year-old hitman and former U.S. Marine sniper, who only accepts jobs killing truly evil men, but now he wants to retire from the assassin life altogether. Nick Majarian, a mobster whom Billy has worked for many times before, offers him one last job--one that pays $500,000 up front, and $1.5 million after it's done.

Billy's target is Joel Allen, also a hitman, who was arrested for murdering a man who won a fortune off of him in a poker game. Allen has claimed to have valuable information that the police wants in order to make a plea deal, and apparently, someone, whom Nick can't name, doesn't want Allen talking, which is why Billy has been hired to take him out. The job requires Billy to spend some quiet time undercover as a resident in the small town of Midwood, where an office space has been rented out for his use. Billy's cover story is that he is a writer named David Lockridge, who has been tasked by his publishing agent to stay there, and go to the office and write each day in an attempt to meet his deadline. The office has a direct view of the courthouse, where Joel Allen will eventually be taken to be arraigned for his murder charge. Billy is meant to shoot and kill him at that time, and then disappear.

However, Billy starts to become suspicious when Nick offers up a getaway plan for after the hit takes place, since typically he leaves that up to Billy to figure out. Nick's plan involves Billy escaping in a city transit truck that will have someone waiting for him to drive away, causing Billy to suspect that Nick intends to kill him after he pulls off the hit. Instead, Billy starts to formulate his own plan, including renting out a new apartment under the alias, Dalton Smith.

While he waits for the big day to kill Joel Allen, Billy also starts writing his fake book his character is supposed to be writing, just as a way to kill time because, as an avid reader, he wants to. He changes all of the real names, but writes about his life, starting with his little sister being beaten and killed by his mother's drunk boyfriend when he was eleven. A young Billy ended up finding a gun and killing the boyfriend. He later ended up in foster care, and then joined the U.S. Marines when he was 17.

Back in the present, the shooting and killing of Joel Allen goes off without a hitch. Billy evades the transit truck, and gets away by disguising himself as one of the office workers in the building. He then goes to hide out in his Dalton Smith apartment, where he intends to lay low for a while during the police hunt and media frenzy surrounding the shooting. When Nick doesn't pay him the rest of the money he promised after the hit, Billy now knows that his suspicions were correct, and also soon learns that there is a $6 million bounty on his head.

While Billy is trying to remain out of sight from the police, he sees a young woman get dumped out of a truck onto the street, drugged and half-dead. Not wanting to attract police attention to his area, he reluctantly goes out to save her. It turns out that the woman, 21-year-old Alice Maxwell, had just been raped and abandoned by a group of men. Alice recognizes Billy as the shooter, but she ends up wanting to stay with him for a while, fearing that the men who raped her might come back for her.

As Billy continues writing his book, he writes about his experiences in the military, and becoming a talented and decorated sniper. He also writes about an incident in Iraq, where he and his comrades were sent to check out a large house, and a majority of them were killed in action there. One of the survivors, Johnny Capps, would later hook Billy up with his first job as a hitman.

When Billy decides it's time to hit the road and escape from town, he first goes to confront Alice's attackers. He demands that two of them apologize to her over the phone, and then he sodomizes their leader with an immersion blender. After that, Billy and Alice drive across America to Sidewinder, Colorado to meet with Bucky Hanson, Billy's "broker" and the only person Billy fully trusts, and plans how to go after Nick.

At Nick's Las Vegas estate, Billy pretends to be a migrant gardener, and kills or injures many of Nick's men, including seriously injuring Nick's right-hand man Frank Macintosh, whose mother Marge also works for Nick. Billy manages to extract a promise from Nick to pay him the money owed, and to tell people that Billy is dead. Nick also confesses to Billy that the person who ordered the hit of Joel Allen was Roger Klerke, a wealthy media mogul. Roger originally hired Allen to kill his own son, Patrick Klerke, after Patrick learned about Roger's secret life as a pedophile, and his promiscuity with young girls, of which he managed to obtain photo evidence. Then, when Patrick learned that his father wasn't planning to pass his company on to him, he lashed out by blackmailing Roger. Allen successfully killed Patrick, but in doing so, discovered the blackmail evidence about Roger as well. So, when Allen got arrested for his murder charge of the man in the poker game and was trying to use that information to cut a plea deal with the prosecutors of his case, Roger turned to Nick to hire someone (Billy) to take out Allen, and then to have Billy dead to prevent a repeat of the Allen situation.

Billy and Alice stay for a long time at Bucky's place, where their relationship grows, and Billy finishes writing his book to bring it all the way up to the present. Meanwhile, he learns that Frank Macintosh lives, but suffers from extreme seizures caused by the pain Billy inflicted upon him. When it's finally time to deal with Roger, Alice takes photos of herself dressed up as a teenager to send to Roger to entice him into a meeting. Roger takes the bait, and Alice and Billy show up at his estate, and Alice shoots and kills Roger. During their escape, Marge Macintosh appears and shoots Billy, hoping to take revenge on what he did to her son. Billy is wounded, and when he and Alice get back to their hotel, Billy thinks about how he's bad for Alice, and she's better off being free from an outlaw lifestyle. He leaves with the hopes of becoming a full-time writer, and maybe even being able to atone for the things he's done in his life.

Then, in the final chapter, it is revealed that the last part of Billy's story was in fact written by Alice as Billy died from his wounds, and Alice wrote it to convey his thoughts, and how she wished he would have survived.

The story takes place in rural central Serbia, where the myth about vampires originates from.

After witnessing a crime in London and looking for a place to hide for a while, Arnaut is offered a job by charming yet ruthless local Vesna to look after a cemetery in a small remote village in Serbia. He soon starts to have nightmarish visions and is frequently visited by the mysterious older woman Baba Draga who guides Arnaut into the darkness. Only the village priest seems to be trying to keep him safe from the sinister intentions of the villagers.

Insurance salesman Okabe is scolded by his wife for their shortage of money and always being behind with their rental payments. He promises that the situation will better soon, as he is about to sell an insurance policy to Mrs. Toda, a wealthy neighbour. At Mrs. Toda's house, he gets into an argument with Nakamura, a competing salesman. As a result, Mrs. Toda throws both of them out. Meanwhile, Okabe's son Susumu gets into a fight with the neighbour's kids, including Mrs. Toda's son, for not letting him play with their toy airplane. Okabe, afraid that Mrs. Toda might sue him, scolds Susumu and comforts her son, taking him home. Mrs. Toda, who has heard that a child was hit by a train, is relieved by the sight of Okabe and her son and agrees to buy an insurance from him. Okabe decides to surprise Susumu and buys a toy airplane for him. Back home he learns that it was his own son who was hit by the train, and runs to the hospital. Susumu is in a critical condition, but finally recovers.

In 1979 at Hawkins National Laboratory, Dr. Martin Brenner experiments on several children possessing supernatural abilities. While performing extrasensory perception (ESP) tests with subject Ten, Ten senses a violent attack nearby, before a mysterious explosion knocks out Brenner and kills Ten. Brenner later awakens and makes his way to a playroom, where he finds an angered and bloodied Eleven standing amid the corpses of the other children and staff.

In March 1986, eight months after the events at Starcourt Mall, Eleven has moved to California with Joyce Byers and her sons Will and Jonathan. She struggles with the loss of her powers while being routinely bullied by the other students. One day, Joyce receives a porcelain doll in the mail, seemingly from Russia. She contacts Murray Bauman, who warns the doll could be impregnated with an explosive device. Joyce breaks the doll open and discovers a hidden note inside, revealing that Jim Hopper is alive.

In Hawkins, Mike Wheeler, Dustin Henderson, Lucas Sinclair, and Max Mayfield now attend Hawkins High School. Mike, Dustin, and Lucas have joined their school's "Hellfire Club", a ''Dungeons & Dragons''-themed society led by the eccentric Eddie Munson. Lucas has also joined the basketball team and struggles to make time between the two clubs when he reveals their championship game is the same night as the end of Eddie's campaign. As a result, Mike and Dustin seek the help of Lucas' sister, Erica, who agrees to fill in Lucas' place. As the campaign and the game occur concurrently, both Erica and Lucas score the winning shot for their respective teams.

Meanwhile, Max struggles with the loss of her step-brother Billy and frequently visits the office of the school counselor, Ms. Kelly. Chrissy Cunningham, a student on the cheerleading team, is haunted by visions of her family and a ticking grandfather clock. That night, while buying drugs from Eddie, Chrissy is possessed and killed by a sentient, humanoid creature from her visions.

In the land of Someplace Else, just north of the Neighborhood of Make-Believe, Donkey Hodie and her friends go throughout their day while solving different problems along the way.

Still mourning his brother who died in Vietnam, David travels back in time to 1963 to try to prevent the assassination of President Kennedy, to save the president and his brother and all other lives lost in the war. When he gets to 1963, he is unable to stop Lee Harvey Oswald from shooting JFK and is instead arrested himself for the killing.

Shortly after falling off the monorail train and failing to hold on to the hand of his friend Darius Bowman (Paul-Mikél Williams), a timid Ben Pincus (Sean Giambrone) is snatched up and flown up by two ''Pteranodons'' who drop him, making him fall 20 feet down to the ground, knocking him unconscious. The following day, he wakes up to the sight of Bumpy, a young ''Ankylosaurus'' who he has been taking care of, and who fends off a pack of Compies who surrounded Ben. Not knowing where the rest of his friends are, Ben concludes that they must have already gotten off the island without him, so he decides to search for the emergency distress beacon located at the island's central hub on Main Street. After finding and failing to cross numerous obstacles, such as a tall tree, a large canyon, a misty forest, and a rough river, Ben and Bumpy find a road leading back to the park. Unfortunately, the pair are chased away by Toro, a ''Carnotaurus'' that Ben has encountered previously, having been injured in an explosion by his friends a few days prior. After narrowly managing to escape Toro's attack, Ben and Bumpy end up back where they started, and decide to find a place to rest. Ben makes a temporary shelter while Bumpy helps him find food and water. However, she also takes his shelter for the nights, causing him to spend the nights mostly sleepless and unfocused.

Several days later, a fearful Ben becomes annoyed with reliving the same daily cycle without getting enough sleep, or finding a way off the island. He also gets so angry with Bumpy after she accidentally destroys his shelter that he yells at her in rage, scaring her away. Regretting his actions, Ben begins to search for Bumpy, as a group of ''Compsognathuses'' ("Compies") begin to stalk him. During a stormy night, the Compies surround Ben, and he gains the courage and aggression to scare them away. After several weeks of surviving all on his own, Ben forges a spear and gains the courage to fight Toro and make his way off the island. As he fights Toro, he reunites with a now-grown Bumpy, and the two force the carnotaurus off a small cliff, severely injuring him when he breaks his back and part of his pelvis in the fall. After catching a glimpse of smoke from a campfire, Ben investigates and overhears Hap (Angus Sampson), Mitch (Bradley Whitford), and Tiff (Stephanie Beatriz), a trio of big-game hunters Ben's friends have encountered, talking about a secret "plan" to deal with them. This makes Ben realize that his friends are still on the island and he and Bumpy immediately decide to go to their aid.

The storyline is built around the feelings of Hassane, a young man who cannot afford to live on his own, due to financial problems (he often loses his job). The film shows the difficult situation of this young man, who feels trapped between a strict and troubled family bond and the hopeless environment of Beirut. The scene involving Hassane and his best friend Mahmad performing a dance on a stage, which seems to be from the spiritual perspective, has a strong homoerotic element. The sudden drowning of this man at Beirut's seaside Corniche sparks a mob funeral and causes his friends, who hail from different communities, to grapple with loss and with the struggle to participate in his community's rites and ceremonies. The life and death journey that the young man takes on the last day of his life exposes the schisms of the city and the fault lines dividing its society, and reveals some of the forces pushing the lives of those marginalized young men.

One day, a group of children from the small town of ''La Matosa'' discover a decomposing corpse in a canal belonging to the Witch of the town. The Witch was a feared and respected woman who everyone turned to for help with their various problems. She lived in a large dilapidated house where she held parties with the village youth, to whom she paid money in exchange for sexual favors.

A girl named Yesenia lived with her grandmother and her cousins near the Witch. Throughout her life, Yesenia felt rejected by her grandmother in favor of her cousin Maurilio (nicknamed Luismi). She hated Maurilio because, despite having become an alcoholic and drug addict, he was still the favorite of their grandmother. Luismi eventually moves in with his mother, Chabela, and his stepfather, Munra. Months later there are rumors that he has a wife and is expecting a child. On the day of the murder, Yesenia watches from her house and sees Munra's truck parked at the house of the Witch. She then sees Luismi with another man carrying a bundle to the vehicle. Yesenia informs the police of everything she saw, with the intention of having her cousin arrested.

Munra is arrested after Yesenia's statement, but he claims not to know anything about the matter. He recalls days earlier having taken Luismi with his wife, Norma, to the hospital after she began bleeding and running a fever. They both quickly flee after child welfare services discover that Norma is thirteen years old. The next day, Munra finds Luismi in the courtyard observing a small object covered in blood that is buried in a hole in the ground. Munra is convinced that it is a work of witchcraft. After picking up Brando, a friend of Luismi, they pay Munra to take them to the Witch. Munra has been uncomfortable around the Witch ever since he found out she is a transgender woman. Luismi and Brando enter her house, and half an hour later they exit carrying out a bundle wrapped in cloth. Munra decides not to ask and takes them to the outskirts of town, where the boys dump the bundle in a canal.

Norma originally arrived in ''La Matosa'' after fleeing her hometown, having becoming pregnant by her stepfather, who had raped her for years. Luismi finds her crying in a park and decides to take her home. The two begin a relationship, but Luismi almost never wants to have sex with her. When Chabela discovers that Norma is pregnant, she takes her to the Witch to give her a potion that will induce abortion. In the early morning, the pains are so strong that Norma crawls out of bed and has an abortion in the middle of the patio, which she buries in a hole. The days pass by and Norma's pain and bleeding do not stop, so she is taken to the hospital, where they discover that she is a minor. She is relentlessly reproached by the doctors, but she refuses to capitulate and incriminate Luismi.

Brando's father abandoned him and his mother when Brando was a child. Brando could not put up with his mother's strong religiosity, so he joined the group of older boys in town, with whom he began to drink and take drugs at the Witch's house. They teach him that the best way to make money is by having sex with homosexuals, but Brando claims to be repulsed by the idea. When Brando hears Luismi sing, he begins to have erotic thoughts about him. He discovers that Luismi had an affair with one of the men who paid him. One day, when the two of them are drunk, they end up having sex. The next morning Luismi does not say anything, and Brando becomes obsessed with the incident. He fears that Luismi would disclose their affair to others, so Brando imagines ways to murder Luismi.

Brando attacks the man with whom Luismi had a relationship. The man then disappears, leaving Luismi devastated. Months later, Luismi tells them that he now has a wife and that he plans to quit using drugs. Brando remains obsessed with Luismi and proposes that the two of them steal from the Witch, who supposedly has a stash of hidden treasure. Brando suggests escaping together, although in his mind he is still considering murdering Luismi. Luismi initially refuses, but after Norma's abortion he becomes convinced that everything is the work the Witch. Luismi goes with Brando and Munra to her house, where they beat the Witch until Brando savagely kills her. They uncover no treasure, so they return home, where they are arrested hours later. The police beat Brando to get information out of him about the treasure, but he has nothing. Days later, Munra and Luismi are taken to the cell, both with signs of having been severely beaten. Brando, full of love and hatred, is there awaiting Luismi.

In 1971, during Bangladesh Liberation War, Pakistan Army led a local collaborator raid at the home in searching freedom fighters. The young man they seek flees through the narrow alleyways of Old Dhaka and stumbles upon a barbershop. He quick decides to get a shave to disguise himself. Meanwhile, his mother takes his injured father to a nearby pharmacy. The Hindu doctor hesitantly takes them in because of not getting into target. At the barbershop, the young man soon realizes he has put himself in more danger, where all the barbers are Urdu-speaking Biharis. Who also known to be supporting the Pakistan Army.

While outside, Charlie Brown receives a call from Peppermint Patty via a phone booth, who informs Charlie Brown that he and his baseball team have been selected to participate in a Little League Championships in New York City. After realizing that he and his team doesn't have enough money to afford uniforms, Charlie Brown starts a street fair to raise money, where he enlists the help of other ''Peanuts'' characters. Sporadically throughout the rest of the game, Peppermint Patty will call Charlie Brown and suggest ways to improve the street fair.

The health of horse rider Jackson Silva begins to deteriorate after decades of work. With the help of a promising new horse and his trainer, Ruth, Jackson prepares for the upcoming championship, which could be his last.

Operation "Burning Bush"

The protagonist of the novel, Semion Levitan, likes to imitate the voice of the famous World War II era radio host Yuri Levitan in Russia. He became an English teacher in Moscow during the period following perestroika. These two occurrences lead him to be involved in a secret operation of the security forces. He had to reproduce the voice of God from a distance in the brain of President George W. Bush, who was considered very religious. To this end, Semion takes an accelerated theological training course in a secret base, using texts with religious content and using narcotics to experience mystical experiences. In addition, he is implanted with a tooth equipped with the appropriate technology.

During the secret operation it appears that the Americans are conducting similar operations with the leaders of the USSR and then Russia, with the difference that the broadcasts reproduce the voice of the devil in the brains of the Russian leaders and not that of God. But with the same goal of influencing their geopolitical decisions.

The story is interspersed with Pelevine's sarcastic humour. It is written in the first person, that of the hero Semion. Unlike his previous stories, the mystical experiences take place in a Western monotheistic setting rather than an Eastern one. The idea of the novel is based on the religious beliefs of George W. Bush, who put forward expressions such as: "God speaks through me" (in 2004) and again: "God told me to attack Al Qaeda and I did it. With the help of God who is on our side we will be victorious".

The Anti-Aircraft Codes of Al Efesbi

The story consists of two parts: "Freedom liberator" and "Soviet requiem. The first part is a third-person, probably bespoke, biography of Savely Skotenkov. The second part is narrated in the first person.

Born in the Oryol oblast  shortly before the collapse of the USSR, Savely Skotenkov moves to Moscow. There he worked in the media industry, changing several professions: "he wrote lyric poems and critical articles, was engaged in art criticism, political consulting, revolutionary work and marketing". His political views oscillated all the time between pro-state and opposition. At the Diplomatic Academy, he taught a course on "the basics of cryptodiscourse," according to which behind the outward political correctness of any utterance is a true essence that can be learned to grasp.

Having decided to earn on currency market trading Savely Skotenkov loses almost all his money, having believed the prognosticators of the leading English-language mass media.He begins to blame the Americans for his troubles, and soon he is recruited by the FSB.

Then the action is transferred to Afghanistan where there is a war at that time. The Americans there are actively using combat drones (drones, UAVs). But often recordings of conversations and actions of drone operators during the decision to strike surfaced on the site of WikiLeaks. This causes public outrage over inhumane methods of warfare. Drone operators develop "Wikileaks syndrome" (the fear of publishing their records on WikiLeaks), resulting in slower decision-making. In addition, there are cases of enemy interception of drone control.

To solve both problems, the Americans are implementing autonomous artificial intelligence in their drones. The machines make their own decisions about strikes, and as a result, their effectiveness increases many times over and the number of accidental casualties is reduced. In order to finally reassure the public, an auxiliary module responsible for PR is embedded in the neural network of each drone. Thanks to it, the decision-making process for a strike is simulated in a talk-show format, for which the archive of American television is used.

Then Savely Skotenkov appears in Afghanistan, nicknamed Al-Efesbi (allegedly "from Efes", variant: from the FSB). He develops an extraordinary defense against drones: he writes slogans on the ground (the so-called "anti-aircraft codes") capable of "causing the average viewer to be indignant, disgusted and angered by the desire to give a decent rebuke. When the "anti-aircraft codes" come into the drone's field of view, the PR module starts searching the archive for appropriate responses, and if that fails, the search is repeated again with slightly different criteria. The load on the system seriously increases, which leads to loss of control and drone crash.

The Americans explain Skotenkov's actions by his unhealthy mental state and his feelings about the collapse of the USSR: "Apparently ... the collapse of the Evil Empire coincided for him with his expulsion from the magic garden of his childhood, and he tends to blame everything on America - especially its special services. In addition, America has become for him a symbolic culprit for the hardships and sorrows of adult life with its inevitable finale - death. The U.S. military is trying to influence Skotenkov psychologically by scattering leaflets over the desert, reminding him of the collapse of the USSR and the hated realities of modern Russia.

These leaflets soon appear in Russia in the form of heroin packages, because the leaflets are picked up in the desert by Afghan producers of the drug. Russian authorities decide that the Americans want to make a color revolution at the hands of drug addicts. In exchange for stopping the leaflets, the FSB recalls Skotenkov from Afghanistan, and he returns to his native village. There he decides to write his memoirs, but is kidnapped by the CIA.

The second part of the story, "Soviet Requiem" (an allusion to Borges' famous short story "''German Requiem''"), consists of a possibly unreal monologue by Skotenkov in a CIA prison. There he is subjected to torture and medical manipulation in order to destroy dissent: "The interrogator said that my identity would remain the same, but my ability to think logically would be 'modified.' In addition, my, as he put it, "mistrust of my neighbors" would disappear. Moreover, it will disappear to such an extent that I will be forever unshackled. At the end, Skotenkov is turned into a chronic currency player, suffering at any change in the euro/dollar exchange rate.

The story "Al-Efesbi's flaky codes" can be categorized as a dystopia. There are parallels with such classic dystopian works as Yevgeny Zamyatin's "''We''", Vladimir Nabokov's "''Invitation to a Beheading"'', and George Orwell's "''1984''". As in these works, the physical destruction of the rebel is not the primary goal of the totalitarian state. The main thing for his enemies is to make him like himself, to subjugate his will. There are also references to the story "The Bird of Steel" by Vasily Aksenov. The surname of Popenkov, the protagonist of Steel Bird, is consonant with Skotenkov, and the American planes shot down by Skotenkov are called "steel birds".

The story contains philosophical arguments about the possibility of artificial intelligence and the existence of the soul with allusions to the theories of Alan Turing and Roger Penrose. Questions are raised: "can a machine suffer and feel?", "is it possible to 'spiritualize' a machine?"

In his work, Pelevin literalizes the concept of "information warfare." U.S. drones serve both military and media functions. Skotenkov's actions also fall within the definition of information warfare, since his weapon of choice is text.

The Shadow Contemplator

The story describes the attempt of Oleg, a Russian guide in India, to learn from his own shadow during a long meditation. The hero barely survives, and the story does not answer whether what he saw was an illusion or a real experience. The story is pierced with irony, both in relation to European attempts to penetrate Indian culture and in relation to India itself.

Thuggee

The story pretends to be a short novel, generates a lover of the Illuminati, Freemasons and other secret societies with a lot of secret symbols and signs. Pelevin quite wittily showed the activity of a homegrown "villain" philosopher, who never really thought about what kind of service his favorite goddess needs.

The protagonist Boris continues his search for members of the Thuggee sect, secret worshippers of the Indian goddess Kali, who offer human sacrifices to her. Boris wants to join this sect, but in the end becomes a victim himself.

Hotel of good incarnations

The soul of the girl-to-be Masha gets a chance to see the moment of her own conception. In an expensive hotel at a fashionable ski resort, an angel and the unborn daughter of a Russian oligarch talk about how the world works, watching oligarchs spend time with their ladies of the heart.

With Masha ahead, she is to be born in Los Angeles to a Russian oligarch's family, in a world where everyone dreams of participating in the mysterious ritual of "sawing off" money. But she cannot influence her choice of who to become, the beautiful lady Alexander Blok or one of those to whom Vladimir Mayakovsky agreed to serve pineapple water at the bar.

But she can choose whether to be born now or go into oblivion and meet her strange angel again, but in a different time and with completely different people. After a brief examination of the circumstances and the angel's explanations, she flatly refuses to be incarnated as the daughter of a Russian oligarch.

It is in this story that the jar of pineapple water, which gave its name to the collection and is a quotation from Vladimir Mayakovsky, occurs.

Set in the township of Vosloorus, the series focuses on Gabriel (Bohang Moeko), a heroic son born into a dysfunctional family, who finds strength within him to stand up against Mary Ndlovu (Nthati Moshesh), a powerful and evil matriarch who would do anything to serve her own needs.

Mary pretends to be a philanthropic socialite who takes in delinquent children and cares for them in House of Grace, a centre for "at risk" youth in Vosloorus on the East Rand of Johannesburg.

Unknown to the public eye, she is a cold-hearted criminal who rungs an illegal child trafficking and adoption ring.

Gabriel, who works alongside Mary, wants to leave behind his life of crime and turn a new leaf, however Mary drags her back into his dark past. The return of an old friend brings chaos to Gabriel's life.

The manga is set in 15th century "P Kingdom". People who suggest ideas in opposition to the teachings of the "C religion", such as that the Earth revolves around the Sun, are considered heretics, and are tortured or burned at the stake. Rafal, a child prodigy with an interest in astronomy, is forced by Hubert, a scholar and heretic, to assist him in his research for the "about the movement of the Earth" theory. When Novak, an inquisitor, finds a diagram drawn by Rafal showing a heliocentric model, Hubert claims responsibility and is executed, leaving Rafal a spherical pendant. Rafal uses the pendant to find Hubert's hidden research materials on the theory. Rafal continues Hubert's research, but is informed on by his foster father, Potocki. At his inquisition, Rafal refuses to denounce the theory, committing suicide by ingesting poppy seeds.

Ten years later, Okgi and Gallus, two duelists, are assigned to guard a heretic during transportation. The heretic reveals the location of the research to them, dying to protect Okgi from Novak. The pair decide to seek out a demoted priest, Badeni, to help make sense of the material. While on a bridge, it collapses, and Gallus entrusts their mission and the pendant to Okgi before dying. Okgi meets Badeni, who agrees to look at the materials in exchange for Okgi continuing Gallus' astronomical observations. Badeni finds the materials to be incomplete and requiring the use of more records. They post a problem at public boards in the city and find a girl, Jolanta, answering it on the same day. Jolanta, a researcher, agrees to cooperate with them by introducing them to Piast, an ardent advocate of the Ptolemaic model. After Okgi observes Venus waxing, Piast agrees to give the group access to his records. Using Piast's records, Badeni finishes the theory. Novak catches on to the group, inspecting Badeni's cabin and noticing the pendant. Okgi holds off the inquisitors, but him and Badeni are captured. Novak tortures Okgi, forcing Badeni to divulge the location of the research materials, and the two are executed. Antoni, a rival of Novak, attempts to get Jolanta, Novak's daughter, convicted as a heretic, but she is freed by an inquisitor. Cklamovski, a priest at Badeni's church, discovers that Badeni had transcribed a diary written by Okgi onto the heads of the local vagabonds.

Twenty-five years later, Schmitt, the captain of the Heretic Liberation Force, retrieves Okgi's book under Jolanta's orders, but is forced to leave it in an abandoned village. Draka, a Romani, comes across the book and, seeing an opportunity to profit, burns it, forcing Schmitt to take her along. Draka, in exchange for being allowed to use their printing press, recites the contents of the book to Jolanta. When the group is found by the inquisitors, Jolanta stays behind, blowing herself up.

Set in 1980's Singapore, the novel examines the death of Permanent Secretary of the housing ministry, Chow Sze Teck, who was accused of accepting millions of dollars in bribes over his career. While the death first appears to be suicide by a cocktail of alcohol, morphine and Valium; doubts emerge as new facts come to life. With an ongoing investigation by a Criminal Investigation Department inspector who might not be what he seems, the family discovers there may be far more sinister circumstances behind Chow's death, that reach to the very top of government.

Odysseus, who is exhausted, is on a ship together with a crew of several men. He has flashbacks of his childhood, which are followed by a vision of dead bodies in the sea and memories of brutal scenes from the Trojan War in which he encounters suffering civilians. The ship docks and Odysseus goes ashore alone to explore a cave. He hears strange singing and calls out for his mother. Returning from the cave, he finds his crew missing and goes to explore the inland. Odysseus walks through a rocky dwelling place that is populated by nude men and women who are seemingly unable to move. He finds a woman who silently opens a large seashell and lets him embrace her. He wakes up in a cave where several people, including his crew, are sleeping; he wakes up his crew and sets off with them.

During the voyage, the sea is calm for a period but singing is heard, a female figure briefly appears in the water, and a sudden storm wrecks the ship. Odysseus wakes up alone on a beach; he watches clothes and helmets that have floated ashore and cries out in torment. Wandering for a while, he observes the rich flora and fauna of the location and then meets a woman who lets him seduce her. He stays with her, enjoying their time together, but is affected by memories of his childhood and homeland.

Odysseus sets off alone on a simple raft that soon falls apart; while swimming in the sea at night, he has auditory hallucinations of warfare. The sounds go away and Odysseus focuses on the moon. He has a vision in which he walks through a somber landscape with ruins; he reaches his palace but the building is a dark underground passage in which he finds human skulls. He runs toward the light at the end of the passage and appears to fall into the sea.

Waking up on a beach again, Odysseus walks across the land, which this time is full of animals and greenery, and reaches his palace. The entrance is the same as in the earlier vision and the sun is shining. In the building's atrium, a girl is rolling a hoop, mirroring a recurring scene from Odysseus' childhood memories. Through a window, he sees the shadow of a woman as she puts flowers in a vase and he quietly says the name Penelope. In the final shot, a woman folds a piece of fabric and places it in a chest.

As described in a film magazine review, newly wed Felipa is attacked by her husband Tony's friend Pietro. Tony intervenes and Pietro is killed. As a result, Tony is hanged for the killing and his wife is sentenced to imprisonment. A baby is born in prison, taken from its mother at the age of three, and adopted by the judge from the murder case, who is now the governor. After serving her twenty year sentence, Filipa is released. For the sake of her child Antoinette, she resigns all legal claims to her in favor of the guardians who raised the child.

At the Australian Wildlife Park in Sydney, zookeeper Chaz Hunt has a show that demonstrates scary and deadly animals. Maddie, a venomous inland taipan, appears regularly at the show, but is feared by the public. Maddie is supported by Jackie, a motherly saltwater crocodile, who tells her and her three best friends —Frank, a funnel-web spider, Zoe, a thorny devil, and Nigel, a marbled scorpion— about the Outback, a place recognizable with three mountains where creatures like them belong. One day, Jackie is removed from the zoo after she tries to save Chaz's son, Chazzie & was mistakenly believed that she was trying to eat him. Saddened, Maddie decides to escape to the Outback. During the escape, Pretty Boy, a celebrity koala, tries to alert the park's security, but is paralyzed by Nigel and they decide to take him with them.

While crossing Sydney Harbour, they run into Jacinta, a great white shark, who is part of the Ugly Secret Society (USS) where animals considered "monsters" help each other upon hearing a password. When they reach Circular Quay, Pretty Boy tries to get the attention of the city for rescue, but finds that the world believes he is dead and his popularity has been taken by a quokka, convincing him to tag along with them in the journey.

They get a ride from the outer suburbs on an excursion bus that takes them to the Blue Mountains. Chaz and Chazzie catch up and have the bus pulled over to search the vehicle for the creatures, but a Aboriginal girl allows them to escape. Just after Pretty Boy goes on a tirade about how Maddie and the other creatures ruined his life, Chaz ambushes them and almost sedates Maddie, but Pretty Boy says the USS password, which alerts some Tasmanian devils to their presence. After the animals escape, Chaz reveals to Chazzie that his adventurous and Aussie wildlife expert history was all a lie and he only moved from Florida to Australia after being inspired by television shows featuring Australian zookeepers. He decides to make it up to Chazzie by really going after the animals and bringing them back to the park, though Chazzie is no longer sure about the mission.

Over the next few days, the animals are helped by many creatures of the USS on their way to the Outback, while Pretty Boy bonds more with the creatures. One night, Maddie sings a lullaby that she sung at the park ago & was her only memory of her mother: she was washed out of the nest as an egg by a flood and after a perilous journey, was found on the road by Chaz. Pretty Boy reveals that he was also orphaned, with his mother being killed by a moving car. The next day, Pretty Boy finds a tree of koalas and leaves the other creatures.

Maddie and the others reach the three mountains. Not long after they arrive, Chaz rounds up and captures Frank, Zoe, and Nigel. Chazzie runs into Maddie and is initially scared of her, but warms up to her upon seeing that she is just as scared as he is of her. Chaz captures Maddie as well and places the creatures in boxes in the back of a truck, but Chazzie sets Maddie free without his father looking. Maddie who broke down crying over losing her friends tries to get the animals of the land to help her rescue them, but they initially refuse due to the fact none of them have ever left before. However, Pretty Boy, having found life with the other koalas not as great as he thought, returns. He cheers her up and asks her to go to the rescue. Using a fire truck, they catch up to the truck and break them out. When Maddie, Pretty Boy, and the other creatures save Chazzie from falling over the edge of a canyon, Chaz fully sees that these creatures as heroes rather than dangers and decides to let them return to the wild.

At the three mountains, they reunite with Jackie, who is revealed to be the head of the USS & had escaped by knowing a few tricks to do so & then ordered the USS that she had founded during her lifetime to help the group on their journey, and they all join their new life in the Outback.

Mar believes in the mysterious legend of the lovers Halimah and Sukab in the island of Sawai a hundred years ago. She journeys to Sawai to feel what Halimah once felt, hoping to find Sukab there.

A German widow, Nadja, and her son Elias prepare to board a plane to New York; Nadja, who appears to suffer from leukemia, plans to visit a doctor for treatment. At the airport, Elias befriends a man named Farid, while his mother takes medicine that causes her severe discomfort.

As the passengers settle down for the evening, a group of men, including the co-pilot Bastian, murder the air marshals and sabotage the black box, preventing the plane from being tracked on radar. Their leader, Berg, announces that he and his men are now in control and expect everyone to stay put until a ransom is paid. Elias tries to hide, and Nadja follows him. A sociopathic hijacker named Eightball sees them and shoots Nadja. Assuming she is dead, the hijackers force Farid to record a statement that makes it appear the plane has been seized by terrorists for a suicide attack, knowing it will be shot down.

As Nadja regains consciousness, she relives the day her husband, Nikolai, died. He had gone to a local farmhouse for help when their car broke down. When he failed to return, Nadja went looking for him and was bitten by his murderer, a vampire who immolates during sunrise. Nadja, now a vampire, returned to the farmhouse looking for answers. An elderly vampire attacked her for killing his son, but she beat him to death and escaped with vials of vampire suppressant.

Nadja accesses the cargo hold, removes the contacts and dentures that conceal her mutated eyes and fangs, and feeds on a dog. A hijacker catches her in the act, and she kills him and drinks his blood, which fully transforms her into a vampire. She finds Farid, and they regain control of the plane with the help of a student named Mohammed as the hijackers are about to parachute out. Mohammed returns them to their original flightplan. When Berg tries to take back control of the cockpit, Nadja surprises and bites him. She stabs him with a knife before he can fully transform.

The hijackers task Eightball with killing Nadja. He subdues her with UV light and extracts her blood, but as he is about to stake her, Elias accidentally depressurizes the plane with Berg's gun. When Mohammed asphyxiates, the hijackers take back the cockpit and restore the pressure. Eightball flees into the cargo hold and injects himself with Nadja's blood; she fails to kill him before he transforms into a vampire. Eightball ambushes and kills the other hijackers, except for Bastian. The rest of the passengers arm themselves. Nadja convinces them that she wants to help, and they lock Eightball in the hold and secure the plane.

Bastian informs Nadja that the plane does not have enough fuel to reach New York, and they must land soon. A dying passenger releases Eightball in the hopes of being bitten; instead, Eightball kills him and proceeds to turn most of the other passengers into vampires. Nadja, knowing that they will escape if the plane lands, decides to sacrifice herself by using the hijackers' explosives to kill them. Elias stops her and goes himself, but he is surrounded by vampires after grabbing the detonator. Nadja makes Farid promise to look after Elias, then kills and feeds on Bastian. She tries to save her son, but Eightball attacks her and drains her blood. As he goes for Elias, Farid steers the plane into the path of the morning sun, causing Eightball to burn and fall to his death.

Elias uses his blood to save Nadja's life, but she rejects him and flees, knowing that her taste for his blood puts him in danger. The plane lands at an RAF base in Scotland, but the authorities ignore Elias and Farid's pleas and board the plane looking for survivors, resulting in a massacre. Elias escapes from an ambulance and runs back to the plane, seeing his mother feeding on a soldier. Knowing that she is too far gone, he activates the detonator he hid in his teddy bear, killing her and the other vampires. Farid is released from custody and hugs Elias.

As described in a film magazine, any romance between Angelique Dean (Miller) and John Dawson (Tellegen) is shattered when she confesses that she has been made the victim of a mock marriage during World War I. Chapman Griswold (Albertson), who knows the facts tries to force her to marry him, but is prevented, when John learns at the deathbed of Angelique’s deceiver, Major Twilling (Henry), the truth about her noble self sacrifice on behalf of her sister and also that the mock marriage was one in name only.

A crooked Hollywood producer finally gets what's coming to him when his plans to kill off his associates creates a surprising twist of events in this wild west Hollywood tale.

A woman (Jordan Ladd) dissatisfied with her marriage arranges robberies to escape her abusive husband with her best friend (Nikki Moore), but when the dead escapes, Detective Gary Broza (Tom Sizemore) sets out on their trail.

In the far north of the continent of Varno lies the small country of the Kingdom of Natra. Ever since King Owen collapsed from illness, the job of running the country falls to Owen's extremely competent son, Crown Prince, now Prince Regent, Wein Salema Arbalest. Alongside his beautiful and capable aide, Ninym Ralei, Wein upholds the image of a genius prince that leads the nation with an iron hand. However, behind the scenes, Wein constantly bemoans the fate that has been shoved upon him, quietly hoping for an opportunity to commit treason by selling off his home country and escaping from his duties.

A young woman, Carol, is drawn into a Satanic sex cult in England following the death of her brother.

Izzy (Isabella) is a hairdresser. One day, the microwave in her salon causes a fire. The assistant of the salon's landlord, Doug, asks for payment for the damage so she gives the money she had saved for traveling the world.

The prince of Lavania, Prince Thomas, asks his assistant Walter to schedule a haircut. Walter mistakenly calls up Izzy's salon, telling her that she will be paid $500 for the haircut. Izzy agrees. When she meets the prince and starts cutting his hair, a housekeeper comes with tea and accidentally drops it. Izzy is upset at how badly the housekeeper is treated and leaves without finishing the Prince's haircut. She returns to the salon, where Thomas comes in to finish the haircut. Afterward, Izzy agrees to walk the prince back to the metro and the two share a fun night.

The next day Thomas, his fiancée Lauren, and her mother discuss who to hire as the makeup artists for the wedding. Prince Thomas's assistant recommends Izzy's salon. Her salon agrees and they travel to Lavania. Another assistant, Madam Fabre, tests their makeup skills. Izzy passes but her coworkers don't so Madam Fabre trains them. Izzy goes to see the province and Thomas accompanies her.

The next day, Thomas states to his family that he wants to do more for the locals. Izzy encourages the locals to donate to the less fortunate children by leaving items at the castle gate. Lauren tells Thomas that she wants part of their new estate to be for her work studio. Thomas finds the guard house full of donated toys for the children. Izzy and Thomas drive the toys and some royal furniture to the orphanage.

Lauren's mother observes that Thomas and Izzy are getting too close. Lauren is not concerned, commenting that she would rather focus on her business ideas than marry someone she barely knows. When a photo of them ends up in the papers, Izzy is asked to leave. It is revealed that the reason why the King and Queen want Thomas to marry Lauren is because her family could help them get out of debt.

On the wedding day, Walter tells Thomas that he knows Thomas is in love with Izzy. Thomas tells Lauren he can’t marry her. She is relieved as she also does not want to get married. Izzy returns to find that there was a major fire in the salon. When Doug visits asking for money, she tells him that she had spoken with the owner, who had expected Doug to rewire the property last year. The family makes plans to refurbish the salon but Izzy tells them she doesn’t want to work at the salon anymore, instead choosing to be director of a local community center.

Prince Thomas rides to Izzy's house on horseback and confesses his feelings for her. The movie ends with them going to get gelato on horseback.

Top-class Executioner Menou has been tasked with eliminating Akari Tokitō, a Lost One who has been summoned by King Grisarika of the Noblesse, the noble class. However, she fails and soon discovers that Akari possesses the Pure Concept of Time, making her capable of reversing her death even after she has been killed. Shocked and fearful, Menou sets out on a journey with Akari by her side, in hopes of finding a way of killing her.

Yakari, a little Sioux Native American boy, and his faithful steed, Little Thunder, in the great prairie. Yakari has the ability to communicate with all animals, a gift that was transmitted to him by his totem, the Great Eagle.

Elisa makes plans to carpool through a rideshare app to her parents' home in Calabria to get an abortion, though she is unsure about it. She boards an RV driven by travel blogger Fabrizio, accompanied by Riccardo, a doctor, and extroverted couple Sofia and Mark. When a bout of Elisa's morning sickness causes the group to pull over, Mark takes over driving for Fabrizio. That night, Mark drinks beer while driving and ends up crashing into a tree when he swerves to avoid running over the corpse of a goat. Elisa wakes up in the morning to see the group doing first aid on Mark's broken leg. They realize that they are no longer on the road, but are now in a clearing surrounded by a forest and cannot explain how they ended up there.

Despite finding a rustic cabin in the clearing, they do not enter. Fabrizio and Riccardo find three deformed scarecrows crucified with pig heads on stakes in a kind of altar. Terrified, they leave. After Elisa enters the cottage, she discovers a ritualistic mural depicting three deities: Ostro, Mastosso and Carcagnosso, which symbolize the leadership of a group that worships them in exchange for abundance and riches through human sacrifice. They decide to spend the night in the RV. When they hear screams coming from inside the house, everyone but Mark decides to go into the house to investigate. In the attic of the house, they discover a girl trapped inside a cocoon of hay. The group is horrified to discover the girl has had her tongue mutilated.

They witness Mark being dragged out of the RV by three masked figures, who bring him into the cabin and tie him to the living room table. Hiding in the attic, the group is forced to watch as the three masked figures torture and kill Mark by gouging out his eyes and breaking his feet with a wooden hammer. The trio drag Mark's body outside while the rest of the group waits for dawn to escape through the forest. After finding a graveyard of abandoned cars, they realize they are not the first victims of the cult's fanatics. The girl reveals her name, Chiara, through a diary. Chiara is the only survivor of her family.

The group finds themselves walking in circles as they return to the clearing again. Night falls and the group shares their personal stories as they drink the only beer bottle left. Elisa wakes up and sees all the followers of the sect standing in front of the house with Sofia, Chiara and Riccardo as hostages on a ritualistic stage. The masked figures representing Ostro, Mastosso and Carcagnosso begin the ritual. Sofia has her eyes gouged out and Riccardo has his ears mangled. Their severed parts are placed on the gigantic scarecrow in which Chiara is trapped. Sofia and Riccardo have their throats cut as Elisa and Fabrizio watch from inside the cabin. Elisa realizes that Fabrizio had put sleeping pills in their alcohol and confronts him, discovers that he has a hidden earpiece. Angry, he instructs one of the cult members to take her and she is dragged outside.

She awakens in the morning at the head of a large table during one of the cult's meals, her hands nailed to the armrests of a wheelchair. She is taken into a control room, where she discovers that all the events she faced were recorded by hidden cameras and a production team overseeing everything. Fabrizio reveals that he is directing an amateur snuff movie, trying to create a classic horror story. After freeing herself, Elisa wanders through the camp of the film's production team.

She discovers that Chiara is still alive, and is an actress and sister to the director Fabrizio. Elisa catches the two discussing the next steps of the recording in a trailer. The local mayor is revealed to be part of the 'Ndrangheta, the regional Italian Mafia group, and the person sponsoring his film. When Chiara exits the vehicle, Elisa kills her with a shotgun. She then shoots Fabrizio in the leg, and he asks for mercy, but Elisa kills him as well, recording everything with a portable camera. She discovers an exit from the forest through a fence, which falsely labels the forest as a restricted military zone. Covered in blood, she emerges from the forest on a beach, recorded by bathers on cell phones as she dives into the sea.

In a post-credits scene, a BloodFlix app user is participating in a virtual chat about Fabrizio's movie that aired with the final footage of Elisa killing him. The user evaluates the movie negatively.

Mark and Chris (portraying themselves) are old friends with a shared love of filmmaking. When their high school classmate Eduardo Sánchez directs a movie called ''The Blair Witch Project'', Mark and Chris reunite with him by way of a parody film. Some years later, interviewing Sanchez for a retrospective documentary, the director relates a rumor he had heard during production on ''Blair Witch'', about an underground Maryland director named Karl Atticus.

Atticus, a little-known Baltimore filmmaker from the late 1960s with two gruesome horror films to his name, dropped out of sight and apparently committed suicide following the violent premiere of his second film – itself titled ''Mortal Remains''. Interviews with friends and relatives of the filmmaker tell a grim story, and Mark and Chris abandon their ''Blair Witch'' documentary in favor of tracking down the Atticus story.

The deeper they dig, however, it becomes apparent that Atticus was making much more than simple exploitation. The source material of his films, it is revealed, is the works of a shadowy 1920s horror writer named Vernon Blake, whose obscure books of gory fiction were rife with occult symbology and cryptic ciphers. A historian explains the use of the ciphers as potential markers; Mark and Chris discover a cipher "in the wild" shortly thereafter.

Glimpses are shown into the weird world of Atticus's brand of filmmaking, particularly with ''Culture Shock'', a segment from Atticus's first film, in which a pair of mercenaries are snuffed out by a vicious tribe of native women. Interview subjects begin to demur, receiving stalker-like telephone calls. Mark is badly beaten during a nighttime search of a large cemetery; Chris, apparently obsessed, plows ahead and insists upon digging up a grave in search of clues.

Hazel is out for a walk with her beloved doll Eleanor. But when she makes a wrong turn, she encounters some kids who are up to no good. Fortunately, Hazel's amazing mother is there to rescue her, and set the bullies straight just in the nick of time.

Alex Mosher, a young boy from Brooklyn, New York, who loves to write scary stories, swears to never write another one again due to his parents' concerns about his mental health. He trashes his room and grabs his "Night books"—his collection of self-written scary stories—and sneaks out of his apartment while his parents are talking. He takes the elevator to his complex's furnace to burn them. Before he reaches the furnace room, he passes an apartment with an open door that bewitches him into entering. The apartment door shuts behind him and disappears.

He awakens to find himself in the magical apartment of a witch named Natacha. She threatens him with her magic and informs him the apartment lures children into it and only those who are useful to her are kept alive. She is intrigued by Alex's penchant for writing scary stories and demands that he write her stories and read them to her each night, or she'll kill him. She puts him to work alongside a young girl named Yazmin, who was similarly lured into the apartment years ago in Washington and put to work as a housekeeper. Alex learns from Yazmin that the apartment moves around the world, and its only exits are the front and back door, which respond only to Natacha's magical keys.

Yazmin shows Alex the witch's enormous library, telling him Natacha has heard every scary story in it, which is why the witch gave him a task to write new ones. Alex is reluctant, saying he cannot write, though he will not tell her why. Yazmin informs him that Natacha's magical cat named Lenore, which can turn invisible, is spying on them and will tell her everything it sees.

Each night, Natacha is unimpressed with Alex's stories and demands they end unhappily. She also repeatedly requests Alex tell her the story of why he intended to burn his Night books, but Alex manages to dodge her requests by distracting her each time. While reading through the library's collection for inspiration, Alex encounters notes in the margins of various books written by another trapped girl detailing her attempts to escape the witch's home. Her treasured possession, a unicorn necklace, causes him to dub her "Unicorn Girl".

Yazmin and Alex begin to bond as they engage in their household tasks, and they eventually win over Lenore's trust. Yazmin tearfully reveals she was afraid to become friends with him because all the other children with whom she became friends were killed by being transformed into figurines held in Natacha's cabinet. Alex realizes each of the figurines still has their personal effects, such as watches and earrings they had in real life and deduces since none have a unicorn necklace, Unicorn Girl must successfully have managed to escape. He and Yazmin search through Unicorn Girl's notes and discover a recipe for a sleeping potion she used on the witch, intending to steal her keys. The pair make the potion and Lenore slips it into Natacha's perfume bottle, which she habitually douses herself in each night.

When she falls asleep, they steal her keys and open the door to a wooded area. They escape, but soon realize the woods are just another area contained within the apartment. Lost, they eventually find a cottage made of candy. Yazmin is lured by the cottage, influencing her to wander towards it mindlessly. When they enter, Yazmin starts taking candy off the walls and eats them, while Alex is reluctant. Alex ends up eating it too, due to the influencing of the magical candy cottage. They both fall unconscious onto the floor. When they wake up, they find themselves in the basement of the cottage with Natacha. There, Natacha reveals she was Unicorn Girl. She was lured in by the original witch, who she put to sleep to escape, only to find her parents had moved away. With nowhere to stay, she returns to the witch's home where she studied witchcraft under the witch and eventually managed to subdue her using her obsession with scary stories to lull her to sleep. The new tragic scary stories Alex reads her each night helps to keep the witch asleep, while Natacha harvests her magic in the form of the perfume bottles she uses. She threatens Yazmin and demands Alex tell her the story of why he intended to burn his Night books, stating his fear of telling the story makes it the ultimate scary story. Alex sadly starts to tell the story. On his birthday, his best friend admitted he was embarrassed to be seen with him because he was obsessed with scary stories. As a result, no one attended his birthday party; Alex felt so ashamed and hurt that he resolved to burn his stories and hide what made him special. This mollifies Natacha and the sleeping witch, but Alex ends the story by saying that he was glad he was kidnapped because he met Yazmin and Lenore, friends who value him and his uniqueness.

The sleeping witch is awoken by this happy ending and overpowers Natacha, who drops her perfume bottle. Yazmin grabs it and flees with Alex and Lenore. Using Natacha's magic, Yazmin opens the front door, allowing them to exit to Alex's apartment complex. The witch follows them as they flee to the furnace room, planning on eating them. Alex manages to distract her with a scary story he invented and before he can finish, he throws his Night book into the open furnace. The witch dives after it to know how the story ends while he and Yazmin push her in, killing her. They return to his worried parents and he introduces Yazmin and Lenore as his best friends. Yazmin is reunited with her parents.

They continue to be friends, with Yazmin giving him a new notebook and encouraging his passion for writing scary stories. Meanwhile, the children's figurines in Natacha's cabinet begin to move and break free, while Natacha cackles and it is revealed that she survived her fight with the witch.

The film centers on an ex surf pro who is forced to take a job at a beachfront hotel teaching obnoxious tourists how to surf. Soon he's the tennis pro, the yoga instructor, the handyman - he might even be key to saving this family-run, Hawaiian-owned hotel.

Starting in the mid 1980s in a working-class neighborhood of Madrid, two brothers—Juan (Antonio Velázquez) and Alberto (Álvaro Cervantes)—are in love with the same girl, their friend Virginia (María Valverde). Life takes each character to a singular path: the older brother, the brash Juan, puts aside his childhood dream of becoming a boxer and leaves Madrid for the shipyards of Vigo, becoming a trade union leader. Meanwhile, Alberto becomes a priced businessman, whereas Virginia attains her childhood goal of becoming a renowned journalist, entering the elite cultural circles, while also becoming a mother.

The friendship story (and love triangle) between the three characters intertwines with historical events such as the deindustrialization policies undertaken in Spain, the Balkan Wars, the rise of trade unionism or the so-called ''Movida madrileña''.

Lucy Bellerose, a young American millennial, travels to France from San Diego, California after receiving some mysterious correspondence from her mother regarding the death of her Great Uncle.

After a taxi ride through Paris and then rural France, she arrives at the ominous Borley Castle. There she meets a vicar and chambermaid who seem to have no social skills and speak with archaic verbiage.

At her Great Uncle's, the Blood Rose Count's, funeral, she is introduced to J.P., a local French gravedigger, whom she takes a liking to. Soon J.P. takes her for drinks and tells her of the areas strange history, before he is pulled away after one of his relatives is involved in a fatal car accident.

After finding a mysterious book entitled "The Sortilegia" Lucy begins to encounter strange entities and experience supernatural occurrences. These include ghostly sightings of a "black-eyed" ghost girl, an out-of-place traveling insurance salesman, and an ethereal crone who give her ominous warnings.

After a short stay in the castle, and several warnings from the locals, Lucy learns of her family's checkered past and their involvement in witchcraft, devil worship and the occult.

Erica, who ends up as the entertainment at her ex-fiancé's wedding after reluctantly taking a gig at a luxurious island resort while in the wake of a music career meltdown.

Whether at the office or at home, corporate drone Yuji Sano works all the time. So when his home PC flashes a message about him being summoned to another world, Yuji restarts his machine ... only to find that he's inadvertently accepted the summons! Now in a fantasy world far removed from paperwork and computers, Yuji has just one thing on his mind: waking up from what he thinks is a dream and getting back to the mountain of work he left behind! But this other world has other plans for Yuji, who quickly discovers his Monster Tamer character class allows him to befriend slimes! And thanks to their number, those slimes help him absorb so much magical knowledge that he gains a second character class in the blink of an eye! How will Yuji wield his power now that he's the greatest sage the realm has ever known?! And what about all that paperwork?!

When a family of Tokyo war evacuees arrives at the outskirts of Suwa, they are met with hostility by most villagers. The father, an English professor who had to quit lecturing due to his liberal views, opposes his son Ichirō's wish to enlist at a military school. Ichirō, who previously had to suffer mockery at school for alleged cowardness, is now confronted with his new schoolmates' reluctance and bullied by the son of the local military commander. He is also at odds with his father because of his father's staying at home and reading, while the mother works for the family's income. After Japan's defeat, the commander's son tries to kill Ichirō before committing suicide himself for the inflicted "shame", but Ichirō can fend him off. The ending hints at more peaceful times lying ahead for the family.

Parker, an active-duty Special Forces officer, takes ownership of her grandfather’s bar shortly after he dies, and soon finds herself at odds with the violent gang that killed him.

Pam Bales is a search and rescue volunteer who sets off one fateful morning on a hike taking her to the top of Mount Washington. All of a sudden a fierce storm sets in but she sees tracks in the snow of someone wearing only sneakers. She comes across a strange-acting, incoherent man she calls "John" and the two begin a dangerous trek down the mountain to safety. Facing many obstacles along the way and almost drowning at one point. During this time, Pam has various "flashbacks" regarding her two young daughters. After almost freezing to death, the two manage to make it to safety only to have "John" drive off suddenly without so much as a thank you. Pam tries desperately to find out his real name and at the end, the two have an emotional meeting at a coffee shop where she mentions that her two little girls died from carbon monoxide poisoning and he mentions a loved one that had frozen to death on the mountain the previous year.

Richard Hudson receives a pair of silk pajamas from a friend that can transform a person into another person. When he puts the pajamas on, he turns into a fighter, but returns to normal the next day. Throughout the film, two more characters put on the pajamas, and they are mistaken for two other characters in the film. The film ends with the characters burning the pajamas.

Set in the same universe as the first movie and after an alternate version of events from ''Pacific Rim: Uprising'', a race of monsters called Kaiju arise from the Pacific Rim and overrun the continent of Australia. Humans build gigantic armed robots, Jaegers, to fight back, but fail and the continent is abandoned leaving only isolated pockets of survivors. Teenage siblings Hayley and Taylor Travis are left behind by their parents who leave to combat the Kaiju but never return. Five years later, Hayley stumbles across a long-abandoned training Jaeger called Atlas Destroyer which she and Taylor activate and set out on a quest to find their parents. They not only have to deal with marauding Kaiju, but other survivors who are also fighting for survival and attempt to seize Atlas Destroyer themselves.

Twenty-one year old African-American twin sisters Racine and Anaia were burned and scarred as babies. Racine has burn scars on her arms, back and neck, and Anaia has scars on her arms, face and neck. After receiving a letter in their apartment in Northeast, they journey to the Dirty South to the deathbed of their mother, who is known as "SHE" or "God" and has scars all over her body. SHE informs them that their father, referred to as “Man”, set the fire that burned the three of them. SHE instructs the sisters to go west to The Valley to find and kill him. The sisters travel there to face Man and his new family.

USMC Sergeant Mitchell Shephard (Mick Lauer), brother of Adrian Shephard, is sent to Black Mesa as part of the HECU to cover up the recent resonance cascade and quell the resulting alien invasion. Following some heavy combat, Mitchell is attacked and severely injured by a crowbar-wielding man in an orange suit, whom he believes to be Gordon Freeman. Mitchell dies from his wounds in a hospital, but is brought back to life by the G-Man after promising to kill Freeman. Waking up, Mitchell finds the hospital overrun by zombies. Nick (a national guards soldier) rescues Mitchell from the zombies and reveals to Mitchell that there is an ongoing alien invasion. He tells him to meet colonel cue and gives him a radio. On his way Mitchell meets a Black Ops member Adam, getting into an argument with him. After arguing, Mitchell reluctantly agrees to work with him under the agreement that they would part ways later. Learning that Earth has surrendered to the Combine, Mitchell and other soldiers flee New Mexico, but on their way they are attacked by the Combine. Everyone except for Nick, Adam and Mitchell are killed by the Combine. They meet up with the rangers and rescue survivors and recruit them. After getting on sea, they're attacked by combine, which results in the captain, Roosevelt, dying. After his death, Mitchell becomes captain of the ship, reorganizing into a private army on a series of offshore platforms.

Three years later, Mitchell travels to City 9, also known as New Alaska, and discovers a factory full of child slaves. Under the factory administrator Boris' permission, he rescues them and brings them to his outpost. Seventeen years after that, Mitchell, instructed by the G-Man, travels to City 17 to kill Gordon Freeman. Together with Adam, Shephard joins forces with the Combine and participates in several events also depicted in ''Half-Life 2''. After almost meeting Freeman, Mitchell gets captured by the resistance. Later, Boris's daughter, Sasha, who is an undercover combine spy in the resistance, rescues Mitchell and reveals that the G-Man made a deal with Boris. Mitchell asks her what the deal was but before Sasha could tell him Adam shoots her in the head and tells Mitchell to run, compromising their position to the resistance. While fleeing from the resistance Adam closes the gate behind him and Mitchell assumes that he did it to fight off the resistance. However, Adam reveals that this was never about Freeman, and tells him that he'll find the answers to his questions if he'll keep going. He confronts the G-Man about this, who then reveals that he was never on Mitchell's side and that the man who attacked him in Black Mesa was not Freeman but actually Adam, who had a deal with the G-Man. This was done so Boris would split the combine's forces and create freeman an easier path. Boris mistakenly believes it was Mitchell that killed his daughter who worked as a spy in the resistance. He orders the Combine to turn on Mitchell and try to kill him, but he escapes and returns to the offshore base. Finding that Adam has assumed control of his army, Mitchell executes him. He then commands his forces to sail for the ''Borealis'' research vessel stranded in the Arctic.

The Hall of the Singing Caryatids

The main character, Lena, gets a job in a secret brothel for oligarchs, where she and the other girls must portray caryatids sculptures in the absence of customers.

The girls work in shifts, three days at a time. In addition to standing still, they also have to sing. It's hard, but they get paid well. In order to remain motionless for a long time, they use a secret drug, which they are injected before work. After the injection, one can easily stand for several days and not get tired or bored, time flies by unnoticed. The drug is developed on the basis of an extract from the insect mantis. The praying mantis is known to be able to completely freeze, scooping up its prey. Everything would be fine, but the drug had an unexpected effect: the girls began to imagine themselves as mantises, to see the otherworld of mantises and to communicate with the spirit of the mantis.

Feeding the crocodile Khufu

Three young people find themselves at the performance of a certain magician. They are dissatisfied with his performance, but an audio recording on the magician's cassette, which the characters listened to, turned out to be quite interesting and told them about the history of the trick called "Feeding the crocodile Khufu". It turned out to be as mysterious as the trick itself. Of all the magicians of ancient Egypt, none was so revered as the great Jedi, who lived under Pharaoh Khufu.

He raised the dead, changed the direction of rivers, caused eclipses, and created bizarre animals - lions with eagle's wings and horses with spider legs. He showed Pharaoh pictures of other worlds that were stunning in their majesty and beauty. It was said that he could connect the present with the past and the future, changing the natural course of things. An account of his miracles was written on three obelisks - no one had ever been so honored before. Pharaoh brought him close to him and pampered him, then suddenly ordered his execution.

The Necroment

The story of a traffic police general who, for occult purposes, killed his subordinates (employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs), cremated the corpses and hid the ashes, adding them as "ecological additives" to the "sleeping policeman" material.

History draws a parallel between the fate of the Moscow general and Gilles de Re burned at the stake in 1440, the French marshal, who confessed to relations with the devil and ritual alchemical murders, may well be called a spiritual twin of the former deputy chief of Moscow traffic police.

Friedman Space

The story combines a parodic popular science narrative ostensibly from the cutting edge of science with a denunciation of the oligarchs and the FSB.

It turns out that similar to the cosmological effects of gravity discovered by A.A. Friedman, Stephen Hawking and others, there are also the effects of the attraction of money to money. This is allegedly established experimentally in dangerous experiments on people. Moreover, if the amount of money is very large, as in the FSB experiments on this subject, something like a black hole is formed, where the "doughnut" (money carrier) gets, descending beyond the Schwarzmann horizon, apparently analogous to the Schwarzschild sphere in cosmology.

The only visual data from under the Schwarzmann horizon is an image of an unremarkable corridor.

Assassin

The story of the boy Ali, caught in his early childhood in a high mountain castle, where he is made an assassin, but gradually he realizes the artificiality of the heavenly gifts he receives for committing murders and eventually escapes from the castle.

The story is accompanied by several "commentaries": a Sufi, a historian, a cultural historian, a lawyer and a drug addict. As if to enumerate all those levels of influence on the unformed brain of the assassin.

In an unspecified future, significant advances in biotechnology and the invention of machines and (analog) computers that can directly interface with and control bodily functions have become the norm. While at the same time, humankind itself has experienced a number of biological changes of indeterminate origin. Most significant among these changes is the disappearance of physical pain and infectious disease for an overwhelming majority (allowing for surgery to be safely performed on conscious people in ordinary settings), but other humans experience more radical alterations to their physiology. One of them, an eight-year-old boy named Brecken, displays the innate ability to consume and digest plastics as food. Convinced that he is inhuman, Brecken's mother smothers him with a pillow, leaving his corpse to be found by her ex-husband Lang.

Saul Tenser and Caprice are a world-renowned performance artist couple. They take advantage of Tenser's "accelerated evolution syndrome", a disorder that forces his body to constantly develop new vestigial organs, by surgically removing them before a live audience. The syndrome leaves Tenser in constant pain and with severe respiratory and digestive discomfort; he is consequently reliant on a number of specialized biomechanical devices, including a bed, a machine through which Caprice performs surgery on him, and a chair that twitches and rotates as it assists him with eating. Tenser and Caprice meet with bureaucrats in charge of the National Organ Registry, a governmental office designed to uphold the state's restrictions on human evolution by cataloguing and storing newly evolved organs. One of the bureaucrats, the nervy Timlin, becomes captivated by Tenser's artistic goals. At a successful show of Tenser's, she tells him that "surgery is the new sex", a sentiment that Tenser appears to embrace.

A governmental police unit seeks to use Tenser to infiltrate a group of radical evolutionists. Without telling Caprice, Tenser meets a series of contacts through other biological performance art shows that lead him to the evolutionist cell. One of them, former cosmetic surgeon Nasatir, creates a zippered cavern in Tenser's stomach, which Caprice uses to access Tenser's organs in an oral sex act. Caprice continues to network with other performance artists, eventually choosing to receive decorative cosmetic surgery on her forehead.

Tenser meets with Timlin, who reveals to him the agenda of the evolutionists: they have chosen to modify their digestive system to make them able to eat plastics and other synthetic chemicals. Their principal food is a purple processed "candy bar" of toxic waste, fatally poisonous to others. Lang is the leader of the cell; his son Brecken had been born with the ability to eat plastic, proving the inaccuracy of the government's critical stance on human evolution. Timlin tries to initiate sex with Tenser, but he says he is not good at "the old kind of sex".

Tenser is eventually approached by Lang, who wants Tenser and Caprice to reveal the cell's anti-government agenda through a public autopsy of Brecken that will highlight his evolved digestive system. After some deliberation, Tenser agrees. With Timlin, Lang and many others watching, Tenser performs the autopsy, but it is revealed that his natural organ system has been surgically replaced. Lang flees the show in tears. Outside, he is approached by two agents who supposedly work for the corporation that manufactures Tenser's biomedical machines. Mimicking their earlier killing of Nasatir, they assassinate Lang by driving power drills into his head. Tenser's connection within the police unit admits that Timlin replaced Brecken's organs to keep the deviation in human evolution secret from the public. Saddened by Brecken and Lang's deaths, Tenser informs the police that he will no longer serve them, approvingly referencing the cell's beliefs on evolution.

Tenser struggles to eat in his chair. He asks Caprice to give him a bar of plastic. As Caprice records him, he eats it, looks into Caprice's camera and sheds a tear. His mouth twitches into a smile as the chair finally quiets.

In the present day, a journalist named Sakurako Takamiya works for a local TV station. She researches into the Russian prisoners of war cemetery that local students keep clean. Her boss Shiro Kurata tells her about a letter from Russian Army officer named Alexander Sorokin, which was addressed to a nurse named Yui Takeda. They travel to Russia to look into Sorokin's diary.

In 1904, during the Russo-Japanese War, Yui takes care of the injured Sorokin at a prisoner of war camp in Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture, Japan. At first, Yui hates Sorokin, because her younger brother died in the war. Her feelings change, as they fall in love under difficult circumstances.

During the month of September 1983 on Brody Island in Maine, June Branch meets her boyfriend Liam on a suspension bridge. Liam is a summer hire for the local police department who is finishing up his last shift. While discussing their future, Liam recounts an incident where he had responded to a suicide at that same bridge earlier that summer.

June and Liam are stopped at the site of an apparent escape of prisoners from Shawshank Prison. June meets Police Chief Wade Clausen and City Councilman Ned Hamilton. Four inmates have escaped from hard labor duty and are on the loose. Wade discounts the escapees as being real threats due to the non-violent nature of their crimes. Liam offers to help in the search, but cannot due to his employment ending that day. Instead Wade informally asks that Liam and June look after his wife, Bobby, until the prisoners are apprehended.

Arriving at the Chief's home, June is introduced to Bobby, her son Hank and maid Gabby. Hank is a student at Harvard who serves as a congressional aide. While visiting the home, June learns of Wade's interest in Norse culture and his collection of Viking artifacts including an ornate battle axe.

While dining with the Clausens the group is informed of the death of Noel Flannagan, one of Wade's officers. Wade informs them that he believes that Noel fell to his death attempting to stop the escaped inmates from fleeing using a stolen boat. Bobby and Hank leave to inform Noel's wife and ask Liam and June to watch over the house while they are gone.

Later that evening, the pair are startled by a sound of someone entering the house. Liam asks June to hide while he investigates. While hiding June realizes that the inmates have broken into the home. June manages to evade the invaders but soon leaves to investigate when she hears Liam cry out in pain. She is shocked to find signs of a struggle and a severed finger. She is confronted by one of the inmates, Salvatore "Sal" Puzo. Sal has stayed behind while the other inmates have kidnapped Liam to search for some unknown item. June grabs the axe for her protection while Sal threatens her with a handgun. At the same time, the ongoing rainstorm knocks out electricity to the entire island. June manages to ambush Sal and uses the axe to decapitate him.

June is shocked to find that Sal is still alive as a severed head. She rescues Sal's head from floating out to sea. Shaking away her disbelief, she interrogates Sal about his intentions. Sal says that he and his fellow inmates heard that Liam had stolen a large amount of money from the suicide victim that he had mentioned earlier. Skeptical of the story June takes Sal's head with her in a basket and leaves to find help.

She finds Ned nearby with his pickup truck. Hiding Sal's head she explains her situation to Ned (hiding the fact she has decapitated Sal and his head is still alive). Ned agrees to drive herr to find help and offers her his extra raincoat. The pair is forced to stop to clear a fallen tree in the road. While June uses her axe to clear the tree, Ned is shocked to find Sal's severed and gagged head in her basket. At the same time June finds a bloody pair of pruning shears in Ned's raincoat and deduces that they were used to cut off Liam's finger. Ned attacks June with a chain and tries to kill her. June manages to decapitate Ned and soon discovers that Ned still lives as a head as well. Ned professes innocence and claims he was only acting in self-defense when he discovered the severed head. This fills June with self-doubt.

June uses Ned's truck to drive into town with the still living heads in tow. Arriving at police station, June finds Hank. June tells her story to Hank while again omitting the supernatural aspects. While changing clothes she finds a police softball jersey with Sal's name on it. Hank reveals that Sal was a police officer working for his father. Hank traps June in a jail cell and demands she reveal the location of a tape belonging to Liam. After shocking June with a stun gun, Hank begins to slowly reveal information regarding the situation. While serving as a congressional aide, Hank learns of an FBI investigation centering on Brody Island. An informant codenamed L.E. has been providing information about police corruption and investigating his family. Hank believes that L.E. is Liam since his last name is Ellsworth. Hank informed his father and upon further investigation found an empty cassette case belonging to Liam labeled "Police-Evidence".

Hank believes that he is the target of the investigation due to a sexual relationship he had with a woman named Emily Dunn. June recognizes the name as the woman who had committed suicide on the bridge. Emily was brought into the household by Gabby to help with house duties. Hank's affair with Emily lead to her becoming pregnant. After an argument with her Emily has a miscarriage (it is unclear if this was due to physical assault or an accident). Bobby gives Emily a bribe in order to get her to leave town. Wade threatens to have Emily arrested for theft if word ever got about her affair with Hank. It was then that Emily decided to kill herself. Hank had revealed the affair to Liam and was afraid that this would be revealed to the authorities.

June deduces that the inmates that invaded the home was Sal, Hank, Ned and Wade. This would be used to frame the inmates for Liam's death. June tricks Hank into releasing her to look for the tape in her belongings. While searching the truck, Hank cuffs June to a lightpost. Hank discovers the basket of talking heads and panics. June grabs her axe to free herself, but finds that the ancient axe is ineffective against metal. She cuts off her own thumb to escape and succeeds in decapitating Hank. Now with three talking heads, June learns more about her situation. From Ned, she learns that he controlled drug trade on the island. He reveals that Liam had a flirtatious relationship with Ned's daughters. The daughters had shown Liam where Ned grew and stored his marijuana and poppy. He feared that Liam would use that information against him. Wade had planned staged the inmate escape as a cover for silencing Liam. Noel had attempted to intervene and was murdered by Sal. It is revealed that Sal's involvement stemmed from fear that he would be outed as a homosexual by Liam.

June forces Hank to radio Wade to divert him away from his houseboat where he is holding Liam. June arrives on the houseboat and finds a tortured but alive Liam. She is attacked by Wade, who was tipped off by a coded message from Hank. June loses her axe overboard. Wade knocks June unconscious, ties an anchor around her and throws her overboard to die. Sinking in water, June is shocked to see she is surrounded by the corpses of the missing inmates. June manages to free herself using the axe and swims back to the boat.

While speaking with Liam, Wade finally realizes that Liam has been loyal to him throughout and that he is not the informant. Wade reveals that the axe that June has been using is said to have been used to cut Odin down from Yggdrasil, the world tree. The axe is said to bring life not dead. Wade expresses regret about the situation but still intends to kill Liam. June attacks Wade and bisects his body leaving one arm attached to his head and torso.

Liam reveals that Wade has an engagement ring intended for her. Wade reveals that Liam had indeed stolen the money from Emily Dunn. He also reveals that Emily was still alive after her failed suicide attempt, but that Liam had left Emily to die in order to retrieve the money. Liam admits this and begins to justify that it was better that Emily was dead. June tearfully decapitates Liam in retaliation for his lies.

June burns the boat with the still living remains of Wade and Liam on board. She leaves using Liam's car. She laughs in disbelief when she finds the tape and reads the label, Vital Evidence by the Police.

She returns to the bridge carrying the basket containing the heads of Hank, Ned and Sal. She is met on the bridge by Gabby who is leaving town and her job with the Clausens behind. She offers June a lift out of town. June pushes the basket and axe off the bridge, leaving the still living heads to their fate. Gabby realizes that June has been assaulted and reveals that she is the federal informant. Her full name is Gabriella and that she was normally called Ellie (L.E.). She made the decision to report Bobby Clausen for dealing in stolen historical artifacts due to the family's treatment of Emily leading to her suicide. June leaves the island behind with Ellie and the story concludes showing the axe laying on the ocean floor.

In Yobuko, Southern Japan, brothers Tarobei and Jinkichi are running a fishing business with two ships of their own. As the catch is too low to cover the expenses, caused by the corrupt ship captains, their business is threatened with bankruptcy when the investors demand their money back. In addition, the fishing association announces to withdraw the boats' license, as the nationwide number of licensed fishing boats is limited.

After firing the corrupt captains, Tarobei and Jinkichi hire Tsuyoshi and his younger brother Wataru to take over the commands on their ships. When a potential investor offers a loan on the condition that Tarobei gives his younger daughter Miwa as a bride to the investor's son, Tarobei gets into a conflict over his vow never to marry any of his daughters off for monetary reasons. Meanwhile, Miwa has fallen in love with Wataru, while Tsuyoshi has developed an affection for Mie, Miwa's older sister, who lost her husband in the war. After the new ship crews have successfully fought off the old ones, and Tarobei has finally been able to convince the association to renew the license (at the cost of his health), the ships can set sails.

Dr. Rebecca Church (Heidi Johanningmeier) has devoted her life to suicide prevention after her mother killed herself when Rebecca was nine. After Rebecca's new fiancée Gabriel Weeks (Colin Egglesfield) is kidnapped, Rebecca finds a photo album entitled "Gabriel Was Saved." The police inform Rebecca that the perpetrator is a serial killer dubbed "The Savior," who stalks and photographs his victims for 100 days before kidnapping and executing them. Detective Jack Byers (Yancey Arias) informs Rebecca that the Savior is targeting people who have previously attempted suicide. Rebecca tells Jack that Gabriel attempted suicide after his wife and daughter died and came into her clinic for help. The next day, Gabriel asks Rebecca out, beginning a fast romance and subsequent proposal.

Rebecca discovers the Savior is a former suicide prevention colleague of hers named Victor Quinn (Gideon Emery) who blames himself for patients who killed themselves despite his efforts. Wracked with guilt, Victor shot himself and Rebecca assumed he was dead. The police discover that Victor recently applied for jobs as a suicide prevention counselor, proving he is alive. Rebecca confirms Gabriel had called a suicide prevention line, confirming how Victor is finding victims.

In her old files, Rebecca finds Victor’s contact information and calls as he is driving with an unconscious Gabriel. Victor says he survived the gunshot, but was in a coma for 100 days, tortured by visions of dead patients. When Victor awoke, he met a suicidal woman named Barbara Roberts, who became his first victim. The police show Rebecca photo albums of Barbara and other victims who all had been stalked for 100 days. Victor calls Rebecca back, asking about Gabriel’s personality before killing him. Rebecca learns that all of Victor’s victims had recovered in the 100 days before he murdered them. Victor subdues Jack at the prevention clinic and chases Rebecca who escapes. Later, Rebecca admits to Jack that she had attempted suicide in her past, which seemingly explains why Victor is stalking her now.

Victor emails Rebecca recordings of phone calls between himself and Gabriel, proving he was counseling Gabriel throughout their relationship. Victor calls and taunts her by telling her the location of Gabriel’s diary. From reading Gabriel's diary, Rebecca learns his wife and daughter died in a tragic swimming accident, leading to Gabriel’s multiple suicide attempts. Unable to go through with it, he called a suicide prevention hotline. Victor picked Gabriel up and forced him at gunpoint to look at the photo albums of the previous victims who were happy. Victor explains the true nature of his philosophy: He offers to painlessly kill Gabriel in 100 days, while Victor takes photos to capture the "joy" he believes he is bestowing upon the suicidal. Rebecca learns that all of Victor's victims are, in fact, willing participants. Gabriel agreed to Victor’s deal, but impulsively called Rebecca so he could "find love again."

Horrified by the revelation of the deal between Victor, Gabriel, and all of the other victims, Rebecca takes sleeping pills, and barely survives after being taken to a hospital. Rebecca tells Jack they will likely never catch Victor because he is providing a service that suicidal people want. Victor sneaks into the hospital, taunting Rebecca with details of Gabriel's decision, and offering to make her his next victim of assisted suicide. Upon release, her mental condition deteriorates further and Rebecca calls Victor to seemingly accept his offer.

However, Rebecca instead shoots Victor, who dies. Rebecca leaves evidence of her complicity at the murder scene for Jack, who decides not to pursue her. Rebecca drives away, still struggling but confident in her resolve to never kill herself.

The film opens with an elderly couple in bed, upon hearing her dog crying the wife leaves her bedroom and goes to investigate. She finds her dog fine but when she goes to feed him she is killed by a masked intruder. The intruder removes her mask to reveal she is the wife. The intruder then redresses and returns to bed.

Next four friends (Aml Ameen as Devin, Martin Wallström as Noel, Georgia King as Leena and Mark O'Brien as Josh) are running a software startup. Devin and Noel are pitching to investors when they are given an impossible deadline. Their investors have met with a similar company which they like. The guys realise they have been betrayed by a programmer who they recently let go called Seth (Chad Krowchuk). Devin and Noel return and give Leena and Josh the bad news. The foursome decide to drown their sorrows in the local bar. While there they learn from the barmaid Carmen (Alyssa Diaz) that their home is rumoured to be haunted after the previous owner mysteriously disappeared.

The four go home and discuss if is possible to finish the app in the timeframe the investors gave them. They agree it cannot be done but Josh gets angry when Devin mentions that he is going to give up and just get a job. In the ensuing scuffle they damage the wall and uncover a hidden room. While exploring the attic they find a strange mirror, while messing around in the room Josh discovers the mirror is some form of portal. After Josh steps in and disappears the four get worried. He returns seconds later telling a fantastic story about a different world and how he was there for 15 minutes. Noel realises the mirror is a portal that connects to different universes. The four decide to use the mirror to slow down time so they can complete the app. With the app complete they give it to their investors and then drive past Seth mocking him.

Over drinks the four discuss how they can use the portal to their advantage. Leena also uncovers the missing woman's diaries and learns her name was Marissa and that she lost her husband and was using the mirror to reconnect with her deceased husband who wasn't deceased in another universe. Noel proposes to the group that they use the portal to steal ideas, Devin protests that this is what Seth did to them but loses the argument. He later performs an internet search on his father who we learn died after committing suicide due to a corruption scandal.

Josh starts to use the mirror to seduce women, Leena uses it so she can copy great works of art and sell them off as her own, while Noel becomes a "visionary" reselling ideas for technology. All four of them become successful and wealthy. At an event they are approached by a suspicious Seth. Josh intervenes after Seth gets angry and insults Devin about his father. Noel takes Devin through the mirror to another universe where they enter Seth's house. Noel destroys Seth's TV and Laptop before inviting Devin to beat up Seth. Devin refuses and makes them leave, he learns that Noel doesn't consider people in alternate universes to be real. Devin then goes through Marissa's diary and learns that Marissa lost her mind searching for her dead husband and he begins to grow concerned for Noel.

To cheer Devin up Josh takes him to an alternative universe and in this world Josh manages to successfully chat up Carmen and bed her. Devin goes downstairs to listen to music but fails to hear Carmen's boyfriend returning, who proceeds to shoot Josh. Devin carries a mortally wounded Josh back to their world where he bleeds out in the attic and dies. Noel doesn't call 911 as this is happening. The remaining three panic about what to do and reluctantly agree with Noel to kidnap and swap Josh from another world with the dead body.

The alternative Josh is drugged and wakes up in the new world seeing his three friends packing up. The three convince Josh that he got drunk and doesn't remember getting rich and getting hired into his dream job. This has been fixed up by Noel and Josh drives away to take up the job. Devin tries to find an alternative universe where his father is still alive, eventually succeeding and meeting him. Noel continues to steal ideas from different worlds and starts to spy on Devin and Leena.

Later Devin and Leena grow intimate and share a night of passion which Noel sees. The next morning Devin has seemingly disappeared in search of his father. Noel disposes of Devin's phone in the trash and Leena recovers it and uses it to track Devin's movements to a lakeside cabin. Devin tells her that Noel launched a lawsuit for patents against him. Devin has no recollection of sleeping with Leena and Leena realises that Noel has killed the real Devin. Noel has imported a new Devin from an alternate universe and left him at the cabin while he figures out how to reintroduce him into the group. Leena leaves the new Devin with the original Devin's phone.

Back at the house, Leena confronts Noel who shows her some amazing technical devices he has stolen from alternate universes and says they should get back together.

Josh sneaks into the house and threatens Noel with a gun. Josh has become unhinged as he can't work out what is going on in his life. In a struggle with Noel his gun goes off badly wounding Noel. Just then another copy of Noel appears with a futuristic gun, he shoots the injured Noel and Josh and the gun vaporises the bodies.

Downstairs, Noel goes to Leena and tries to prove to her that he has always loved her, showing her evidence of the many alternate Leenas he has met. Leena distracts Noel and grabs the futuristic gun but it fails to go off. She runs for the attic where the new alt Devin appears up the stairs just in time to save her from Noel's clutches. Devin fights with Noel who is shot and then jumps into the mirror. Just as Noel steps back through into their universe, Leena closes the mirror trapping him between universes and slicing him in half.

Devin and Leena embrace and they dispose of the body. Leena smashes the mirror. The two leave to start a new life. When Leena is in the restroom of a gas station there is a flash of light in the mirror. She gets back into the car with Devin but she's an alternate who can't remember the music they were just playing on the journey.

''I Am God'' opens with God beginning to keep a journal about his view on modern society, and in particular his infatuation with Daphne, a young geneticist. Daphne, an atheist post-punk and anti-Catholic activist, attracts God's attention although he fails to understand why. Much of the book is epistolary, with God as a first-person narrator through his journal, discussing his thoughts on a humanity he finds unsatisfying; language is recent to him, as the God of the novel has mostly disclaimed and damned humanity on the basis of thinking human language and thought to be evil. The plot also features a love triangle between Daphne, God, and her mortal boyfriend Giovanni, an alcoholic and sexually uninhibited paleontologist.

The God of ''I Am God'' has been characterized as neurotic, garrulous, and overly verbose. He also holds conservative views on matters of gender and sexuality, being called "half heteronormative deity, half embarrassing uncle" by Martin Riker of ''The New York Times''.

High school students visit a traveling carnival home to "unique" exhibits. They meet with a fortune teller who lets them in on what the future holds. One by one the teens get their desires but at a cost. Soon it becomes a battle for survival in hopes to not become a part of the show themselves.

Upon witnessing the bridal procession of Sakura, the granddaughter of the Nagura family, Suteo, a young man of about 18, runs to the river banks, followed by his mother, Haruko, who fears for his life. In a series of flashbacks interspersed with the present, the viewer learns of the preceding events, starting during the Pacific War.

Expecting a child with Hideo, the second son of the Naguras, and both knowing that his family of landlords will neither approve of their relationship nor Hideo's reluctance to go to war, Haruko—a tenant farmer's daughter—agrees to commit double suicide with her lover. While Hideo dies, disavowed by his tyrannical father Tsuyochi for refusing to fight for his country, Haruko survives and is taken in by the Naguras to silence the gossip about the affair. Haruko gives birth to a son, whom Tsuyochi, without her consent, registers under the name of Suteo, which means "discarded male." Housed in a separate shack, Haruko and Suteo live as labourers, and the only family member to treat them kindly is Sakura, the daughter of Tsuyochi's first son Katsuyuki and his wife Tatsuko, who also live on the manor.

With the post-war agricultural land reform, the Naguras are forced to sell to the government all but the land they can reasonably farm themselves, losing their status over the former tenants who now acquire it. Tsuyochi devises a plan to regain their wealth by amassing timberland, but this requires an investment from Tatsuko's family, who instead purchases it for themselves, thus deepening the Nagura's resentment at their lost social position.

When Sakura grows older, Tomi prevents her from enrolling at a higher school away from the village like her friends do, instead privately tutoring her in dance and music, intending to marry her into a wealthy family that will help sustain the Naguras. Suteo, now a young man, confesses his love to Sakura, and although she feels the same for him, Sakura decides that the only way to escape her overbearing family is by giving in to an arranged marriage that is conditioned on moving away to her groom's domain.

Returning to the film's opening scenes, Haruko catches up with her son, afraid that he might try to commit suicide like once she and Hideo did. She promises, now that Suteo has grown up, to leave for Tokyo together and begin a new life on their own.

Lucky (Michael Gilio) is an aspiring actor on his way to Hollywood. He makes one last stop near his hometown at a Kwik Stop, where teenage local Didi (Lara Phillips) catches him shoplifting and blackmails him into letting her come along to California. The two of them spend their first night together in the honeymoon suite of a roadside motel, where they smoke pot, have sex, and proclaim deep love for one another. When Didi wakes up in an empty bed the next morning, Lucky and Didi’s tumultuous journey has truly begun.

Danny, an undocumented immigrant who cleans houses in Australia, but realizes that he has information about the murder of one of his employers, and over the course of one tense summer day, Danny plays a cat-and-mouse game with the man he suspects to be the murderer, but he is in a moral crisis over speaking up.

Based on a true story, while 1st Sergeant Charles Monroe King is deployed in Iraq, he keeps a journal of love and advice for his infant son. Sharing this journal with her son, his fiancée, Dana Canedy reflects on her unlikely yet powerful romantic relationship with King.

Cryptozookeepers try to capture a Baku, a dream-eating hybrid creature of legend, and start wondering if they should display these beasts or keep them hidden and unknown. Meanwhile, a pair of lovers mistakenly find their way into the Cryptozoo, leading to unpredictable consequences in 1960s San Francisco.

''Follower'' is a novel in which the ''fylgja'', an ancient demonic deathwish, stalks the members of the Teamverk survey at Tromstad mine.

''Frost'' is a novel in which a raven-hairad warrior-witch on gets caught up in an apocalyptic war.

The book follows two characters, John from present day Los Angeles, and Joseph Rakow in the Russian Empire. John and his family uncover a manuscript of his grandfather, and learn about his life as it is translated chapter-by-chapter. Joseph, growing up near Pinsk, is exiled due to his political beliefs at age 15, and is sent to live in Siberia for ten years. Upon return, he decides to immigrate to the United States, traveling to Chicago. Taken aback by the poor working conditions of workers in his new home, he dedicates his life to union organizing. He discovers his brother has also moved to the United States, however has taken a radically different path in life to his own. Meanwhile, in the present day, John works as a political consultant for Patti Alvarado, a democrat campaigning in Texas against an incumbent Republican congressman. During the campaign, the congressman attempts to demonize Alvarado due to her history as an undocumented immigrant from Mexico.

''The film is presented in the form of an animated documentary; animated scenes depict Amin’s past and present, interspersed with archival footage.''

In the present, Amin Nawabi is being interviewed in Denmark by director Jonas Poher Rasmussen, who has known Amin since they were teenagers. Jonas is making a documentary about Amin's life, including his escape from Afghanistan to Denmark as a refugee. Amin has not shared the full details of his story with anyone, including his boyfriend Kasper, who he plans to marry. The trauma of his past affects Amin’s ability to settle down, and he considers a position away from Kasper in the United States as a postdoctoral researcher at Princeton University.

Amin begins by sharing stories of his childhood in Kabul with his mother Tahera, sisters Fahima and Sabia, and his older brother Saif. Amin’s father is not in their life, having been imprisoned as a perceived threat following the outbreak of the Soviet-Afghan War. Saif is forced to flee from police regularly to avoid being drafted to fight. After the Soviet Union withdraws from Afghanistan, the family flees Kabul due to impending invasion by mujahideen forces. They fly to Russia, where they meet Amin’s oldest brother Abbas, who is currently living in Sweden having fled Afghanistan years earlier. Abbas arranges for human traffickers to smuggle the family to Sweden. While waiting to leave Russia, they are forced to stay indoors, as they are staying in the country illegally. Amin’s sisters are the first to be smuggled, being placed on a freight container on a cargo ship with dozens of other refugees. The two survive, but are traumatized due to the difficulty of the journey.

In the present, Jonas expresses surprise that Amin’s siblings are still alive and living in Sweden, having previously thought Amin had no living family. Amin reveals that he keeps the truth hidden for fear he will be sent back to Afghanistan if it is revealed that he did not come to Denmark as an orphaned refugee as he claimed. Amin and Kasper tour a prospective house for them to live in after they are married; Kasper expresses concern about Amin’s ability to stay in one place for an extended period. In the past, Amin, Saif, and Tahera flee Russia by truck with a group of fellow refugees. The group boards a boat which will bring them across the Baltic Sea to Sweden. The boat encounters bad weather during the trip, causing the engine to die. After several days adrift, they are discovered by a Norwegian cruise ship. Amin and his family are held captive in Estonia for six months before being deported back to Russia.

In the present, Amin decides to accept the position at Princeton, causing an argument between him and Kasper; he leaves and stays at Jonas’s home. In the past, Tahera falls sick after their return to Russia. Saif takes responsibility for the family, deciding to send Amin out of Russia first using more expensive but more reliable smugglers, who tell him he must say he is an orphan in order to avoid being deported back to Afghanistan. Amin makes it to Ukraine, but is sent on a flight to Copenhagen rather than Sweden. Once there, he turns himself in to the authorities as a refugee and makes contact with Abbas, who instructs him to continue to lie about his family members being killed. Several years later, Amin visits Abbas and his sisters in Stockholm. After admitting to them that he is gay, Abbas takes him to a gay club, telling him that the family always knew about his sexuality.

In the present, Jonas visits Amin in New York City, where he expresses a desire to settle down, having constantly been on guard throughout his life. He returns to Denmark, where he reunites with Kasper. Four months later, the two are married and have purchased a house together. An epilogue reveals that Amin’s brother and mother eventually escaped Russia, and that the fate of their father still remains unknown.

Durring World War II, with Nazi Germany invading most of Europe and Adolf Hitler seeking magical artifacts, President Franklin D. Roosevelt is asked by Colonel Steve Trevor to get the United States involved by creating a team of superhumans. Consisting of Trevor, Black Canary, Hawkman, Hourman, Jay Garrick / Flash, and led by Wonder Woman, the Justice Society of America is formed.

In the present, Barry Allen and Iris West picnic in Metropolis, hoping to get away from "work". However, their plans are disrupted by Superman fighting Brainiac. Allen comes to Superman's aid as the Flash. When Brainiac fires a Kryptonite bullet, Flash tries to catch it, but he runs fast enough to channel the Speed Force for the first time. Guided by Doctor Fate's voice, Allen arrives in what he believes is the past during a battle between the JSA and the Nazis. Despite initial confusion over his allegiance, the JSA realizes Allen is an ally after he defeats the Nazis and saves Trevor and that he is seemingly from the future. As the team mobilizes to stop a second wave of Nazis, Allen takes Trevor back to the JSA's base, where he learns about the team, whom he never heard of before.

After meeting "Shakespeare", the JSA's war correspondent, and Trevor attempts to propose to Wonder Woman, the JSA meet for their next mission. Despite the risk of causing a time paradox, the heroes realize they need Allen's help in saving a codebreaker from a Nazi fortress who can decode a message Trevor stole.

Arriving at the fortress, the heroes and "Shakespeare" break in, defeat the guards, and discover several prisoners in the dungeons. "Shakespeare" rescues a prisoner who says someone told him of his arrival, and implores him to prevent something from happening. A guard attacks "Shakespeare", only for the bullets to bounce off of him. When Wonder Woman, Allen, and Trevor arrive, "Shakespeare" identifies himself as Clark Kent. However, when he reveals a different background from the Kent he knows, Allen realizes that he is actually in a parallel reality. The rest of the team finds the codebreaker, whom Hawkman recognizes as Doctor Fate. Breaking the code with his powers, Fate directs the team to the Bermuda Triangle before disappearing.

Arriving at the Triangle by sub, the team is detected by Nazi warships. After depth charges disable the engines, the Flashes jump-start the sub while Wonder Woman heads out to destroy the enemy ships. The heroes are saved by Atlantean soldiers, who direct them to a nearby outpost. Met by the Advisor, the team meets Aquaman, who imprisons them. It is revealed that the code was a Nazi trap and Aquaman is being controlled by the Advisor, who is influencing the Atlanteans to work with the Nazis in the hopes of destroying them later so he can take over the planet. After the Flashes realize they are becoming weaker while they are together, they join forces to regain their strength and break out. The team splits up, with one heading for New York to stop the Nazis and Atlanteans while Allen and Wonder Woman try to stop Aquaman and the Advisor from releasing monsters from the Trench.

As Atlantean forces attack Manhattan, they are confronted by the JSA. The heroes gain the upper hand until the Trench monsters arrive, killing Hawkman and wounding Hourman. Garrick and Canary destroy the monsters while Wonder Woman and Allen arrive and fight Aquaman, during the long heated battle with the help of Trevor she was able to break Aquaman's trident and frees him from the Advisor's control. Realizing what he has done, Aquaman retreats in guilt. However, the Advisor reappears and reveals that a follow-up strike by Nazi bombers is imminent before killing Trevor from behind using Aquaman's broken weapon. Barry knocks out the Advisor while Kent returns to destroy the bombers.

Before returning to his Earth, Allen shares his goodbyes with the JSA. Wonder Woman gives him the ring Trevor gave her, warning him of holding off for tomorrow. Allen and Garrick use their combined speed to send the former back to the moment he intercepted the Kryptonite bullet. After destroying Brainiac with it, Allen suggests forming a team to Superman to combat future threats before returning to Iris and proposing to her, which she accepts.

A young boy growing up in a village in Ceylon and how he deals with rapid economic and social changes that are going on around him.

It's the story of a peasant woman Zuleikha from the small Tatar village. In 1930 there is the Soviet campaign of political repressions of kulaks. Zuleikha's husband resisted dekulakization and was killed by communists. Zuleikha was transported to Siberia and left in a remote location on Angara River with little means of survival. She had to overcome the harsh conditions, build relationships with other exiles and forge her new identity and reasons for living.

"The Diving Pool", "Pregnancy Diary", and "Dormitory" have similar but unrelated plots.

The Diving Pool

The protagonist of "The Diving Pool" is Aya, a schoolgirl in her early teens. Aya's parents run a Christian orphanage at which she is "the only child who is not an orphan, a fact that has disfigured my family"; she develops an infatuation with Jun, one of the orphans and a talented diver. Aya obsessively watches Jun practice, sneaking into the orphanage's pool room to watch without him noticing.

As her infatuation builds, Aya also develops a sadistic obsession with Rie, the youngest resident of the orphanage. Rie's suffering and trauma enrapture Aya and encourage her to torment the child until she eventually traps her in an urn, in an emotionally and sexually charged sequence. Jun eventually discovers Aya's sadism, revealing his knowledge of it to her after a diving session and destroying her dreams of a relationship.

Pregnancy Diary

The unnamed narrator of "Pregnancy Diary" is a young woman who lives with her sister, newly pregnant, and her sister's husband. "Pregnancy Diary" is told in an epistolary format, with the narrator keeping a meticulous journal of her sister's pregnancy and reactions to it. The narrator's sister grows obsessed with scents and food, particularly sweet food, and entrusts the narrator to cook for her to sate her cravings.

The narrator of "Pregnancy Diary" is unemotional, with little reaction to or concern for her sister, while the sister is portrayed in the diary as "nervous and hysterical", dependent on a psychiatrist who makes regular house visits. As the sister's pregnancy grows, she first becomes repulsed by food and later obsessed with it; the narrator remarks on her sister's pronounced weight gain late in the pregnancy, noting the disapproval of her doctors. The narrator purchases ingredients to make a homemade jam for her sister, specifically grapefruits imported from America, which she is warned are treated with a pesticide that "destroys the chromosomes" of growing fetuses. As she makes batches of the jam, the tether of the sisters to reality weakens, and it becomes unclear what is real and what is delusion in their ''folie à deux''.

Dormitory

The also-unnamed narrator of "Dormitory" is isolated in Tokyo; her husband is working overseas in Sweden, and while she quit her job, she hasn't yet travelled to join him. Her younger cousin is starting university, and she assists him to stay in the same dormitory hall she herself lived in as a student. She strikes up a friendship with the manager, a triple amputee who nonetheless lives independently and can perform complex manual tasks such as sewing buttons with his only remaining limb. Not long after moving in, the narrator's cousin disappears; however, she is uninterested in trying to find him.

"Dormitory" is the most surreal novella in the collection, being told primarily on the metaphorical rather than the literal level. Few of the questions it raises are answered, and the ending is symbolic rather than literal.

A family from Detroit takes a two-week vacation in the south which makes multiple changes in their life they didn't think were possible.

As described in a film magazine review, Barton Baynes receives a prophesy of four perils and a rosy future from the Silent Woman, while Amos, the son of Ben Grimshaw who was the tightfisted power over the farmers, receives one of death and the gallows. One night Bart meets the Stranger. There is another traveler on the road and it happens that the three come together. Ben sees the flash of a gunshot and the Stanger drops to the road. He sees the assailant comes up and bends over the body. Ben hurls a stone and strikes the assailant in the temple, and then hurries off and spreads the news of what happened. The body turns out to be that of the son of the Silent Woman, and she falls prostrate with grief. Amos is convicted of the crime, and old Ben falls dead with the Old Woman's bony fingers pointed at him. However, Barton's future is bright with the smiles of Sally and success.

Two years after the events of the main campaign, the Inquisition arrives at the Winter Palace to attend a summit at the request of the recently elected Divine Victoria. A council is assembled to determine what the Inquisition's role will be now that the Breach has been closed and Thedas is at peace. During the talks, a dead Qunari warrior is found, leading the Inquisitor to investigate the presence of Eluvians, magical mirror artifacts, in the palace. The Inquisitor discovers a Qunari plot to invade southern Thedas using the Eluvians and proselytize its people to the Qun, the collectivist philosophy which governs the highly regimented Qunari society.

Notes found by the Inquisitor indicate that a mysterious elven "agent of Fen'Harel" has been disrupting the Qunari's plans. During this time, the Inquisitor's Anchor begins to flare up uncontrollably. The Inquisition is confronted by the Viddasala, a high-ranking Qunari leader who accuses Solas, a former companion who departed the Inquisition after Corypheus' defeat, of disrupting their plans and manipulating the Inquisition into opposing the Qunari.

After traveling through the Eluvians and defeating the Qunari, the Inquisitor encounters Solas, who petrifies the Viddasala and reveals that he is Fen'Harel, and had created the Veil, the metaphysical barrier which separates the Fade from the physical world. While this action sealed away the other elven gods, who were abusing their power, it also caused the downfall of the elven empire, as their society was dependent on the presence of the Fade. He announces his intention to restore the world of the elves, even if the current state of the world may be destroyed in the process, something that he takes no pleasure in. Solas also confirms that he has placed agents in the Inquisition, which is now growing corrupt. The Inquisitor may decide to either try to redeem him or kill him; either way, Solas amputates the Inquisitor's arm with the Anchor to prevent their death, and leaves. Back at the council, the Inquisitor must decide whether to disband the Inquisition or restructure it into a peacekeeping organization under the oversight of the Divine.

In a post-epilogue scene, the Inquisitor resolves to find allies who are beyond Solas' influence, and marks the location of the Tevinter Imperium on a map of Thedas.

Set in the 1980s in a society ruled by machismo, a hibernating "bird" becomes a serious matter. In a life of brutality, the sleeping bird is an allegory for a peaceful and serene life, even when the whole world tries desperately to rouse it.

The alleged serial killer Tillmann grants an interview to the ambitious reporter Lennart. They meet for a secret and exclusive interview in a hotel. There, the killer reveals explosive details of his murders and has even brought along some trophies. The eager journalist Lennart, who has been following the murders and their backgrounds with great interest for quite some time, already sees himself on the front page of his newspaper with his sensational story about Tillmann. However, the interview suddenly tilts, when everything points to the fact, that Lennart's wife Antje might have been Tillmann's last murder victim.

The Chinese MSS receives vital information about an illegal supply of firearms from China to Korea where they send a rookie officer named Wong Iring to investigate and capture the smugglers. Iring's next plan is to inflitrate Korea as Yoo Dae-Hee and meet a Korean special operative, but ends up meeting a Detective and former NIS agent named Woo Soo-Han.

Dae-Hee tells Soo-Han about the mission and present target SI Chem Park Du-Sik, a rare-earth element importer from China, who is actually involved in arms smuggling. The duo follow Du-Sik to a cafè in Gangnam. After a topsy-turvy ball dance, the duo manages to acquire his phone, only to find it is a flip phone. After keeping the phone back, Du-Sik receives a call and while chatting with someone, he gets killed with a dart and his death has been faked as an heart attack.

The next day, Soo-Han and Dae-Hee receive the news about the Rodeo mob boss has ben shot while leaving from his club. After interrogating a fortune teller advised by Soo-Han, the duo head to meet Rodeo boss rival ''Axe Clan'' where they meet the clan's boss, but are soon attacked by masked men. Soo-Han and Dae-Hee escape, but not before retrieving the clan's boss's phone. With the help of an hacker, the duo reaches the person's address where they find the person dead and deduce that he had been killed 3 days ago.

The duo learns about the person's identity as Kim Yeong-Gu, the security head of ''Mugwang International'' and also learns about its execs Director Jeon-Hoon. Soo-Han remembers that Jeon-Hoon was the one who threatened Du-Sik after he had checked his phone. The duo learn that a party is held at Alvin hotel the next day. Soo-Han and Dae-Hee leave for the party. Despite knowing that Jeon-Hoon is their boss killer, the Axe Clan makes a arms deal to sell arms at midnight.

Soo-Han and Dae-Hee are exposed where they are captured and brought to Jeon-Hoon, who orders Soo-Han to kill cops at a local police station in exchange for Dae-Hee's life. Soo-Han is escorted to the police station, but Soo-Han injures Jeon-Hoon's men and reaches back at the hotel, only to find that Dae-Hee is escorted somewhere. The cops arrest Soo-Han, where he is visited by the NIS, who learns about Dae-Hee's real identity and that she is sent as a 'sacrifice' to die in the mission.

Soo-Han escapes from the station and reaches the hideout where the deal between Jeon-Hoon and the Axe Clan is headed. Soo-Han frees Dae-Hee and kills Xia-rong, one of the assassin Da-rong's brother, which alerts the gangsters and they head to kill the duo. Soo-Han and Dae-Hee manages to kill/arrest all the gangsters including Da-rong and Jeon-Hoon. Soo-Han is arrested, but is offered a deal by the NIS and MSS to become a covert agent in exchange for his release. Soo-Han agrees, where he along with Dae-Hee are sent to Russia for another mission.

The novel mentions such trends as Google, Facebook, the cult of consumption, tolerance, Internet addiction, terrorism, information slavery. Heroes live, reflect, philosophize. And all this happens against the background of the well-known game Angry Birds.

The protagonist of the novel Kesha, lives in two dimensions, in the present and in a possible alternative future.

In the present, Kesha works for an online news agency called Contra.ru. There are many interpretations of this name alone: kontora in the sense that it was before the offices, and office in the sense of something to do with the special services, and contra in the sense of opposition and similar to the name of several well-known Internet projects. And so Pelevin does with many names and titles.

Kesha's day off is described. All day he sits at his computer: trolling in various posts, playing computer games, watching a movie, masturbating on a porn site to a Japanese animation. By the end of the day he thinks he should get some air: he opens the window, sighs, and closes it.

Kesha had a real girlfriend, but he rarely went out with her. He didn't like that she was overweight. When he did have sex with her, he imagined she was a Japanese girl.

One time the plastid-wrapped terrorist Batu Karayev came there and blew up Contra, along with Kesha and the other employees.

In another dimension, in the future, Kesha lives in orbit around the Earth in a capsule that makes up a whole anthill with other such capsules.

The man floats in zero gravity all wrapped in wires. He is fed through a tube into which proteins, fats, and carbohydrates are pumped, but he perceives it as a variety of food. The food has to be paid for, as does all the virtual reality he is surrounded by. At the same time the person knows that he is dangling in weightlessness and is in something like a tin can, but he does not care.

If he wants to, he can go to this basic level, but he's not interested there. Everything interesting is in his head. That's how the last Russian crackpots lived - there was no room for them on the land. Land was too much of a luxury for them. The people in the pods slept all the time, but their dreams were divided into different phases.

There was a phase of public sleep, where they met, there was a phase of random sleep, where one saw what one wanted, and there was a phase of individual sleep, but there they were shown the right movies and other useful programs.

Kesha made his money by running around the virtual stadium until he was exhausted. He would fall and hurt his feet on the glass. The goal of the job was for the man to endure as much pain as possible. With the money he received, Kesha paid for virtual food and other things.

The main ones in this world were the three Zuckerbrins. It is difficult to say what they were, but they were perceived as light and as joy. And at the same time there were three tsukherbrins for each person. Sometimes a person could see them. And then he would go into ecstasy.

The word itself was derived from the names of giants of the past, Zuckerberg and Brin. And why were there three Zuckerbrins. Most likely because it was a Trinity.

Every inhabitant of this world had a social partner, and that partner for Kesha was the terrorist Baku Kuraev, who was hiding under the guise of an old nymphomaniac. He died, but he left Kesha a message.

In that message he explained his behavior. Batu had once been a programmer and had a different name. But one day he realized that man is not free in his thoughts. Those thoughts are forced upon him. People from birth think the thoughts imposed upon them.

This all started when semiconductors were invented. They weren't invented - it was the silicon-organic civilization that began to colonize the Earth.

Zuckerbrins are invaders and are like triple viruses. They can only be destroyed along with the host. They feed on human sexual energy: it is not for nothing that already in the early days of the Internet, sex content took up most of the traffic.

Realizing all this, the programmer took the name of an ancient terrorist and began to take revenge. He killed 500 Zuckerbrinses, but then realized that his thoughts were not free, but imposed: the system needed terrorists for even greater control over people. Then he stopped taking revenge and started hiding.

Photographer Janis Martínez does a photo shoot with renowned forensic archaeologist Arturo. She asks him if his foundation will help excavate a mass grave in her home village, where her great-grandfather and other men from the village were killed and buried during the Spanish Civil War. Arturo agrees to review the case with his foundation; he and Janis then sleep together and Janis becomes pregnant. She decides to keep the baby and raise it alone, against Arturo's wishes, whose wife is undergoing chemotherapy, but wants to be with Janis.

Janis later shares a hospital room with Ana, a teen single mother accompanied by her mother; they give birth at the same time. After both babies are held for evaluation, they are released, and Janis and Ana go their separate ways. Janis and Ana stay in touch, keeping one another updated on their babies' progress. Arturo arrives one day asking to see baby Cecilia; he reacts strangely, confessing that he does not believe the baby is his. Janis does a maternity test, which reveals that she is not Cecilia's biological mother, but she decides not to tell anyone.

Months later, Janis runs into Ana working at a cafe near her home; Ana has left her mother's home to fend for herself after her mother left to pursue acting on the road. Janis invites Ana up to her apartment, where Ana tearfully reveals that her baby Anita has suffered a crib death. Janis asks for a photo of Anita, which confirms her suspicions that her and Ana's babies were swapped in the hospital.

Janis later offers Ana a job as a live-in maid, watching over the house and baby Cecilia. She collects saliva samples from Ana and Cecilia without telling her they are for a maternity test, whose results confirm that Cecilia is Ana's daughter. Ana later reveals that her pregnancy was the result of a gang rape by her classmates, and her father pressured her into staying silent to avoid negative press attention. The budding sugaring-like relationship between Janis and Ana further develops into a casual sexual relationship, but Janis is unable to commit fully to Ana who wants more from her.

Arturo arrives with news that his foundation has approved the excavation of the mass grave, and also that his wife has recovered from cancer and they are separating. He and Janis celebrate with a night out on the town, making Ana jealous. Ana's mother also comes by to reconnect with Ana, admitting to Janis that she feels like a terrible mother but wanted so badly to pursue her dream as an actress.

Janis finally admits the truth to Ana, who reacts angrily and leaves in the night with Cecilia, to Janis' dismay. She calls Arturo and breaks the news to him as well; he spends the night with her as they console each other. The next morning Ana calls Janis, having calmed down, and says that Janis is still welcome to see Cecilia and be a part of her life.

Months later, Janis and Arturo travel to her home village, where he gathers information about the grave from surviving relatives and prepares for the excavation with his team. Ana later arrives with Cecilia, and Janis reveals to her that she is three months pregnant. When asked what she will name the baby, Janis says Ana if it is a girl and Antonio if it is a boy (after her great-grandfather). The excavation is a success, and the village gathers at the exhumed grave to mourn their lost loved ones.

Emperor Paul I, the great alchemist and mesmerist, was not assassinated by the conspirators-the coup was a spectacle that allowed him to leave St. Petersburg unnoticed. Paul the Alchemist departed for the new world created by the genius of Franz Anton Mesmer - Idyllium. Paul became its first Caretaker. For three centuries Idyllium has been hiding in the shadows of our world, interacting with it according to special laws. It is up to the Caretakers to protect Idyllium, and there have been many of them. Each new one must learn the secret of Idyllium and understand who he is.

Pelevin took as his hero a historical figure as far removed from actuality as possible: the Emperor Paul I. His consciousness turned out to be able to organize a ramified, detailed, stable illusion, to populate it with characters, events and everyday life, history - "Illusium" turned out. That is, almost all the action of the novel takes place literally "in the head" of the emperor. And the reader, who takes what is happening at face value, is also at this point co-authors as well as participants in the Illusion. We obediently support it with our reading energies. The metaphor here is transparent. We can guess whose, shall we say, inner world Pelevin is alluding to: the Emperor Paul, Mikhailovsky Castle, St. Petersburg... There are too many coincidences to consider this a portrait of any statesman. Let us put it this way - this is "the inner world of a generalized Russian statesman", which, in general, has changed little over 200 years.

It is interesting to read the author's thoughts on women's beauty. Unpleasantness is always easy to describe, Pelevin writes, but the beauty - it is impossible, only by stating: "it is beautiful". Why is this so? Why do we essentially have no words to describe beauty? Because beauty is the absence of defects, that is, in essence, nothing.

At the end of the novel the reader falls into a trap constructed by the author, the climax of every Plevin novel. When he finds himself in the position of the hero, who is also confused and no longer knows where is the illusion and where is reality, and what in general is illusion and how it differs from reality, and so on.

Prologue

During the end of winter in the lands of Kislev, Ursun, the Bear-God, would break winter with his roar and bring forth summer. One day, Ursun vanished, and for seven years, Kislev has suffered an unending winter. The Barkov brothers, Yuri and Gerik, are sent by Tzarina Katarin on an expedition north to search for the missing god. During his prayer, Yuri hears Ursun's voice. Ursun claims that he has been imprisoned in the Howling Citadel, located in the Chaos Wastes.

Yuri travels with his brother and his army to the Chaos Wastes to free his god, but is slowly corrupted by Chaos in his methods to reach Ursun's prison. Eventually, Yuri murders his brother, Gerik, and offers his skull to a Greater Daemon of Khorne to build a bridge of skulls to cross the Howling Citadel. Yuri and his army reach the Howling Citadel, and after defeating a chaos-corrupted Boyar and his forces guarding the citadel's entrance, Yuri enters a portal to the Realm of Chaos.

After emerging from the portal, Yuri finds the imprisoned Ursun, and is greeted by Be'lakor (voiced by Richard Armitage), the first of the Daemon Princes. Be'lakor reveals that it was he who guided Yuri by mimicking Ursun's voice. Ursun begs Yuri to free him, but Be'lakor manipulates Yuri into thinking that Ursun is weak and unworthy of his worship, tempting him to kill the god and take his power for himself. Yuri renounces Ursun and shoots a Chaos-imbued bullet into the Bear-God's heart, and Ursun roars in pain. The resulting backlash hurls Yuri back to the material plane, with Yuri crashing into the ground severely wounded. Dying, Yuri offers his soul to the Chaos Gods and begs them to save him. The Chaos Gods answer his plea and ascend him into a Daemon Prince.

The Realm of Chaos

After the events of the prologue, Be'lakor has imprisoned the wounded Ursun in the Forge of Souls, located within the Realm of Chaos. Despising the Chaos Gods for taking away his power and physical form, Be'lakor plans to use Ursun's power to take his revenge. Ursun's pained roars have torn the fabric of reality, opening rifts between the material world and the Realm of Chaos and creating a maelstrom that has stranded Daemons in the mortal plane.

A character known as the Advisor (who provided the tutorials in the previous two games) has been enslaved by a corrupted book known as the Tome of Fates, bearing a curse of the Chaos God Tzeentch. He is able to use the book to offer counsel to others, but never for his own gain; however, he has learned that he can free himself from the book with a single drop of Ursun's blood. He goes to several factions seeking allies to achieve his goals, offering to guide them into the Realm of Chaos to find Ursun:

The rulers of the Tzardom of Kislev wish to free their god and put an end to the eternal winter that scours their land, though tensions are fraught between the Ice Court, led by Tzarina Katarin Bokha, aided by her secret society of Ice Witches, and the Great Orthodoxy, led by Supreme Patriarch Kostaltyn, who believes Katarin to be an unworthy ruler, too focused on magic and politics instead of devotion. During the campaign, a side quest unlocked by controlling the three main Kislevite cities (Kislev, Praag and Erengrad) allows either faction to rescue and awaken Katarin's father, the former Tzar Boris Ursus, from his icy slumber in the Frozen Falls, unlocking Boris and his faction, the Ursun Revivalists, as a playable faction for future campaigns.

The dragon siblings of the Empire of Grand Cathay, Miao Ying the Storm Dragon (who controls the Northern Provinces) and Zhao Ming the Iron Dragon (who controls the Western Provinces), are unconcerned about Ursun's fate, believing themselves to be older and wiser than any god. However, they are still convinced to free Ursun, as the Bear-God is the only one who can inform them of the whereabouts of their missing sister Shen-Zoo, bringer of light and hope, who disappeared in Norsca long before.

The greedy, gluttonous Ogres of the Ogre Kingdoms in the Mountains of Mourn, led by the Overtyrant Greasus Goldtooth and the Prophet of the Great Maw, Skrag the Slaughterer, care little for the politics and conflict between Order and Chaos, but still desire to reach Ursun to feast on his divine flesh, and feed the remainders to their own god, the ravenous, eldritch entity known as the Great Maw.

The Daemons of Chaos each have their desires for Ursun. Skarbrand the Exiled One, greatest of all Bloodthirsters, wants Ursun's skull so he can gift it to Khorne, the Chaos God of Blood and War, in order to earn forgiveness for his betrayal in the past. Kairos Fateweaver, the two-headed Lord of Change and Oracle of Tzeentch, the Chaos God of Sorcery and Deception, plans to take Ursun's eyes to be able to see the present, as he can only perceive the past and future. Ku'Gath Plaguefather, greatest of the Great Unclean Ones of Nurgle, the Chaos God of Disease and Decay, wants to use Ursun's corpse to brew a great plague known as a God-Pox. N'kari the Arch-Tempter, most favoured of the Keepers of Secrets of Slaanesh, the Chaos God of Excess and Desire, wishes to delight in Ursun's eternal sorrow. Yuri Barkov, now a Daemon Prince known as the God-Slayer and leading the Daemons of Chaos Undivided, seeks to finish what he started by truly slaying Ursun and taking revenge on Be'lakor for his manipulations.

In order to reach the Forge of Souls where Ursun is imprisoned, each faction must travel to the Realm of Chaos, invade each of the four Chaos Gods' domains and capture the soul of a Daemon Prince bound to them. As the factions battle for the Daemon Princes' souls, it is revealed that Be'lakor intends to absorb Ursun's divine power once he dies to transform himself into the Chaos God of Shadows. With an army of Soul Grinders created in the Forge of Souls, he will destroy the four Chaos Gods and rule unchallenged.

Once all four souls of the Daemon Princes have been captured, Ursun finally dies. As Be'lakor undergoes his ascension to godhood, the Advisor uses the souls of the Daemon Princes to create a bridge leading to the Forge of Souls. The player's faction battles Be'lakor's army before finally slaying the Dark Master and preventing his ascension. After the final battle, the fate of Ursun and the player's faction is revealed:

• The leaders of Kislev mourn the loss of Ursun, believing that with their God dead, Kislev will fall. However, Ursun is revived by their devotion, and with his roar, he puts an end to Kislev's endless winter. This is considered the canonical ending.

• The dragon siblings of Cathay use spirit magic to speak to Ursun, and before fading from existence, he clues them to the location of their missing sister.

• The Ogres butcher and feast on Ursun's carcass, and feed its remains to their deity, the Great Maw, briefly quelling its eternal, gnawing hunger.

• Skarbrand delivers the bear-god's skull to Khorne. Whilst the Blood God revels in such a worthy offering, he does not forgive Skarbrand for his betrayal, rendering Skarbrand's efforts in vain.

• Kairos takes Ursun's eyes, and with the sight of a God he is finally capable of viewing the past, present and future.

• Ku'Gath uses Ursun's corpse as the final ingredient to brew the ultimate plague, a God-Pox capable of infecting the Gods themselves.

• N'kari captures the last remains of Ursun's spirit, basking in the God's anguish at Kislev's demise.

• The God-Slayer takes what power remains from Ursun's corpse, allowing him to ascend to godhood and becoming Kislev's new God.

The epilogue has the Advisor freed of his slavery from the Tome of Fates, and he is joined by a white crow. However, when he attempts to read the book, his sight is stolen, and the white crow is revealed to be a Greater Daemon of Tzeentch, known as Sarthorael the Everwatcher, with the Daemon binding the Advisor to his service. The epilogue also reveals that the game takes place before the events of the first game.

Champions of Chaos

For millenia, the servants of the Chaos Gods have clashed in the ancient city of Zanbaijin, the souls of those fallen in these vicious conflicts sealed within the Altar of Battle at the heart of the Fallen City. Now, Ursun's pained roars have weakened the seal of the Altar of Battle, and the myriad warrior-souls of bygone eras within it lay ripe for the taking; such an amount could possibly forever change the balance of power between the four Chaos Gods.

Thus, each of the Chaos Gods have commanded one of their greatest champions to reach the city of Zanbaijin: Azazel, Prince of Damnation, for Slaanesh, Festus the Leechlord for Nurgle, Vilitch the Curseling for Tzeentch, and Valkia the Bloody for Khorne. Each of these champions will attempt to forge a path towards the Fallen City by forcing open the still-healing scars created by Ursun’s roar; there, they will perform a ritual to shatter the seal on the Altar of Battles and claim the souls within for their patron.

Naomi, who works at a small publishing house in the suburbs, is unable to accept the sudden death of her parents, so she starts living at a high-rise apartment owned by her uncle and his wife, who kindly allow her to stay there on her own. She lives with his long-time partner, Haru, a black cat, and is surrounded by like-minded colleagues, including a junior colleague who is pregnant. After a dream-like encounter in an elevator, her neighbor, actor Tokito Morinori, starts to pursue Naomi, which makes her flutter. The sight outside the window of the high-rise building that cuts through the clouds seems to reflect her dazed present and confusing future. Floating between her workplace, love, and life goals, Naoto is still searching and finding her true self.

A literary-police algorithm named Porfiry Petrovich (the essence of his job is to investigate crimes and, in parallel, to write detective novels about them-the proceeds of which fill the coffers of the Police Department) hopes to obtain a murder case that might launch his literary career, but instead finds himself rented out to a private client. The hero narrator is a writing mind devoid of bodily embodiment. He says of himself that he is "a typical Russian artificial intelligence of the second half of the 21st century," a "police-literary robot ZA-3478/PH0 bilt 9.3" with the Dostoevsky name Porfiry Petrovich. He lives only in the network space, and his character, according to his own apt definition, "is painted in the contrasting tones of our historical and cultural memory" and combines both "Radishchev and Pasternak and as if an interrogator in their joint case".

His temporary landlady, an art historian and curator known by the pseudonym Maruha Cho (real name Mara Gnedikh), uses Porfiry to scout the contemporary art market. The police algorithm must help her find out everything possible about the transactions associated with the so-called "Age of Plaster" - the most important (and most expensive) period in modern art history, which occurs around our time, which is the beginning of the twenty-first century, and which is eighty years removed from the events described in the novel.

Porfiry takes up the work, deftly packing all the materials of the case into the format of the next novel, but soon enough he realizes that Mara is not quite honest with him, and the true role of his much more complex and ambivalent than it first seems... Porfiry tries to outplay Mara, but the man is still smarter than the machine, and soon Porfiry finds himself confined in the space of half an X-exabyte.

Russia's politics in this novel have changed significantly: the Russian Federation is now called the Russian Empire, it is a monarchy (restored in the late 2030s), and it is ruled by a cloned sovereign (38 percent of biological material was taken from Nikita Mikhalkov's left mustache and dosed with genomes from European, Chinese and Abyssinian dynasties). If something bad happens to the Sovereign, then Arkady the First is replaced by Arkady the Second, the Third, and so on down the list. The events described in the novel unfold under Arkady the Sixth.

Pelevin's strongest concern is the question of artificial intelligence and its relationship with the intelligence of nature.

The second issue raised in the novel is gender and sexuality; in the world created by Pelevin, the trends, barely outlined today, are brought to their apogee: the category of gender has completely split, and along with the concept of gender the traditional understanding of sexuality has disintegrated. In the world described in the novel, sex does not exist. That is, it is no longer engaged bodily. Or rather, it no longer requires two biological individuals, but one. Sexual contact between a man and a woman, a man and a man, a woman and a woman, and in general any kind of sex where the presence of more than one biological body is required, is marginalized and even criminalized due to the spread of viruses which are not dangerous for the carriers but disastrous for the offspring.

The next subject is contemporary art, its structure and methods of legitimization.

A well-dressed man pours a glass of Champagne for a young woman who is sitting with him at a dining table. She's costumed, wearing a mask and cape. He removes the mask and cape, revealing a smiling beauty. He takes her in his arms to kiss her; she cooperates. This view is replaced by one of an old couple in bed, he kissing her, she enthusiastically willing. The man is not happy to be back in reality.[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0258104 IMDB: Rêve et réalité (1901)]

In the middle of winter, the player characters ride into the small range town of Burned Bush Wells, Nebraska, with a load of furs to sell. They soon find themselves embroiled in a dispute as the wealthy businessman Lyle Underway tries to take over the entire town by forcing smaller business owners out.

''Burned Bush Wells'' is an adventure which consists of nine small scenarios or encounters and one larger adventure.

Renowned architect Billy Herrera and his wife Ingrid are a Miami-based Cuban-American couple with two daughters, recent law school graduate Sofia and rebellious aspiring fashion designer Cora. At couples' counseling, Ingrid tells Billy that she has had enough of his workaholic attitude and stubbornness and wants a divorce; their counselor tells them to tell their daughters right away. Ingrid wants to announce it later that day after Sofia arrives for a visit, but Sofia first announces that she is engaged to be married to fellow lawyer Adan Castillo and that they want to marry in one month. Billy and Ingrid agree to keep their divorce a secret until after the wedding. Billy is hesitant about Sofia's nuptials and her desire to move to Mexico with Adan to work at a non-profit instead of remaining in the United States. The two further disagree as Billy wants a big, traditional Cuban wedding while Sofia and Adan want a smaller ceremony. Meanwhile, Sofia asks Cora to make her wedding gown and her bridesmaids' dresses, disgruntling their eccentric wedding planner Natalie Vance.

Adan's wealthy father Hernan and the rest of his family arrive in Miami. Hernan and Billy disagree further on the cost and scale of the wedding; Hernan offends Billy by offering to pay for what Billy cannot afford. Hernan throws a lavish engagement party on his yacht instead. Hernan has also obtained a lavish mansion on a Miami island and offers to hold the wedding there, causing a shouting match between him and Billy, who admits his dislike of Adan and the Castillos. Billy appeases Sofia at her dress fitting and confides the divorce to Adan at the latter's bachelor party.

A storm warning threatens the upcoming ceremony. The families proceed to the wedding rehearsal, where Cora overhears Billy talking about the divorce to his cousin Junior and immediately breaks the news to the rest of the guests. Sofia is disgusted that her parents and Adan have been hiding it from her, but reconciles once more with her father and agrees to push through with the wedding. That stormy night, the Herrera family spends the night together.

The next day, the weather has cleared, but the storm has collapsed the only bridge to the wedding venue and has destroyed much of the set-up. The Herreras and Castillos pool their resources to throw the wedding last-minute at the Herrera home, with Natalie officiating. Sofia and Adan marry with Billy's full approval, while Billy and Ingrid rekindle their romance.

''The Intruder'' is a film in which a stranger with a coffin arrives to put on a show in a small Canadian town.

''The Next One'' is a film in which the recent-widow of an American astronaut finds Glen - a man with uncanny powers and castaway in space and time - washed up on the beach of her Greek Island retreat.

The film takes place in the fictional upstate New York town of Checkford. It centers on The Bread Factory, a community arts center run by a married couple, Dorothea and Greta, as well as daily life in the surrounding town.

In the first part, a conceptual art duo, May Ray, arrive in town and begin staging flashy, highly produced but utterly vapid performances. They threaten to siphon away an arts grant on which The Bread Factory depends. Dorothea and Greta work to convince the town council not to reassign the funds.

The second part centers around a performance of Euripides' tragedy ''Hecuba'' at The Bread Factory.

Two high school opposites, stoner Jake Stephens and popular cheerleader Amanda Blake, become infected with a virus that turns them into zombie-like cannibals. They travel across the country looking for a cure. Cass, a teenage telepath, and her partner Tom work for a government agency charged with hunting and killing the infected. Cass develops feelings for Jake as they track the high schoolers. Tom dies in an attack, Cass turns against her agency and joins Jake and Amanda, forming a contentious love triangle as they journey forward, still searching for a cure.

In the fictional ''WandaVision'' program, now set during the 1980s/early 1990s, Wanda Maximoff and Vision struggle to stop their newborn sons Billy and Tommy from crying. Their neighbor Agnes arrives to help look after the boys, but appears to break character and asks Maximoff if they should redo the scene. Vision questions Maximoff about Agnes's behavior, but they are interrupted when Billy and Tommy suddenly age-up to five years old. Agnes does not express surprise or concern about this.

Watching the ''WandaVision'' series from outside the town of Westview, S.W.O.R.D. director Tyler Hayward calls Maximoff a terrorist while Monica Rambeau does not believe Maximoff has malicious intentions. Hayward claims that Maximoff recently stole Vision's body from S.W.O.R.D. headquarters and resurrected him, disregarding Vision's living will. Rambeau discovers that her clothing was transformed to match the design of ''WandaVision'' and wonders if they can bypass this by using something era-appropriate.

The boys ask to keep a dog that appears at the house, and Agnes suggests the name Sparky. Maximoff almost reveals her abilities to Agnes, concerning Vision. When Maximoff and Vision decide the boys are too young to care for Sparky, they age up to 10 years old. At work, Vision reads an email from S.W.O.R.D. that reveals the situation in Westview. He breaks the trance over his co-worker Norm, a real Westview resident named Abilash Tandon, who begs Vision to stop "her". Vision then reverts Abilash to Norm.

S.W.O.R.D. sends a drone from the 1980s into Westview and attempts to kill Maximoff on Hayward's orders. She emerges from the static field surrounding the town with the drone and warns Hayward to leave her alone. After Sparky unexpectedly dies, the twins ask their mother to bring him back to life, but she says they cannot do that and urges them to deal with their grief.

Vision confronts Maximoff about controlling the town, revealing that he cannot remember his life or identity before coming to Westview. Maximoff says that not everything is under her control, and she does not know how it started. They are interrupted again when her dead brother "Pietro" arrives at the front door. Watching the broadcast, Darcy Lewis notes that Pietro has been "recast".

A commercial during the ''WandaVision'' program advertises Lagos paper towels.

Lloyd Sunderland is a 65 year-old retiree living in the (fictional) island community of Caymen Key, Florida who has become depressed and lost weight after his wife Marian died from a glioblastoma six months prior. One September, he is visited by his older sister, Beth, who gifts him a Border Collie-Mudi puppy out of concern for his wellbeing. Lloyd is initially unwilling to accept the dog but ultimately agrees to look after her on a trial basis, naming her "Laurie".

Lloyd gradually bonds with Laurie as he looks after her, and in mid-October he tells Beth that he will keep her. He finds his physical and mental health improving, and begins eating more healthily and sleeping better. He also resumes working part-time as an accountant. He regularly takes Laurie for walks along "Six Mile Path", a boardwalk running alongside a canal.

On December 6, Lloyd's neighbor Evelyn Pitcher asks him if he has seen her husband, Lloyd's friend Don. While walking along Six Mile Path with Laurie, Lloyd finds Don's cane - cracked and dotted with blood - next to a section of the Path that has been overgrown with palmetto. After Laurie pulls free of Lloyd and runs under the palmetto - which is also bloodied - Lloyds follows and finds her confronting a 10 foot long alligator, which has killed and partially eaten Don. After Lloyd commands Laurie to go home, he is attacked by the alligator. After Lloyd hits the alligator with Don's cane, the boardwalk partially collapses, dumping the alligator into the canal and enabling Lloyds to escape with Laurie, who has waited for him on the other side of the palmetto. Lloyd calls the police, who notify Evelyn that Don has been killed.

Two days after the incident, Lloyd is visited by Gibson, a game warden with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Gibson informs Lloyd that the alligator has been captured and that it had been hidden alongside the boardwalk for several weeks, guarding a clutch of eggs. Lloyd speculates that Don provoked an attack by unintentionally hitting the alligator while swinging his cane.

The story ends with Lloyd wondering what Laurie sees when she looks at his face and reflecting "It was life, you were stuck with it, and all you could do was live it."

An unnamed paperboy and his faithful dog wake up early each morning while it is still dark and cold outside and his family is still asleep. After breakfast, the paperboy folds and delivers newspapers, accompanied by his dog; they both find happiness and comfort in the familiar routine. They finish at sunrise as the rest of the world begins to wake up, and they return home to fall asleep and dream.

Chiyo, a young country woman, moves to Tokyo, hoping that her friend Hisako, who allegedly works at a big company, will help her finding a job. As it turns out, Hisako works as a hostess in a shady bar in the Shiba district under the name of Shigeyo. Chiyo, reluctant to the idea to work as a hostess, tries to find a job in the city, but offers are scarce. While studying the newspaper, she learns of the double suicide of a business man, who stole money from his company, and his hostess. Hisako finds the idea of a double suicide of a loving couple romantic, but Chiyo disagrees. Chiyo gets acquainted with Ogawa, a customer in the bar, who offers to help her with her job search. After repeated rejections, Chiyo finally starts working as a hostess, and gets drunk with Ogawa one evening. Later, they go on holiday together, visiting Chiyo's parents and residing in exclusive apartments. Although happy making plans for the future, Chiyo is irritated by Ogawa's erratic behaviour whenever he sees the police. Stopped by a police cordon, he drags Chiyo into the woods, confesses that he embezzled money from his company, and tries to talk her into committing suicide with him. Chiyo fends him off, finally waking up to find that her journey with Ogawa was a drunken dream. Ogawa visits Chiyo to tell her that he has been promoted and sent to Sendai, and gives her his new address in case she should feel like writing him. After he has left, Chiyo throws the note with his address into the water, determined to continue her job search.

K, a British agent is assassinated in Tehran. Fearing that the MI6 has been penetrated by the recent defections of agents to the USSR, the deputy head of MI6, MacGillivray needs to turn to someone who is not on any list of MI6 staff. He turns to Dr Jason Love, a West Country doctor who had done some intelligence work for MacGillivray in India during World War II. Love is about to leave on holiday when contacted by MacGillivray, but is persuaded to find out what is going on under the cover of attending a medical conference in Tehran. Love is a classic car enthusiast and drives a very rare US built Cord. MacGillivray uses the hook of seeing an even rarer Cord Le Baron which is in Tehran as the bait to get Love to accept the mission.

Whilst changing planes in Rome Love is met by MacGillivray’s contact, a model called Simone. The two get along well, causing Love to miss his flight; the plane he should have been on explodes shortly after take-off. Love starts to get suspicious about Simone.

Love arrives in Tehran and meets another agent, Parkington, who has also been dispatched to Tehran on the same mission. Together they discover a communist plot to assassinate the pro-British Shah of Iran during a visit to Persepolis, thereby threatening Britain's Eastern oil treaties.

Parkington is wounded but Love manages to stop the assassination. However, when escaping, he is captured by the Russians who are behind the plot.

They put Love on a plane touring the world, the so-called "Dove of Peace" mission, and try to extract information from him. Also on board is Simone.

A Russian defector reveals Love's location to the British intelligence service. When the plane flies over the frozen wastes in the North of Canada, the British arrange a fake emergency to force the plane to land, enabling Love to escape. Simone and her Russian handler are killed in the process.

Businessman Fedya (last or penultimate in the Forbes list, but enough for a modest-sized yacht, beautiful women and cocaine) is tired of earthly pleasures – everything that beckoned in youth, having been achieved in maturity, has lost taste, weight and meaning.

Soon he meets a young man named Damian with a suitcase in his hand and an offer that his master is unable to refuse. Damian is the creator of a startup that offers very wealthy people happiness ranging from the fulfillment of childhood fantasies to sophisticated transcendent experiences.

The first experience of expensive luxury happiness returns to Fedya's life the object of his adolescent Erotic Dreams, which managed over the years to turn into an ugly middle-aged woman named Tanya.

In parallel, the author sets out in some detail the Buddhist theory of jhāna – the successive stages of deep meditative absorption.

Damian has many more opportunities to make his clients feel good, but they are all based in one way or another on erotic fantasies. And Fyodor Semyonovich wants not inventive sex, but happiness. And then Damian discharges Buddhist monks who, with the help of a cunning device, guide the businessman and his two buddies through the four jhānas – that is, levels of meditative absorption. But there is a serious side effect: those who have passed the four jhānas and experienced the bliss of them and various insights that they can give rise to cease to be interested in worldly pursuits.

When the monks, afraid that their subjects will use jhānas for selfish purposes, hastily leave, it suddenly turns out that the businessmen have not only lost money – they have lost the one who owns the money, i.e., themselves. And that envy, lust, hatred, contempt, greed – that is, the happiness of this world and of a normal person. And they begin a feverish march in the opposite direction from enlightenment.

Leading the hero (and with him the reader) through different types of mental states, Pelevin for the first time in his work is absolutely direct and seriously, without sarcasm and humor begins to preach Buddhist philosophical principles. And the hero of the novel, the hedonist Fedya, in this context serves as a negative example, designed to fully demonstrate to the reader the shame and abomination of defeat on the spiritual path.

Another storyline of the novel is Tanya's life. Who, after meeting Fedya, undergoes a genuine mystical transformation. But, unlike the weak-willed Fedya, she goes her own way, leading in the exact opposite direction – gaining in the end a terrible and evil feminine omnipotence. Becoming an adherent of the secret cult of the vagina, Tanya realizes that radical feminism is revenge on men for centuries of humiliation.

And in appearance, this revenge is not much different from the usual female psychological manipulation and exploitation of men aimed at obtaining material benefits from them, except that it is carried out by magical means and on a larger scale.

Victor Pelevin has always been prone to mild and socially acceptable forms of anti-feminism, but in this novel he takes it to new heights. The emancipation of women, the symmetrical weakening of men and the blurring of traditional gender roles in his eyes becomes a frankly sinister event, jeopardizing the slightest possibility of saving the roles of men and women created by nature.

A man wakes up in Tijuana with no memories. As he pieces together his past, he learns he’s been living two lives, one as a crime kingpin and the other as an undercover CIA agent.

Six strangers who have been kidnapped wake up in a cornfield. They realize they have been abducted, but don't know by whom. They understand that they have to survive in this environment that turns out to be hostile, solving puzzles with their respective abilities and some objects that have been given to them (a compass, a canteen, a single bullet gun).

Tatsuyuki Oyamato, a son of the Yakuza boss Akitora Oyamato and an heir to Oyamato Family in Tokyo, is reluctant to carry on his family legacy and responsibilities. He also starts questioning his sexuality after his "sessions" with Minori, a chiropractor with special "methods" to relax his clients. Being heartbroken by Minori's sudden disappearance, Tatsuyuki is sent to manage the family's small start-up branch in Fukuoka and to clean up his act. One night, he encounters with Nozomi, whom he had met when they were kids. While their relationship starts blossoming, reckless Tatsuyuki falls into the hands of Uichi Rogi, a mysterious man who has a past with Tatsuyuki's father.

The series examines the sexual assault allegation made against Woody Allen by his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow, who was seven when the abuse allegedly occurred. It follows the custody battle between Allen and his former partner Mia Farrow, his marriage to her adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn, who is 35 years younger than Allen, and the events of subsequent years.

Along with Mia and Dylan Farrow, Allen's and Farrow's biological son Ronan Farrow and Carly Simon appear in the series, as do family friends, experts, prosecutors, and investigators.

The series includes a videotaped account by Dylan of the alleged assault shortly after she said it occurred. The tape has never before been publicly aired. It is controversial, characterized as evidence of the allegation's veracity by one side and by the other as evidence she was coached. The filmmakers question a report issued by the Yale Child Sexual Abuse Clinic, at Yale-New Haven Hospital, which found Dylan not credible after interviewing her. Also in the documentary are home videos shot by Mia Farrow and surreptitious recordings of telephone conversations between her and Allen.

Allen is described by witnesses as obsessed with Dylan, following her wherever she went, and behaving in other inappropriate ways, such as having Dylan suck on his thumb. A clinical psychologist found that this behavior was excessively intense but not sexual. The film also suggests that Allen "groomed" Soon-Yi for years, and that his sexual interest in her may have begun when she was in high school.

Ronan Farrow alleges in the documentary that Allen offered to pay for his college tuition but only if he denounced his mother and sister, which he declined to do.

The series examines Allen's films in light of the allegations, and provides extensive background on Allen's emphasis on young women in his films and personal life. Included is an interview with actress and model Christina Engelhardt, who claims she became romantically involved with Allen at 17 and believes that she was the inspiration for Mariel Hemingway's 17-year-old character in ''Manhattan''.

Allen did not respond to requests to be interviewed, but the series includes clips from the audiobook of his 2020 memoir ''Apropos of Nothing''.

The story recounts the adventures from the condor anthropomorphous, Copuchita (whose name comes of the Chilean term "''Copucha''"), and of his friends, the Cougar dressed as mapuche Manihuel, the rooster dressed as huaso Ño Benhaiga, and a woman young named Clarita.

"Belles' Hells" are spiritual realms created by the powerful emotions, or "Delusions", of various girls. However, the Delusions manifest as physical beings, or Klesha, who try to stop the protagonist and steal their body. One such Klesha is Poisonette, who steals the protagonist's body at the start of the game, but makes them work with her to purify the other Klesha and save the girls they belong to.

Five misfit teenagers living in a grim small Irish town ("Dobhar", from an Irish word meaning "gloomy") come together to rebel against the tedium of their lives.

Riga, Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic. A criminal organisation illegally exports artworks to the West, as well as selling anti-Soviet literature and pornographic video tapes. A policeman goes undercover in an effort to bring the gang to justice.

As described in a film magazine, John Harley (Hoxie) has a job juggling milk cans for a big milk company in a small Eastern town, but he is not exactly stuck on it and, with his friend Bimbo McGurk (McKenzie), makes it as light as he can by getting what fun there is out of it. Sally Summers (Philbin) is unhappily working out her salvation in a lunch room in the same town, juggling plates of various sizes and hollering out her orders to the tune of banging dishes and rattling silver. One fine day along comes an announcement telling John he has inherited half of a big ranch out in the great open spaces. Sally must have received a similar announcement, because she shows up at the lawyer’s office the same day that John does and they discover that they are partners. The lawyer attempts to discourage them, but they are both too anxious for a change and agree to take a chance and see what is what. John’s friend Bimbo goes along with them, but he has to ride the rods because he lacks the price of a seat in the coach. The poor fellow gets left when they are almost there, just because he had to stop too long for a drink of water. The foreman of the ranch to which John and Sally are bound hears of their coming and, desiring the property for himself, plans a little scheme by which he hopes to make the tenderfoots’ visit very short. With the help of the other boys he fakes a terrible town and stages a couple of holdups. John gives them a good run for their money and they finally have to kidnap Sally. When this happens John goes up in the air because he has come to think quite a lot of his new partner, and he starts right in to show these rough riders where they get off. He swipes a motorcycle and chases them right to their lair in the hills. In the meantime Bimbo has wandered into the camp of a tribe of Indians, who are in on the game too and have been paid to stage a raid on the cabin in the hills. Bimbo follows them when they start on their trip and enters into the free-for-all fight that follows. With his motorcycle and the help of Bimbo, who does not know who he’s helping, John manages to vanquish his foes and rescue his sweetheart and partner. Bimbo is sure surprised when he finds out who he has been fighting for, and so glad that he doesn’t know what to do. John and Sally, however, are quite sure about their next move and start out to find the nearest parson so that they can make their new partnership a lifetime affair.

Yuki Ichinoi, a 75-year-old woman lonely after the death of her husband, comes across a BL (boys' love) manga in the bookstore one day and buys it out of curiosity. This catches the attention of one of the bookstore clerks, Urara Sayama, a shy 17-year-old high school student and a with no friends. As Ichinoi returns to buy more BL manga, the two develop an odd friendship despite their 58-year-old age gap.

Dr. Dudley Plunkett, a scientist, is experimenting with numerous containers of colored chemicals in his laboratory at the Universal Biochemical Institute in Washington D.C. He has two chimpanzees in cages, Chuck and Yvette. Chuck reaches through the bars of his cage and mixes some chemicals together, accidentally producing a formula which turns him invisible after he touches it. Plunkett phones his niece, Sandy Martinson, a newspaper reporter who is working on a story about stolen art. He invites her to the lab, telling her that a story about the invisible chimpanzee could be her first byline. After Sandy arrives, Chuck spills the invisibility formula. While wiping it up, Sandy inadvertently exposes herself to the liquid which causes her body to become invisible. She removes all her clothes to confirm that she is completely invisible without them. Sandy is distraught and tells her uncle that her life is now ruined.

Dr. Plunkett figures out that Sandy can appear passably visible again by using makeup, a wig and sunglasses. This enables Sandy to return to work. Her editor Neil Gillmore assigns her to investigate another art gallery theft. She decides to go nude so that she can use invisibility as an advantage in investigating the crime. She finds a key on the floor of the art gallery vault which leads her to a health club. There she is able to spy on the art thieves in a steam room. She finds out that wealthy philanthropist Carlisle Edwards is the mastermind behind the thefts and that he has instructed his two henchmen to steal Cleopatra's scepter next. The scepter is worth millions of dollars and is also known as "the curse of the Nile." A superstition says that it will bring death to whoever owns it. The thieves notice an outline of steam around Sandy as she watches them and try to pursue her, but she escapes.

Meanwhile, Dr. Plunkett observes that Chuck has become visible again after the invisibility formula had apparently worn off. Plunkett calculates based on time and weight that Sandy will become visible again in a matter of hours. He plans to reveal the invisibility formula to his superior at the Institute, Dr. Farrington, by inviting the board of governors to a meeting in his lab with Sandy there at the moment she is due to reappear. At the meeting, however, Plunkett is told that Chuck's seemingly empty cage had been replaced the day before with one that had a different chimpanzee inside. He suddenly realizes that Chuck had not really become visible again. Sandy hides and Plunkett is forced to admit to Farrington that he has no evidence for his claims about the invisibility formula. After Farrington admonishes him and leaves, Sandy tells her uncle she decided to keep her invisibility a secret so she could use it to aid in her job as a reporter.

Sandy informs the police about the planned theft but they are not convinced. She decides to go to the museum herself to try to stop the crime. Dr. Plunkett insists on coming along. Sandy sneaks inside, naked and invisible, finds the two thieves and scares them by pretending to be the curse of Cleopatra. As the criminals start to run away, they accidentally knock her into a sarcophagus that closes and traps her inside. Plunkett runs into the building and frees her but in the confusion the thieves are able to grab the scepter and run towards the exit. A security guard catches them, giving Sandy time to apply her makeup and appear visible again. The thieves escape from the guard, kidnap Sandy and use her as a hostage to fend off the police, who have just arrived. The thieves force Sandy to drive their getaway car and the police chase after them in their vehicles. While the thieves are in the back of the car shooting at the police, Sandy removes her makeup to become invisible and pretends to be Cleopatra again. She tells the men they have to throw away their weapons and give up committing crimes before she will lift the curse, which they agree to do. She drives them to the police station where they are arrested and the scepter is secured. They confess to their crimes and name Carlisle Edwards as their accomplice, who is also brought in and arrested.

Back at Dr. Plunkett's home, Sandy shows off her front-page story in today's newspaper to her uncle, headlined "Museum Robbery Foiled." Plunkett then opens his mail to find a letter from Dr. Farrington notifying him that he's been fired from his job at the Institute. He tells Sandy that without that job, he won't be able to research how to make her visible again. Sandy feels responsible because she didn't allow Plunkett to reveal her invisibility to Farrington earlier. She accompanies Plunkett to the Institute where they interrupt a board meeting led by Farrington. Sandy, in invisible form, performs a series of pranks on the board members that they can't explain scientifically, which convinces Farrington to give Plunkett his job back. Sandy and Plunkett are then at the newspaper offices celebrating Sandy's front-page story with the rest of the staff. Gillmore arrives with a competitor's newspaper, points out the headline "'Invisible Woman' Foils Robbery" and asks Sandy why she didn't see the "invisible woman." Plunkett tells him that it's very difficult to see an invisible woman after which he and Sandy raise their glasses together in a toast.

Space Genie Daikengo flies through space to re-establish galactic peace; on-board prince Ryger, who ran away from his planet Emperius to defeat the menace out of his reign borders, in order to save his people; Cleo, corrupted prime minister's daughter, help him along with two nice little robots, Anike and Otoke. They fight evil Lady Baracross, leading invasion forces, with her assistant Roboleon, wearing a Napoleon style hat. Daikengo is the first robot with scuttles on his mouth. When he opens them, his vampyre style teeth are shown and he can spit fire.

As described in a film magazine review, Thunder Cloud, an educated Sioux young man, provokes the enmity of Bill Mosher, a vicious white man. He whips the man because an insult. When he believes he has killed the man, he flees to other parts. After a romance with Starlight, an Indian maid, he finally surrenders. In the courtroom, his honor is vindicated.

The game's premise takes place in a world that is set in a futuristic "light cyberpunk" era where anthropomorphic animals have replaced humans. Privileged citizens live under a dome protected from ambient pollution while all the other citizens suffer to reach end's meet.

The main focus of the game is the titular character, Brok, a 35-year-old private detective alligator who is also a former championship boxer. He lives in a basement apartment with a cat named Graff, who is the 16-year-old teenage adopted son of Brok's deceased wife Lia who passed away five years ago. As much as Brok could not exactly clarify her accident, events that have happened recently might reveal more information on a much more tragic result, and it might even be connected towards their existence. Brok and Graff now have to get out and endure against all the horrible danger that the corrupted world has created and must be willing to deal with their fates.

The kingdom of Oyomere is under siege when a prophecy about a child born under the rising of a dark moon is coming to destroy King Ofotonku and bring his reign to an end. This unsettles King Ofotonku and he orders the killing of children born under the dark moon to avert the prophecy, but four of the targeted children survive. Of the four, Tsema and Aghan (Ofotkun's heir) cross paths by chance, for they are children born under the dark moon and destined to bring down Ofotonku's dictatorship. Riona also tells the story of social classes; The highborn Omajaja and the low born Irale and their struggles for freedom.

Phoebe and Robert's father, James a widower has broken his hip and needs full time care. The sixty-something siblings argue about who should visit him in times of crises. After unsuitable carers, Mandy seemed to be ideal, but gradually the siblings feel suspicious about her. Within weeks Mandy has inveigled her way into their father’s affections: calling him pet names, taking him on outings he would not previously have enjoyed and taking an apparently unhealthy interest in his personal paperwork...[https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jul/08/the-carer-deborah-moggach-review Surprises ensue when two siblings hire a carer for their father in this fine, timely novel] Retrieved 07/02/2021.

At a New Years' Eve party, Teddy races to kiss his girlfriend Becca by midnight. By mistake, he kisses another woman named Leanne who is wearing the same dress. Leanne helps Teddy when he goes into anaphylactic shock from inadvertently consuming a peanut that was in Leanne's mouth, and the two begin a relationship. A few years later, Teddy and Leanne visit Teddy's father's grave to give him the news that Teddy has proposed using the ring he personally crafted for Teddy's mother, though they haven't set a date. A strange woman overhears them and cautions Teddy against wasting his life and gives him a wedding gift of a tin can, with the instruction not to open it until his tenth anniversary, for which the traditional gift is tin.

The morning after the wedding, Teddy wakes up to discover that exactly one year has passed and Leanne is 18 weeks pregnant. A few minutes later, time shifts to their second anniversary and he is the father of a baby girl who, much to his shock, is named Talullah. Teddy realizes that time is passing normally for everyone but him, and asks his best friend Sam to meet him in one year with an anniversary present, which he does. They theorize that Teddy's predicament is similar to that in the film ''Groundhog Day'', and that Teddy must have a "perfect day" to break the curse. In the intervening year, Teddy and Leanne have begun couples' counseling and their therapist has asked them to write letters to each other. Leanne feels that Teddy isn't the man she married, as he spends all his time at work. Teddy promises he can change, but the letter he wrote betrays the resentment he feels at being forced to be the family breadwinner instead of pursuing his dream of photography, while Leanne chases a "pipe dream" of being a writer.

On Teddy and Leanne's fourth anniversary, Teddy is shocked to find Leanne gone; they have agreed to a trial separation. Worse, Sam has been diagnosed with skin cancer, and Teddy is shocked by his weight and hair loss. On their fifth anniversary, Teddy wakes up from a night with his ex Becca, whose marriage has also fallen apart and who Teddy has been seeing casually for a few months. Teddy rushes Becca onto the terrace when Leanne drops by wanting to get back together. They almost have sex, but Leanne walks out upon finding Becca's bra on the couch. Becca vows to stop seeing Teddy, but they are still together a year later. Teddy wonders what keeps bringing them together when they're clearly wrong for each other, and Becca sadly notes that she would have been able to save her marriage if she had the knowledge then that she has now.

Teddy visits Leanne and is surprised to learn that she is the owner of a Great Dane puppy (a dog Teddy disliked) and is dating a man named Patrick. He suggests they get a kiddie pool, which, as time shifts to their sixth anniversary, he falls into. Leanne and Patrick help him out and Teddy is shocked to see Leanne is no longer wearing his ring. She shamefully admits that she lost it at the beach, and couldn't find it even after hours of searching. Teddy takes the dog on a walk to the beach, where another year passes. He finds a chocolate bar containing peanuts in the sand and considers suicide. His daughter, Tallulah, whom he doesn't remember seeing since infancy and is now seven, tries to cheer him up.

Another year passes. Teddy tries to call Sam but is heartbroken when he realizes that he passed away. He visits Sam's grave, where he again encounters the strange woman who gave him the "gift" of fast-forwarding through his life. She explains that she was given a similar gift shortly before her own wedding; her experience made her realize that she didn't love her fiancé, and was in fact a lesbian. She often visits her lover's grave to show her how she's using the years she never got to give other people the same gift.

On their tenth anniversary, Teddy rushes to Leanne's house and asks her to find the old tin can. Upon opening it, Leanne miraculously finds Teddy's father's ring. Teddy and Leanne finally reunite, and Teddy wakes up the day after the wedding. Now with a new outlook on life, Teddy calls his boss to inform her he will be cutting down his hours at work and studying photography, encourages Sam to get screened for skin cancer, and resolves to give the tin can to Becca so she can save her own marriage.

The film takes place on the territory of the Northern Fields during the reign of women of an influential clan. It seemed that they had everything, but suddenly chaos began.

Chronicling a woman's 35th birthday party from start to finish, which ends in her gruesome demise, several rich cannibals frequent a Japanese owned restaurant and pay for the owner to prepare their victims for consumption.

'' inspired "The Music Room"; the unnamed couple in the painting are reimagined as the villainous Enderbys. Mr. and Mrs. Enderby are a childless couple living in a brownstone apartment on Third Avenue in New York City in the late-1930s. As the story begins, they are seated in the titular music room of their apartment. Mr. Enderby is reading the ''New York Journal-American''; he notes that there is no mention of "our pal" George Timmons, then goes on to read aloud to Mrs. Enderby from the funny pages.

As the couple talk, there are various noises from the music room's closet. It is revealed that the aforementioned George Timmons is locked in the closet, which has been reinforced for this purpose; he is the sixth person the Enderbys have imprisoned there. Mr. Timmons is a businessman from Albany, New York whom Mr. Enderby met in McSorley's Old Ale House and invited home for dinner, whereupon the couple drugged him by putting chloral hydrate in his wine and imprisoned him in the closet. The couple have stolen Mr. Timmons' wallet and watch and forced him to sign checks made out to cash, representing around $1,000. They are now waiting for him to die from thirst and starvation, upon which they will use the van of Enderby Enterprises – their company, which folded two years prior due to the Great Depression – to deposit his body in the New Jersey Pine Barrens.

Mrs. Enderby is discomforted by the noises from the closet and wishes Mr. Timmons would stop. She is shocked when Mr. Enderby offers to kill Mr. Timmons, claiming that the couple are thieves but not murderers. After Mr. Enderby disagrees, Mrs. Enderby states that if she was put on trial, she would tell the judge and jury that the couple were "victims of circumstance". Mr. Enderby notes that after Mr. Timmons is dead, the couple will not have to "go back to work" for some time. At his prompting, Mrs. Enderby admits that she enjoys capturing their victims and searching their wallets, but does not enjoy waiting for them to die.

The story ends with Mr. Enderby encouraging Mrs. Enderby to play her piano. After Mrs. Enderby has played several songs, the noises from the closet have ended. Mr. Enderby jokes that music "hath powers to soothe the savage beast" and the couple "laugh together, comfortably, the way people do when they have been married for many years and have come to know each other's minds".

The story follows 18 year-old Toppū Uno, who is aiming at becoming the youngest champion of the world's most prestigious motorcycle race, the MotoGP.

Krazy is the janitor and bellhop of a luxurious hotel. His task include cleaning the mess of the guests, and carrying their baggage.

As janitor, Krazy sweeps the crumbs of three guys sitting on a couch. Krazy is so focused on his sweeping that he even sweeps a small chihuahua onto his dust pan, and the pet's mistress is a bit bothered. As Krazy continues sweeping, he unknowingly sweeps a strand of thread which is part of the mistress' dress, exposing her knickers. The mistress, upon noticing this, is pretty shocked and runs away breaking a hole in the wall.

In his first task as bellhop, the front desk clerk assigns Krazy to carry bags to a room upstairs, and Krazy heads for the elevators. But the elevator operators are uncooperative as they would open, close, and move too soon before Krazy could get in.

It is unknown if Krazy completes the first bellhop work as the film shows the clerk assigning him to carrying another set of baggage to another room upstairs. Because of the unreliability of elevator operators, the cat decides to take the stairs. After the upward hike, Krazy reaches the door of the assigned room. But because he is carrying a lot of baggage, he could not see the door's keyhole, and therefore repeatedly strikes the key on the door's surface. The occupant opens the door, and gets poked by Krazy with the key. The occupant is pretty annoyed and literally pushes Krazy back to the lobby.

For his third bellhop task, Krazy is assigned to greet a guest outside. The guest's car arrives at the hotel's entrance. The guest is a grumpy old beagle who is on a wheel chair, and has a foot covered in bandage. Krazy tries to push the old beagle inside the hotel, but does so too quickly that the disabled dog's injured foot gets struck by the hotel's spinning door. The old beagle who is quite irritated pounds Krazy in the head with a cane. In the lobby, Krazy again pushes the old beagle too fast that his guest's bandaged foot crashes into the desk of the clerk, and Krazy receives another pounding. The old beagle calls for a room but struggles to sign a book, prompting Krazy to assist. Krazy takes his elderly guest to an elevator, and is the one to operate. The elevator suddenly stops upon reaching the top floor, and the old beagle is thrown upward from the wheelchair, and piercing the elevator's ceiling. Krazy gets his canine guest down, and opens the elevator. But because the elevator is not level with the floor, the old beagle falls flat on the face upon stepping out, and Krazy gets pounded with the cane for a third time. Once more, Krazy pushes his guest too fast that they crash onto a window, and the old beagle falls out and hangs onto a horizontal flagpole by the trousers. Krazy reaches the window below where the flagpole is, and cuts it with an ax. The old beagle falls onto the wheel chair which Krazy already placed to break his client's fall. Feeling that his guest has had enough trouble, Krazy carries the old beagle back into the car. Before the car leaves, the old beagle pounds Krazy in the noggin with the cane one last time.

Sailor Moon and the other Sailor Guardians set out on an adventure in which they will have to save Naru Osaka, Usagi's best friend, who has fallen into a deep sleep from which she can no longer emerge, which turns out to be a trap set by the Dark Kingdom.

The main hero of the book, Count T., also known as Iron Beard, is a menace of villains and a favorite of the capital's "yellow" press, an adventurer and bon vivant, an expert in cross-dressing, a master of martial arts "naznas" (or "non-resistance to evil by violence"), a good shooter an excellent thrower of knives and other sharpened objects.

The action of the novel begins in the early 20th century, on the train. In the compartment traveling gentleman in a checkered jacket and a priest, they are talking about Count Tolstoy. Then all of a sudden they pull out their pistols. It turns out that one is a disguised Count T., and the other is a detective who is after him. The Count leaps from the window of the train, and the gendarmes knock on the compartment door.

The prototype of this grotesque character was, of course, the great Russian classic Leo Tolstoy, who turned into a superhero, a "Russian Zorro" with the battle cry "Beware!

As is the custom with superheroes, Count T. makes a quest – to spite his enemies seeks the Optina Monastery, of which, due to a slight concussion, he remembers nothing but the name.

On his way he sweeps away hordes of foes and has enlightened conversations with his compartment mate, the provincial landlady and the gypsy baron...

Pretty soon Count T. learns that he is only a character in a book that is composed not even by one author, and the whole brigade of literary slaves, working at the request of a publishing house, expecting to earn money on the novel.

From this moment begins traditional for Pelevin arguments about what is the author, the world, the reader – and whether there is at all Count T., if all his words, thoughts and actions are no more than letters on the monitor, and his life irreversibly changes depending on whether the team of authors is writing an action movie, a patriotic drama or content for a computer shooter.

Other extraordinary figures also appear on the pages of the book: Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky, a champion of axe-fighting and dismemberment of dead souls, Vladimir Sergeevich Solovyov, Vasily Ivanovich Chapayev, and some others.

Like most of Pelevinin's novels, this one, too, is divided into exactly three parts. * 1. The false facade, the imitation of reality. * 2. The hero's gradual epiphany and dealing with all sorts of clues that explain to him that everything is not really what it seems. * 3. Finally, the hero's attempt to become himself, to get out of false fetters.

The difference between this novel and the previous ones is the unexpectedly loud, humanistic ending. The heroes of previous novels, having achieved true knowledge, most often simply left our world, moving into another, either joyfully bright or sadly sad. In this novel, the hero discovers that he does in fact exist, that he is not a fiction, and that those who allegedly manipulate him are in fact only suggesting it. At the end of the novel, Tolstoy is already talking to his horse without fear, for he knows that although demons do exist, they simply cannot be succumbed to. The horse reads his new poems to the Count.

Twenty years ago, adventuring hare brothers Peter and Lapin are on a quest to find the mystical Hamster of Darkness, to no avail. However, they find something else in their journey, a baby who is both part chicken and part hare. Peter adopts and raises him as his son, naming him Chickenhare. As he grows up, Chickenhare is enamored with plans to follow his father's footsteps.

In the present day, Chickenhare attempts to pass the Royal Adventure Society trials to become an adventurer, but his disguise used to cover his chicken features weighs him down, causing him to fail the test. Undeterred, he decides to search for the Hamster of Darkness to prove himself as an adventurer and visits Lapin, who has been imprisoned after attempting to overthrow Peter as the King of Featherbeard but has information on the artifact. Lapin manages to escape using one of Chickenhare's feathers and sets off with a crew of prisoners to find the artifact as well. Determined to stop Lapin, Chickenhare, joined by his tortoise servant Abe, follow him.

The duo arrive at a desert city to find a guide to get through the Desert of Death but are intercepted by two of Lapin's goons. The pair are rescued by skunk explorer Meg, who agrees to guide them through the desert.

The group is later captured in a bamboo forest by Pigmies, tribal pig-like creatures who mistake Chickenhare for a god and plan to throw the trio into a volcano as sacrifices for their god. While caged, Chickenhare blames his appearance on his misfortune, but Meg snaps him out of it by telling how she embraced her skunk nature in the past and encourages Chickenhare to do the same as they continue their journey.

At the Frosty Mountains, Chickenhare, Meg, and Abe enter the temple and go through three different trials to find the Hamster of Darkness. After passing said trials, the trio discovers the true artifact hidden in the icy tomb of the long-extinct hamsters, a scepter with a glowing shard of ice embedded in its top. However, Lapin and his crew arrive and take the scepter from the trio. Lapin uses the scepter's power to call forth the ghosts of the long-dead hamsters to take over Featherbeard, not before leaving the trio stranded in the temple. Meg reminds a depressed Chickenhare how his unusual features led them to the temple, and he taps into his innate ability to fly to save Meg and Abe and catch up to Lapin.

Back in Featherbeard, Lapin has taken over the kingdom with the help of the ghost hamsters. With the help of Abe and Meg, Chickenhare manages to get the scepter back from Lapin, but the scepter's power only responds to the one who first uses it. Chickenhare decides to destroy it and goes to the Royal Adventure Society testing grounds, where he hopes to drop the scepter into the massive pit beneath the area. After a battle, Chickenhare and Lapin go one-on-one for the scepter and fall into the pit. Chickenhare saves himself by flying away, while Lapin falls to his demise. With the scepter destroyed, the ghost hamsters disappear, and Lapin's surviving crew members are arrested by the wolf guards.

Afterward, Chickenhare decides to become an independent adventurer. Peter hands him his treasured golden machete as a sign of support before Chickenhare joins Meg and Abe on a new adventure.

Iakinf

Four young guys – a TV journalist, a bank broker, a window fitter, and a sociologist with a euro emblem on his T-shirt – are looking for a change of impressions in the mountains (They met in Nepal on Latang – in the thin mountain air Russians get along with each other quickly and easily). They share a common hobby – trekking. The story is set in Kabardino-Balkaria on another hike.

A cab driver drops them off at the foot of the mountain, and while the group is walking up to their lodging at dusk, a gray-haired man with a beard, falsely humming Joe Dassin, rides his bicycle down to them. This man is their guide, Akinfy Ivanovich, with whom the boys will go into the mountains and whom they will persuade to tell their story on the way.

From lodge to lodge, like Scheherazade, Akinfy tells his story. At first it seems to the boys that the story is entirely made up and that Akinfy has no spiritual transformation. However, towards the end of the trek, the friends begin to suspect that the route, the story he tells, and their own fate are all connected in a very close and rather sinister way.

The Art of Light Touches

The second novel is an ironic retelling of a fictional multi-page philosophical and erotic treatise by Masonic specialist K. P. Golgofsky, which investigates and exposes the universal conspiracy and reveals the essence of the new information war between Russia and America.

The internal plot is remotely reminiscent of "The Da Vinci Code". The philosopher Golgofsky was struck by the mysterious poisoning of his dacha neighbor, General Iziumov, and, seeking to find the cause of such a strange turn in the fate of a seemingly peaceful old man, he spins the chain of investigation.

The general was not just drinking tea in his bathrobe. He was touching a major mystery in the history of civilization.

The turning point is the end of the Middle Ages, when man's direct communication with God through intermediaries (in the olden days they were called Angels and messengers, Pelevin calls them "gargoyles") ceases. Instead of them comes again a two-horned lord, the same Saturn-Baal-Kronos, but he calls himself the Mind.

Mankind begins to intensively worship Reason (during the French Revolution of 1789, such a cult was actually established). And specifically governs this imaginary Reason with the help of chimeras. The chimera has replaced the former messengers.

Moving now to Kaliningrad, now to the Netherlands, now to Paris, now to Sukhumi, and finding more and more witnesses to the life and activities of General Iziumov, Golgofsky realizes that this old man ran a secret GRU office, which was engaged in the complex production of these chimeras. Aimed at America. And everything that has happened to America in the last 20 years is General Izumov's business, made much easier with the advent of social media.

Stolypin

A small story compared to The Art of Light Touch, just 50 pages long, literally continuing and complementing the plot of Pelevin's previous very successfully sold-out book, Secret Views of Mount Fuji.

The main characters of the story oligarchs Fedor Semenovich and Rinat Musayevich, in the last novel seeking for any money universal Buddhist happiness. Here they rediscover Russian Buddhism, with its "Tibetan" vernacular, its mantras and a set of rules for righteous living.

In their search, they reach the deepest Russian people – the thieves who are transported from one place of confinement to another in a special railroad car, ironically called "stolypin" after the tsar's progressivist minister.

''ANIMA'' is set into an alternative future, three years after the events of ''Neon Genesis Evangelion'' are cut short by Shinji managing to avert Seele's plans as they'd take place in ''The End of Evangelion''. It portrays a conflict between a reformed Nerv agency and Seele, now denounced as a rogue organization, still attempting to enact the Human Instrumentality Project. There are several new variations and upgrades of the Evangelion units fighting for both sides, including a mysterious, monstrously powerful autonomous Evangelion unit called Armaros.

Shinji is now taller and has long hair which he uses as a ponytail. He has matured a great deal, and is now the de facto leader of the Eva Team. Asuka is a much more cheerful and happy self, having overcome her childhood trauma, and is now much closer to Shinji, though she maintains some distance from Rei. Rei is referred to as a "No. Trois", in reference to her being the third Rei to appear in the series. She looks much more like her genetic donor Yui Ikari. There are also three more Rei clones present in the story, as Rei "No. Quatre", "No. Cinq" and "No. Six". Toji Suzuhara now has cybernetic limbs. He is closer with Hikari Horaki, who is no longer class representative. Mari Makinami is also present as six-year old. Shinji's father Gendo Ikari was absorbed by a mysterious black barrier released by Lilith when Instrumentality was stopped, and his status is currently unknown. In his stead, Misato Katsuragi took over as Acting Commander of Nerv. Ryoji Kaji is not confirmed dead, and was instead kidnapped.

While Eva is in the hospital after an accident, her son, Peter, goes in search of his long-missing father. Learning he has died, Peter then prepares himself for the new man in his mother's life.

An engaged couple (Harriet Wold and Ragnar Berntzen) have both fallen in love with someone else: Wang and Anna. They confess this to each other, worried about the other's reaction. However, when it turns out that both are in the same situation, there are new engagements and joy.

The film opens with Krazy who appears to be riding a luxury car, and wearing a top hat like a high class individual. Moments later, it turns out he is actually walking in the sidewalk, and not riding the vehicle which moves forward past the screen. Krazy proceeds to a fancy restaurant.

Krazy enters the restaurant not as a patron as his outfit suggest, but as a waiter. In the kitchen, the chef assigns him to fix a few things, but a pesky fly causes him to mess up a bit. Krazy is able to take down the fly by opening a wheel of limburger whose scent causes the insect to collapse.

Krazy enters the dining area to tend the customers. Some acts of assistance include giving goggles to a client eating grapefruit, and helping a piglet get some food from a platter being hogged by other swine at the table. He finds his spaniel girlfriend, who is the entertainer, playing piano. The piano is animated and is having a painful key like someone having a toothache. Krazy is able to extract the painful key. The spaniel resumes playing her instrument as normal despite one key missing. Krazy continues tending and even entertaining the customers with a dance. When he serves a roasted bird to a plump lady, that lady is unsatisfied for some reason, and tears the bill to pieces. The lady strikes Krazy with the food, causing Krazy to roll back and bump a small table where a fish bowl falls and covers his head.

Robert Leitner is a stiff young German recycling specialist who fell out with his father Achim. Then his father disappeared. His mother says he traveled to Iran to collect an old bill and thus save her company from bankruptcy. Robert then sets off for Iran at the request of his mother. There he is greeted by Shirin, an Iranian German teacher. At that time, her aunt Mehrnaz bought the weaving machines and then did not pay for them. Robert soon finds out that his father was often in Iran and a different person there.

Then Achim reappears at home. Robert stays in Iran anyway to learn more about his father from Mehrnaz. Since Robert and Shirin are not allowed to travel to Mehrnaz in Kaschan together, Robert first converts to Islam and then marries Shirin for a while. On the journey, the two get closer. Shirin, who is herself enthusiastic about the German poets Schiller and Goethe, shows Robert something of the Iranian culture. Robert, on the other hand, is reluctant. When Robert learns that Shirin is already engaged, he is disappointed.

Meanwhile Achim has also traveled to Iran and Kashan. Mehrnaz demands the 100,000 euros bridal allowance agreed in the marriage contract for Shirin, as Achim refuses to get to know their son Roshan. Achim then steals two valuable carpets and wants to flee with his son. When Robert found out, he gave the carpets back to Mehrnaz. His half-brother Roshan accompanies him and Achim to the airport. There they are overtaken by Mehrnaz and Shirin. Shirin said no at the wedding.

Aru Shah and Mini fend off zombies in the Night Bazaar, where Aru notes that the zombies have something over their hearts. The two see Brynne, their other Pandava sister, and Shah's doppelgänger, who steals a golden bow and arrow from Brynne before disappearing. Brynne is claimed by Lord Vayu and gets a mace that can alter wind direction. She is convinced that Aru is the thief and attacks her, knocking her unconscious. Aru awakens in the Council, with her other sisters and her classmate Aiden, son of an apsara. Evidence does not convince the Council that the Pandavas are innocent, and they task the sisters with retrieving the stolen bow and arrow. They are granted mystical items to use in their quest. Aru is given a vial of ideas. They agree to visit Kamadeva, the God of Love and owner of the bow and arrow.

Aru learns that Aiden's mother gave up her position as an apsara to marry Aiden's father, but they are now getting divorced. Aiden secretly blames himself. When they meet Kamadeva, he suspects they are the thieves, but eventually begins to trust them. Kamadeva reveals that, while the arrow can join hearts, it received a darker power from that of his wife's, Rati, sorrow. It can now rip out hearts, and the effect becomes permanent after a while. Anyone with enchantment knowledge can carve out their soul song to use the weapons. Kamadeva cannot help them directly, however, he reveals that the location of the thief can be revealed through the soul song, which is in the nāga treasury if they speak the thief's name over it. They must stab the thief with the arrow once it is revealed, to cleanse the weapon of its dark power and return the Heartless to normal. Kamadeva also gives them Rishi Durvasa's business card.

They travel to the Nāga realm, where Aru learns that Brynne is half asura, enabling her to shape-shift, and therefore is discriminated against by almost everyone. They reach the Nāga realm's entrance, but Aru is separated from the group. She finds her way to the palace of Varuna and Varuni, the sea gods. Varuni foretells Aru's near future before she and her friends are reunited, and they fend off a large crab monster. Varuni and Varuna let them use a secret passage to the Nāga treasure. However, they are greeted by three nāginis, who claim to know the thief's name. Mini gives herself up for the name, and although the others try and stop it, Mini is kidnapped and drained of her energy. The nāginis claim that Mini is safe in Ushas and Ratri's world, and leave behind a Heartgem that belongs to Uloopi, the nāga queen. She used the jewel to save Arjuna, but Takshaka stole it, which makes her age. Aru and Brynne briefly fight before reconciling. Mini interacts with them in their dreams, persuading them to believe that Rishi Durvasa can help them.

They enter the nāga treasury, where they are attacked by Takshaka, the treasury guard. He is angry at Aru (who he believes is still Arjuna) for burning down his home. He is allied with the Sleeper and allowed the thief, who is female, to steal the bow and arrow. The trio quickly discovers Takshaka is affected by musical sound frequencies, and Aiden uses this by playing music on his phone. Aru finds the soul song, but Takshaka overcomes the music by destroying the phone. They are almost killed, before Takshaka's grandson Rudy intervenes and hypnotizes him using music, allowing the Pandavas to escape. They visit Rishi Durvasa, who initially refuses to help them, but then reveals an entrance to the Dreamworld to them. There, they find and rescue Mini, and return. Mini reveals that the thief is Shurpanakha. It is revealed through the soul song that she is in the Ocean of Milk and is planning to use the Heartless to steal Amrita, the nectar of immortality. While the quartet journey to the Ocean, they are tested by Agni, whose insatiable hunger is finally satisfied by Aru's gift, and they are joined by Hira, a shapeshifter.

They sneak inside Lanka, where the Amrita is kept, and are discovered by Shurpanakha, who is called Lady M by her followers. The Pandavas are taken aback by her slowly fading beauty and by her kindness. She says she is stealing the nectar because her true story is fading. Her true name is Meenakshi and she wanted to be remembered for her triumphs. She was used as a scapegoat in the War, but she does not wish to be remembered that way, and the Amrita can help with this. She tries to persuade them to join her, but when they refuse she turns Aiden into a Heartless and unleashes the others on them. Aru, using Hira's abilities, tricks them into giving her the bow and arrow before stabbing Lady M, which releases a song of death. Takshaka flees in the pandemonium. Lady M speaks her final words before dying. The Heartless return to normal. The Pandavas are held in court, where Takshaka tries unsuccessfully to incriminate them. Aru returns Uloopi's jewel and Uloopi has Takshaka arrested. Later it is revealed that he has escaped. They later return the bow and arrow to Kamadeva. They then celebrate Aru's birthday on February 15. Aru is approached in her sleep by two twins, who claim that she is "her" and that she will save them next year.

A modern musical re-imagining of the classic Christmas ghost story ''A Christmas Carol''.

The film tells about a man who gets the opportunity to fulfill his dream and goes with his family to the Grushinsky festival to perform there with his song. Exciting adventures and trials await them along the way.

The story begins with a father calling his three sons and showing them a trampled field of wheat. The father instructs his sons to stand guard at night, so that they will find out who trampled the wheat, and the brothers, in turn, send the younger, Ivan the fool (John), there.

At night, John, sweetly chatting with the hedgehog, which he had previously saved, sees the outline of the mare and throws the rope into a misty cloud. Suddenly the rope tightens, and the mare begins to carry him across the fields and meadows. They fall into a swamp, and John pulls out the drowning mare using the windmills. Being bound, she cries, and the hero, feeling sorry for her, lets her go free, taking the word that she will no longer trample on their fields. The next morning, in the stable, he discovers two horses and meets a small Humpbacked Magic Foal. He says that he was sent by mother mare to get help and support. John, wanting to get money for the horses, leads them to the bazaar. There the king sees them and orders them to take their horses to their stables, saying that they are actually his horses. Having received no money, John asks the Foal to help him, and he calls the horses back with a whistle. The Tsar offers John the position of the most important groom, and he agrees.

Over time, the people begin to love John more and more. The king wants to execute him, but can't find a reason. The sleeping bag suggests to him the idea of sending a groom for The Firebird, and then executing him for not following the Tsar's order, as he thinks that John will not be able to find it. John and Foal go in search of the Firebird. After collecting the dream-nuts, they find the bird's shelter and pour them out to it. She, having eaten all the nuts, falls asleep. John puts the bird in chains. The next morning, the Foal tells us that the bird can only get hot when it is free. In chains, she cries, and John lets her go free. On their return, the executioners lead John to the block. He claims that he caught the Firebird, but let it go free, but no one believes him. When the axe is already raised over his head, the Firebird appears, and the execution is canceled.

The Tsar, hating John more and more, at the instigation of the Sleeping Bag sends a groom for the Tsar-maiden, thinking that he will not be able to cope with this task, since the maiden lives in an Ice country on a high rock. However, John and Foal reach their destination. The girl wakes up from a dream and tells John that she does not want to get married, because there are no heroes left, and then jumps into the abyss. John does not hesitate to rush after her, and at the bottom of them both picks up the Skate.

The king wants to get married right away, but the girl refuses to get married without her grandmother's ring, which she dropped in the ocean. John, who has already fallen in love with the Tsar-maiden, asks the Tsar for an impossible job, so as not to think about the upcoming wedding and the maiden herself. The delighted Tsar sends John to get the ring. John and the Humpbacked Foal embark on an adventure in the Magical Roads. The Foal, after talking to the Sun, Moon and Wind, finds out where the ring is, and he and John fly to the Whale Fish. As it turns out, the whale is chained up for swallowing the ships years ago, but doesn't know how to set them free. John makes him sneeze, and the ships float out to sea decades later. In gratitude, the whale sends them a crab, which brings them the ring of the King-maiden.

On his return, John comes to the girl in the tower and asks her to marry him. The Tsar's guards break into the bedchamber and place John under arrest for attempted kidnapping. The king is ready to get married, but the bride asks him to rejuvenate himself according to his grandmother's recipe by bathing in cauldrons of boiling water, ice water and boiling milk. The Sleeping Bag advises to test the cauldrons on John before the execution. At night, the girl tells the Foal that in the first cauldron it is necessary to throw her grandmother's ring, in the second — the feather of the Firebird, and in the third - the flower of life and death that grows at the end of the world, and then John will remain alive. Foal goes in search of a flower. In the morning, the Tsar hypocritically declares that he is giving John a chance at redemption, and orders him to jump into the cauldrons. In the first cauldron, the girl throws her ring, and John is carried out of there safely, in the second a feather falls, and he also remains unharmed. At this time, the Foal finds a flower and learns from it that the one who picks it is waiting for death. Despite this warning, he plucks the flower to save John and manages to deliver it when John finds himself in the third cauldron.

The renewed John appears before the maiden, and the Tsar jumps into the first cauldron. A huge bubble bursts out of the cauldron, which carries away the cursing King. The Foal patiently waits for his death, but the Tsar Maiden tells him that the words of the flower are a test, and if the Foal had not plucked it, he would actually have died, but now he will never die. The people demand a new Tsar, and John becomes one. He and the Tsar-maiden are getting married.

The film tells about a healer and a hermit woman, whom people are afraid of, but despite this, they turn to her for help.

The protagonist of the novel is Sasha Lapin, a young specialist who works in the IT department of Gossnab (State Supplies). Along the way he plays one of the most popular games of the time – "Prince of Persia". ; his co-workers also play computer games, such as "Abrams Battle Tank". Sasha's boss wants him to get some documents signed at Gosplan (the State Planning Committee), which involves making his way to higher levels of the video game and confronting the game's guardian figures. At one point one of the guards knocks him out but doesn’t kill him, because he happens to be carrying a copy of ''The Sufi Orders in Islam'', by J. Spencer Trimingham, so the guard assumes he must be a spiritual man; they have a conversation about Afghanistan and he tells the guard a long story about a prayer rug. In the end he manages to get the documents signed and starts the game again at Level 1.

The film tells about a man's journey to his stern dad, who raised him the way it was customary in the USSR.

The novel is made up of four parts. The first, ''"The Production Narrative"'' is the memoirs of the trader Krimpai Mozhaysky, relating to our, well, very recent times. The second, ''"Space Drama"'' is a long letter from his great-great-grandfather, Markian Mozhaysky, to his bride, written in the 1880s. The third – ''"Historical Essay"'' – tells about a mysterious unit in the Gulag, where the great-grandfather was sitting Krimpai Methuselah that existed from the 20s to the 60s of 20th century. The fourth – ''"Operational Etude"'' – tells about the out-of-body experience of an FSB general in our days.

All these parts complement each other, penetrate into each other, explain each other – and as a result not completely clear, but a vivid picture is built, according to which the confrontation between Russia and the West is explained by the clash of the higher forces ruling the world through the Masonic groupings. In today's Russia, the center of Freemasonry is the FSB, in America, the point of Masonic power is located in the basement of the Federal Reserve building.

The first part is the story of a trader with the pornographic name of Krimpai (towards the end he changes it to the patriotic "Crimea"), a gay and professional double-crosser who alternately writes analytical reviews for both "liberals" and "Russian conservatives".

The largest part of the novel, the second part, an essay about attempts to change the history of aeronautics to reverse the lag between Russia and the West, is mildly stylized as classical Russian literature. From it we learn about the eternal confrontation between two beginnings – Civilization and Vatha, Freemasons and Chekists or two powerful alien races – the Reptiloids and the Beards (the former oversee America, the latter patronize Russia).

The third part, built on the archetypes of twentieth-century camp prose, tells of a special "Templeag" on Novaya Zemlya, where, during the Stalin era, repressed Freemasons in eerie conditions erect the Temple of Solomon – in fact, a powerful portal, making possible the appearance of the deity in our world.

The fourth episode, "Kapustin's Feat" (the most auteuristic of all), elegantly closes the circle, taking the eternal "Great Game" to a new turn – and at the same time explaining why the first part was such a failure and looked like a self-parody.

Methuselah's Lamp has many entertaining, intuitively compelling observations. For example, if Pelevin is to be believed, Russia has a great past and a great future, but its present fails. And mainly because the bearded race, the space curators of our country, have been banished from the present by the reptiloid competitors and live exclusively in the past and the future.

The metaphorically derived Western and Russian worlds, named as Civilization and Vata, united through the love of the dollar, no longer secured by anything, neither gold nor faith. Chekist and Freemason in embrace continue to walk the transition, which comes from nowhere and is sure to lead to nowhere.

The story is about a 10 year old boy named Dhanya and his baby goat. As a ritual in the village , goats are sacrificed .As there were no goats available because of the fair in village ,villagers had an eye on Dhanya's goat but as the goat was too small it was not considered for scarification.The villagers decided to plan the event after 6 months. For raising the baby goat Dhanya was elected and he happily accepted the job.Being together for almost 5 month with the goat,Dhanya develops a strong friendship. Dhanya was called as Peter by his school friends.

As day by day the bond between Dhanya and baby goat increased , Dhany's mother got worried about the day of sacrifice. The event was hold for his uncle could have a baby.

Following a problematic film role that nearly destroyed her career, actress Carol Cobb is offered the chance to revive it by reprising her role as the heroic Dr. Lacey Nightingale in the sixth installment of the wildly popular ''Cliff Beasts'' franchise: ''Cliff Beasts 6: Battle for Everest: Memories of a Requiem''. Having turned down appearing in the fifth film in favor of doing the aforementioned panned role, Carol initially fears that her former ''Cliff Beasts'' castmates may still hold a grudge against her.

One of the first major film productions to resume amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the ''Cliff Beasts'' cast arrive at a swanky English hotel and must self-quarantine for two weeks. During this time, they go stir-crazy, stuck in their rooms. Afterwards, a welcome back party is organized for the cast and crew. Here, Carol happily reunites with co-stars Dustin, Howie and Sean but has an awkward meeting with Lauren, the only ''Cliff Beasts'' co-star appearing bitter about her absence. There are two series newcomers, Dieter, a respected, but indifferent veteran actor, and Krystal, a young TikTok sensation to attract a younger demographic. The latter quickly bonds with Carla, a deadpan on-set production assistant who's her age. Director Darren Eigan, an enthusiastic, but frazzled indie filmmaker, tries to boost morale and make the shoot special, coming off as pretentious. He clashes with leading man Dustin, who constantly bombards him with revised versions of the script to fit his own vision. Dieter has a crush on Anika, the hotel's sweet front desk clerk, hitting on her. She’s interested but wants to build a proper relationship first before jumping into sex.

Shooting begins and for the first few days, everything appears to be okay. The cast starts pre-production training, including Sean humorously learning how to fly a helicopter up and down. However, a series of events delay the production even more. During a group meditation session, Howie becomes paranoid and quits the film in a panic. In response to this, Howie's ''Cliff Beasts'' character is killed off gruesomely. Bored in the hotel, Krystal and Carla sneak out to party in the city. This gains traction online and gets Krystal cancelled for her behavior, losing many of her followers. Later the cast tests positive for influenza, linked to a delivery girl. Despite being ill, the studio forces them to film, leading to projectile vomiting during an intense shoot. They are told to self-quarantine yet again. Introduced is the mysterious Mr. Best, the head of a new security team from the studio to oversee the cast and film's production, making some of the cast grow suspicious. Carol’s boyfriend breaks up with her over the phone so, dejected, she encounters a member of a football team also residing at the hotel. She nearly has a fling with him until he reveals he's married and has multiple girlfriends and mistresses. When the shoot starts back up again, Carol realizes that most of her character's dialogue and actions have been given to Krystal or omitted. Humiliated after shooting a scene where Dr. Lacey urinates in fear, she suspects this is how the studio is getting back at her for leaving the franchise. Carol has a heart-to-heart with Darren, telling him of her concerns, but when he talks to the higher-ups about giving back her dialogue it backfires.

Lauren tries to escape from the hotel in a frenzy one night. Mr. Best's men graphically shoot one of her hands off, leaving her in the hospital for the remainder of the shoot. Mr. Best claims that his men thought she was a crazed fan that had wandered onto the premises, but the cast theorizes that he himself is there so they complete the movie by any means necessary. Infuriated, Carol tries to rally together her castmates and fight for their rights. One night, the remaining cast bond over drugs and the grievances they've been having with the shoot and with themselves. Shortly afterwards, while filming an elaborate dancing TikTok with Krystal, Dieter collapses. They quickly work together to revive him, however, it's Anika who does it, cementing their relationship. This event inspires Carol, noticing the cast’s long-forgotten effective teamwork. The reinvigorated friendship is strong and they plan a getaway. As they shoot the climax, Dustin creates a distraction by clashing with Darren about the script revisions while the rest of the cast leave the set and try to avoid getting caught by Mr. Best and his men.

Carla reveals she was a studio mole put in place to befriend Krystal and spy on the cast, leading to a live-streamed fistfight between them. Meanwhile, Carol is chased down and nearly caught by Mr. Best but is saved at the last moment by Howie returning and incapacitating him with a bow. The cast meets up at the helipad, calling upon an unsure Sean to fly them out. A furious Darren tries to stop them from leaving, but is knocked out by Dustin. Inside the helicopter is Anika, who hopes to run away with Dieter, who happily accepts. Sean gets the helicopter up off the ground but doesn't know how to fly it forward. The rest of the crew encourage Sean to fly the helicopter away from the hotel as the ''Cliff Beasts'' cast celebrate their victory.

Two years later, a behind the scenes documentary detailing the troubled production and crazy antics on the set entitled ''Beasts of the Bubble'' is released to rave reviews and praise from the public. While Carol is described as "the villain" of the film, she's proud of the project. Dieter and Anika's relationship is still strong. Lauren is in good spirits, having a robotic hand. Meanwhile, Darren is signed on to direct a movie based on Skittles.

After a 17-year absence, Mikey Saber returns to Texas City, his Gulf Coast hometown. Badly bruised and destitute, Mikey arrives at the modest home shared by Lexi, his estranged wife, and her mother Lil. Mikey begs Lexi and Lil to let him stay at their house. They reluctantly agree but insist that he get a job and perform household chores.

Mikey tries to find work at a diner and a Dollar General store, but is hindered by a long gap in his résumé. After Mikey admits to potential employers that he spent those years working as a porn star in Los Angeles, they refuse to hire him. Desperate, Mikey persuades Leondria, a marijuana dealer, to give him his old job back selling marijuana. Leondria and her daughter June suspect that Mikey will smoke it himself, but after he returns with his earnings, their business arrangement continues.

Mikey gives Lexi and Lil a month's rent in advance and takes them to a donut shop to celebrate. Mikey is smitten with Strawberry, a 17-year-old girl who works at the counter. He returns and persuades her to let him sell marijuana to the construction workers who frequent the shop. Strawberry and Mikey soon start a sexual relationship.

After sleeping on the couch for several nights, Mikey starts having sex with Lexi. Eventually, she invites him to share her bedroom. When Mikey disappears for a weekend with Strawberry, Lexi grows suspicious. They quarrel and Lexi hurls a coffee pot at Mikey.

Mikey befriends Lexi's neighbor Lonnie, who is intrigued by Mikey's stories about his porn career and sexual encounters. They visit a strip club and spend time together, but Mikey's impulsiveness causes Lonnie to swerve across traffic at a highway off-ramp, creating a multiple-vehicle collision. After Mikey persuades Lonnie to hide his involvement in the accident, Lonnie assumes sole responsibility for the crash when he is arrested.

When Mikey causes Strawberry to break up with Nash, her high-school boyfriend, Nash and his parents confront Mikey in the donut shop parking lot and beat him. Mikey persuades Strawberry to travel with him to Los Angeles to pursue a career in pornography.

After Mikey informs Lexi that he is leaving the next morning, she and Lil convince Leondria to send June and her brothers to seize the $3,000 that Mikey earned from selling pot. When Leondria's children confront him while he is sleeping, Mikey sneaks out of a window naked and runs to Leondria's house to beg her to return his money.

Leondria gives Mikey $200 and tells him to leave or face the threat of violence. Humiliated, Mikey leaves with a few meager possessions. After travelling all night on foot to Strawberry’s house, Mikey imagines seeing her dressed in a bikini in her doorway and his eyes well with tears.

Krazy Kat exits a clinic, wrapped in some bandages and using a crutch. Momentarily he is greeted by a rat who knows him well. The rat asks what had happened to him. Krazy, answering in poor grammar, states he had a car accident. When the rat misinterprets his response as a locomotive accident, Krazy begins telling the story of the incident.

As Krazy explains his mishap, the scene is set several hours earlier. In it, Krazy comes out of his home, and decides to drive around in his car. After traveling only a few miles, his car runs out of fuel. Instead of stopping at a gas station, Krazy stops at a bar. And instead of filling his vehicle with gas, he fills it with beer. Bizarrely, his car is running, but in a wild uncontrollable fashion. To the cat's horror, Krazy's car is running all over the place, even going underground, and breaking through a house. The out-of-control car next heads to a railroad track where a train is approaching. The train bashes the car to pieces, and Krazy is thrown upward before landing on some power lines.

The scene returns to the present where Krazy completes his explanation. Krazy goes on to tease and call the rat "smarty mice" for the misinterpretation. The rat takes offense for the remark, and knocks out Krazy with his crutch.

A socially awkward driver and a weary passenger try to make it to their destination while being haunted by a supernatural threat.They wander around in the woods while a supernatural being, the toll man messes with their minds. While their outside the car, an old woman in a tractor comes by and tells them all about the toll man who senses death and brings it to his street. Cami begs her to call the police and her father but she says it won't be of any help.

They decide to go to a detour that was a few minutes back. Cami, who is absolutely creeped out finds an old house which they both recognise. They go in and find some screens and a camera. Cami sits in front of a camera. A video appears on the screen of a man and a woman and the woman shows them that Spencer will murder Cami. The camera feed appears on the screen and he picks up a knife but Cami grabs a gun on the table. They recall the old woman telling them that if he can't see them (the toll man) he cant get into their minds so they go back to the car and cover it with dark bags. They realise that only one of them has to die.

Spencer purposely attacks Cami and starts to grab her clothes, her body, and he might rape her. Cami stops him as she murders him and the father shows soon as the credits starts.

. 13-year-old Dale Alderson is interviewing his 90-year-old great-grandfather, Barrett "Rhett" Alderson, for a school assignment. After telling Dale about radio programs he listened to before the advent of television, Rhett – suspecting that he only has months to live – decides to tell Dale a story he has never told anyone before.

In 1927, when Rhett is aged two, his mother Moira leaves the home she shared with her husband and their three sons, moving into a cottage on the other side of their town. Moira, who has bipolar disorder, mysteriously claims that this is necessary to protect her family. Rhett and his older brother Jack regularly visit Moira in her cottage, where she entertains them, including feeding them cookies from a large blue ceramic cookie jar that is always full.

Over time, Moira's behavior becomes increasingly erratic. She begins drawing an elaborate map on a wall of her cottage which she claims depicts "Lalanka", a country in another world populated by "entities": creatures that want to come to Earth to devour it. Moira tells Jack and Rhett stories about Lalanka, including a war between "Red Henry" and "Black John" in which Black John sets Lalanka's "Long Forest" on fire, and the existence of "Gobbits": monstrous creatures capable of producing a white mist, "forza", that kills small animals. Later, Rhett comes to believe that the stories were a distraction from the thing Moira truly feared: the blue cookie jar.

The visits continue until 1938, when Moria commits suicide. The boys are each permitted to take one item as a memento, with Rhett taking the cookie jar. Rhett and Jack begin eating cookies every night to remember their mother, realizing after several days that the jar is inexplicably still full of fresh cookies. On one occasion, Rhett begins trying to empty the cookie jar, but gives up when it begins to refill; while replacing cookies in the jar, he notices that his watch stops when inside the jar.

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the three brothers all in turn enlist in the United States Armed Forces, with Jack dying when his fighter is shot down during the Battle of Iwo Jima. Rhett participates in the Battle of Normandy, the liberation of France, and the Western Allied invasion of Germany. In April 1945, he participates in the liberation of the Buchenwald and Dachau concentration camps, where the horrific sights he witnesses make him remember his mother's description of Lalanka. Rhett draws parallels between "Black John" and Adolf Hitler.

After returning from Europe, Rhett began working as an auto mechanic. In March 1946, he retrieves the still-full cookie jar from the attic of his father's home and finally empties it. When Rhett looks at the bottom of the empty jar, he sees an aerial view of what he recognizes as Lalanka. Rhett sees the burned remains of the Long Forest, a thick mist of forza, and a pedlar who is attacked by two Gobbits. Horrified by the sight, Rhett drops the cookie jar, which eventually refills once more.

Dale asks Rhett what became of the cookie jar; Rhett tells him that it is in the attic of Dale's uncle Bill's house. Rhett gifts the jar to Dale, telling him to be careful. Although Dale promises he will, Rhett privately suspects that Dale will himself empty the jar and look into it, reflecting that "in the end we all prefer the bitter to the sweet. It's our curse."

In New York City, Brooke Gatwick and Owen Shore are a young married couple who have been together since high school. Recently, they have been struggling with starting a family and Brooke opening her own art gallery, featuring paintings by Ansgar Doyle. Ansgar openly expresses an attraction to Brooke and constantly attempts to communicate with her in the middle of the night, irritating Owen.

Owen wants to go to Paris for Christmas and secretly buys airplane tickets for after the exhibit’s opening, hoping that decompressing will allow them to conceive a baby. However, Brooke wants to focus on the gallery. One night, Brooke sees odd text messages on Owen's phone and thinks that he may be cheating on her. Ansgar tells Brooke that Damien Light, a film director, is interested in buying his art and wants to meet with them in the Marias Hotel in Paris, which she reluctantly accepts. Frustrated with Brooke’s sudden departure, Owen accepts an assignment in Las Vegas for when they would have gone to Paris. Later, Brooke catches Owen leaving in the middle of the night, further increasing her suspicions about his infidelity, especially when he visits an address that's advertised online as a sort of "lovers' nest".

At a bar with his friend, Adam, Owen meets Amy, who says that she's a journalism major at Columbia. Amy recognizes Owen from his news program and starts flirting with him. Eventually, Owen takes Amy back to his home, where they have sex. They are interrupted by Brooke’s text messages. Owen, regretting their tryst, asks Amy to leave and to never meet again; Amy asks Owen for help with her career after she graduates.

After closing the deal in Paris, Brooke returns early to New York. Ansgar wants to display a nude painting of Brooke as the centerpiece of his gallery showing. On the night of the opening, Owen notices how close Ansgar and Brooke seem to be. Amy appears at the opening and attracts Ansgar’s attention. Owen lies to Brooke about meeting Amy at a bar the other night. Owen and Ansgar get into a fight, and Amy asks Ansgar to take her home. On their way to their apartment, Brooke begins poking holes in Owen’s story and even shows him an autographed napkin that Owen gave Amy the night at the bar. Owen eventually admits to sleeping with Amy, and Brooke angrily leaves while taking Owen’s phone to see what he's been doing at odd hours of the night.

Ansgar drops Amy off at Brooke and Owen’s apartment, where Amy tells Owen that she met Brooke several days ago. Brooke's friend Eleanor suggested hiring a "decoy" to test Owen’s faithfulness. While Amy is at the bar with Owen, Brooke texts her to cancel the ruse, but Amy ignores Brooke. On the day of the art opening, Amy meets with Brooke and lies about what happened with Owen as well as giving her the autographed napkin as proof that she did meet with him. Brooke pays Amy and invites her to the opening.

After dropping by Eleanor and Adam’s apartment, Brooke goes through Owen’s phone and finds out that he was not seeing other women but was working on a story about an unfaithful senator. "Sarah" is really one of Owen's work colleagues and had arranged an apartment for him and Brooke if they go to Paris. Brooke goes back to her apartment to find Owen and Amy talking. Amy apologizes for crossing a professional line (after promising Brooke that she wouldn't actually have sex with Owen). Owen is upset that his wife created a situation that lured him into cheating on her. Amy gives back the money that Brooke paid her before leaving the apartment.

Owen asks if Brooke cheated on him with Ansgar in Paris, but Brooke refuses to answer. During Brooke’s time in Paris, Ansgar tries to seduce her. The movie shows Brooke partially undressed, but Brooke refuses to confirm or deny if she actually had sex with Ansgar.

Owen packs a piece of luggage for his trip to Las Vegas. Before he leaves, he shows Brooke the tickets that he bought for Paris, which they can still use. She thinks for a second about the future where she sees a daughter with them in Paris so she accepts him at last.

The game begins with the player in a cell with other prisoners inside the '''C'''orrectional & '''A'''utomatic '''G'''uardhouse '''E'''lectronic '''D'''etention. The player has to get out of the cell and escape by using the pressure of the pipe to blow it up, leading into a sewer. The player then makes their way throughout the facility while evading or killing the guards, climaxing at a battle at the docks of the prison to get to a speedboat.

The plot delves into the personal stories of three generations of women living in a Madrilenian lower-middle class neighborhood, inspired in Hortaleza.

Kisaa, a high school dropout, is mentally accused when she was found pregnant with a dancing sir who had done ten marriages before. This creates a clash between Kisaa and his wife. The collide continues when Kisaa finds that he has neglect his theories besides the law in accordance to kill her with the cinnamon arc with her. The cinnamon represents pain while the condom represents sex.

On an unspecified night in 1989, Dylan Jacobs, a mute and asthmatic young boy, finds his mother Michelle crying in front of the kitchen sink with a candle lit nearby. She turns around and the candle is blown out.

In the fall of the same year, Dylan and his father Michael move to a new house. In one of the rooms, Dylan finds a dusty mirror and an old book containing instructions for summoning a djinn and having it grant the summoner's wish. The book states that at one hour before midnight, the summoner must place three drops of blood in a lit candle's wax and make their desired wish in front of a mirror; the djinn will grant the wish at midnight if the summoner has the required strength of will, but the wish may cost the summoner their soul. Dylan does not tell Michael about the book.

On the same night, Michael leaves Dylan at home for his job as a host at a radio station. Dylan takes the opportunity to set up the ritual for summoning the djinn, and he uses sign language to wish that he had a voice. Later, the djinn manifests as a cloud of smoke, and after a series of strange events occur, Dylan finds out that the djinn has transformed into a humanoid figure and is searching for him. After knocking the djinn unconscious, Dylan finds that he is unable to escape the house or contact anyone for help.

While hiding from the djinn, Dylan reads through the book again and learns that the djinn is subject to the laws of physics while in the human world, manifests in the form of dead people, and can be banished by blowing out the candle after midnight; he tries and fails to do so due to the time being before midnight. Dylan hears Michelle's voice begging for help, and finds that the djinn has manifested as a demonic version of Michelle. Dylan evades the djinn's attempts to capture him. A flashback reveals that Michelle had shot herself in the opening scene of the film; Dylan was unable to call out to her due to his muteness, and has felt guilty about her death ever since.

At midnight, the djinn confronts Dylan. Dylan prepares to blow out the candle when the djinn begs Dylan not to make it go away in Michelle's voice. Dylan does not fall for it and blows out the candle, successfully banishing the djinn. Dylan later comes to terms with his guilt about Michelle's suicide in a dream.

On the next morning, the djinn manifests again and transfers Michael's ability to speak to Dylan, rendering Michael unable to speak, before returning to the book.

The player takes on the role of the Director General of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, an Executive Agency that conceals a secret police which keeps the government popular by any means necessary. Answering only to the Prime Minister, the Director General has the power to use wiretapping, surveillance, smear tactics, disinformation, burglary, kidnapping, torture, and assassination to keep the government popular with the people.

The game contains numerous references to real-world groups, trends, scandals, and unusual occurrences that were newsworthy in the 1980s and early 1990s, including the Irish Troubles, Shining Path, the BCCI scandal, and the apparent suicides of Roberto Calvi and Jonathan Moyle.

At the beginning of shift a call comes in for a structure fire. On the way to call Joe Cruz seems spaced out while Christopher Hermann mentions that a fortune cookie he opened the day before said it would be his lucky day. Everyone enters the building including Holly, the building manager, who Hermann escorts inside. Hermann, Holly, a construction contractor named Trevor, and a reluctant Cruz board the elevator alone. On the way up an elevator cable snaps causing it to stop during which Trevor sustains a broken leg. Hermann attempts to radio outside for help to no avail while Cruz aims to calm a panicked Holly. Trevor talks about his son ultimately causing Cruz to reveal that his wife Chloe is pregnant. Cruz finds and opens an elevator escape hatch as another cable snaps. Trevor says that Cruz knows a lot about elevators and Cruz mentions Otis. Cruz, using Otis' knowledge thinks the best option is to open the elevator panel and reset it. More radio static comes through the radio allowing them to hear that Mouch is missing in the fire with his condition unknown. Holly panics again at the smell of smoke and gets electrocuted by the panel attempting to reset it herself.

Hermann and Cruz tend to an injured Holly who has second-degree burns. Cruz finally resets the panel but it ends up being fried and unusable. Hermann and Cruz attempt to lighten the load by getting rid of maintenance equipment causing unneeded weight. Sparks from the panel almost cause a fire in the elevator but Hermann stops it. Cruz attempts to get the escape hatch open again while Holly and Trevor unite to help him. Smoke begins to fill the elevator just as Cruz gets the escape hatch open. The four climb into the elevator shaft and hear that Mouch was rescued while also being able to radio for help themselves. Squad 3 rescue the four from the shaft and everyone reunites outside. Holly and Trevor receive treatment and the two make plans for a date. Hermann tells Cruz that there isn't anyone else he'd rather have been trapped in the elevator with and they agree that Otis' spirit was also in the elevator. Cruz then tells Hermann that he can't tell anyone about Chloe's pregnancy. Hermann reunites with Mouch as he exits the building and everyone begins to head home.