A dress manufacturer, Mr. Golden, discovers his attractive designer in tears and takes her to dinner where he learns that she has fallen for the company's playboy salesman. Mr. Golden's paternal actions are misinterpreted by his wife and others.
Set in Colorado in 1830, the owner of a trading post seeks to annul the marriage between his brother and a Cheyenne woman.
A New York lawyer, James Merrick, organizes a reunion for his World War II comrades. Each tells a life secret. The reunion becomes a test of the relationship between Merrick and his wife.
A stay-at-home dad finds himself with some "me time" for the first time in years while his wife and kids are away. He reconnects with his former best friend for a wild weekend that nearly upends his life.
Set in the old West, Mitch Barrett's wife dies during childbirth. Barrett blames the heartlessness of the town's leaders who failed to assist. He seeks revenge by robbing the bank where the rich cattleman who runs the town has deposited his money.
A college freshman, Christian Darling, runs 80 yards for a touchdown to establish himself as a star. His girlfriend, Louise, is a rich and beautiful girl. The two marry, but Christian's football career falters after an injury. Louise's career working at a magazine is very successful. Christian is frustrated by his inability to support Louise, and the marriage fails.
A respected man, Donal Bashor, commits a robbery and is suspected of two recent murders.
An English professor challenges the school's trustees over issues of academic freedom as his wife's old boyfriend returns to campus for a sporting event.
Pat Bass (Anne Baxter) is the neglected wife of Leo Bass (Dana Andrews), the owner of a talent agency who has allowed business to dominate his life at the expense of his wife. Ralph Mohr (Leslie Nielsen) is Bass's assistant, i.e., the "right hand man". A struggle for control of the agency ensues.
A comedy in which Private Linus Powell (Fess Parker) stows away on a B-17 flying from China across the Himalayas at the end of World War II to reunite with his British girlfriend in Calcutta. While Powell sleeps, the crew bails out out in a monsoon, and Powell is left behind with a half-loaded Asian man played by Peter Lorre, who tries to guide Powell over the Himalayas.
Karl Ohringer is acquitted of murder on grounds that the killing was not intentional. A wealthy and eccentric man, Emery Ganun, decides to take justice into his own hands.
Marina Arkwritght is put on trial for allegedly poisoning her son. Three of the jurors have prejudices that they bring to the case.
Student Artem Dudin falls in love with a young beauty from the Black Sea. Having lost his head, he drops everything and goes for his beloved to the Russian South, about which he knows nothing. Artem takes a train from Voronezh, which leaves for Krasnodar Krai. At sea, it turns out that the beautiful Ksyusha is already being looked after by two serious local competitors - a handsome sailor and a daring policeman. It seems that the naive student simply has no chance. Even the help of his new friends seems to only get in the way. But Artem is not going to give up.
Ksyusha Gordeeva was already planning to marry the local sentimental policeman, Igor. However, at some point, the love relationship completely changes when a cadet of the naval school, Nikita, also proposes. Ksyusha, meanwhile, does not have time in the city and most of the time is engaged in diving and training at sea.
Ksyusha is preparing for the wedding in a wedding dress on a sea yacht in the middle of the Black Sea. Suddenly, a stowaway passenger Artem demands a legal marriage. Ksyusha saves herself by diving into the sea, and after landing safely swims to the shore.
A cadet of the naval school, Nikita is actively pursuing Ksyusha. The policeman, Igor, is also following the trail of this relationship. The marriage is offered on the waterfront in Kabardinka. Just before the bride ties the marriage knot, rivals appear to capture the heroine. Igor defends himself with standard weapons. Meanwhile, Nikita is defending himself with his Cossack influence and his family.
Tom Alexander works for a consulting firm in Los Angeles. He was injured and his wife killed in a car accident caused by another driver running a red light; he now wears a knee brace, commutes on his bicycle and via light rail instead of in a car, and is seeing a therapist. He is troubled by flashbacks; on the train, he meets Aaron, who tells him his driving license has been restricted, and Tom patiently finds out more and then plots his revenge.Roger Moore, [https://rogersmovienation.com/2020/01/14/movie-review-a-patient-man-needed-a-livelier-leading-man/ "Movie Review: 'A Patient Man' needed a livelier leading man"], ''Movie Nation'', January 14, 2020.Martha K. Baker, [https://kdhx.org/articles/film-reviews/1906-a-patient-man-will-work-in-classrooms-more-than-tv-rooms "'A Patient Man' Will Work In Classrooms More Than TV Rooms"], KDHX, February 4, 2020.Rose Dymock, [https://www.filminquiry.com/the-patient-man-2020review/ "''The Patient Man'': 'Strangers On A Tram' & The Art Of Revenge"], ''Film Inquiry'', February 17, 2020.
Lori and Doug decide to end their long relationship. However, life gives them a second chance when they are invited to Lori's younger sibling's wedding ceremony as a couple. Will they be able to save their relationship or end it forever?
The story is an experience of creating a "mental death laser," the reading of which is supposed to be followed by the reader's self-destruction.
At the beginning of the story, the author suggests remembering the combination "The Tambourine of the Upper World," because it is curious and will definitely be told about it, but only later.
Then he starts talking about Brezhnev, rays, energy, scolding himself for his habit of talking about everything at once, but when he gets to the subject of death, he begins the story of creating a death laser, which will be a collection of certain word-commands that will appeal to the human unconscious and evoke a series of associations. These word-commands would be based on emotional thoughts of death.
This machine (mental laser) he proposes to call - The Tambourine of the Lower World.
In the story, "The Tambourine of the Underworld," he shows how a set of ideas and verbal signals can destroy human consciousness and then construct it anew, in the configuration someone wants.
The author writes: "Maybe today, already now, he has written this fateful sequence of letters, and now no one and nothing can protect us from him.
The postmodernist goal of creating such an "intellectual virus" is the destruction of the "old society" and outdated ideology, the demythologization of Soviet and post-Soviet society. The next part of this project is to create a new picture of reality (consciousness).
Such linguistic technologies are based on the aesthetic transfer of the intentions of the writer-projector into the sphere of the "brain structures" of the character and, consequently, the reader, which also requires adequate literary methods of decoding.
And such methods have already been partly tested. These are primarily literary psychoanalysis. He believes that the deep structure of the text is in some way functionally similar to the unconscious, which makes it possible to correlate philological analysis with psychoanalysis: "...it is the comparison of the basic categories of psychoanalysis and generative grammar that suggests rather deep parallels between the technique of consciousness analysis developed by Freud and the technique of philological text analysis in the broadest sense.
Structurally, the story consists of fragments of thoughts and phrases, which at first glance the reader is completely unconnected, but at the end it turns out that the "mental laser of death" invented by the author (which consists of a certain sequence of chaotic thoughts and phrases) has been triggered.
Perhaps the story is a mockery of neuro-linguistic programming techniques.
The main characters are Reese, a trans woman, PR executive, and former partner of Amy; Amy, who detransitioned to live as a man and became Ames; and Katrina, a biracial Chinese and Jewish cis woman who is Ames's boss and current lover. All three are in their thirties and live in Brooklyn. After the end of their relationship, Reese and Ames have been estranged because of Ames's decision to detransition three years ago.
Katrina discovers that she is pregnant with Ames's child, though Ames mistakenly believed herself sterile because of her time on hormone replacement therapy. Ames reveals to Katrina that she spent six years living as a woman and still considers herself female, though navigating the world as a trans woman was ultimately too difficult. Thus, Ames doubts that she can fulfill the masculine role of a father to a child. Ames reconnects with Reese, who has long wanted to mother a child of her own, believing that the three of them could form an unconventional family to raise the baby together. Reese grapples with the same self-destructive patterns that soured her old relationship with Amy, including sex with married men and chasers. Katrina attempts to adjust to a different understanding of gender but intends to get an abortion if she cannot be sure she will have a support system. The three question their identities, their relationships with each other, and if they could form a stable family.
The show follows Mia Knight and Shawna Clark, two estranged high school friends from Miami who come back together to form a rap group.
The plot of the game involves magical cards that have appeared around Gensokyo, revealing the secrets of people and yokai. Reimu proceeds to investigate the origin of these cards, and attempt to contain them.
In a little Irish town the authorities apply for a court order to remove the unmarried Bridget Monaghan's six children, who have five different fathers. When the judge disagrees, finding them to be a happy and united family, the doctor convenes a meeting of the surviving fathers (one has died) at which, after long discussion, they agree on a plan. To remove the scandal, they will buy the Monaghans a farm over 150 kilometres away.
Negotiations will be conducted by Casey, unmarried father of the eldest Monaghan boy, whom he takes to work on his own farm. The eldest Monaghan girl falls in love with a visiting painter, who wants to take her to Italy. The next Monaghan girl catches the eye of a visiting film director, who wants to take her to London. The youngest Monaghan boy wins the heart of his father's childless wife, who wants to adopt him. Two children are left when Casey is ready to move the family to their new home and, to remove scandal, he marries their mother.
''Maitetsu'' is set in an alternate reality of Japan named Hinomoto in which railway trains are paired up with "Raillords", anthropomorphized girls representing the trains. However, a new form of transportation later became popular, leaving railways in disuse. The game follows Sotetsu, who reawakens Hachiroku, the Raillord for the 8620 train. Sotetsu then works to help Hachiroku find her missing locomotive while trying to save his hometown from pollution.
The majority of the story is set in Ohitoyo, a fictitious city in Kyushu split in half by the Kuma River. The town is largely based on the real city of Hitoyoshi in Kumamoto.
Tom is a fisherman who wakes up alone and bewildered on his fishing vessel off the coast of Block Island to a scene of disarray, including an empty dog leash. Later that night, Tom's son Harry laments the end of summer while drinking at a bar with friends, including conspiracy theorist Dale. While giving Dale a ride home that night, Harry crashes into and maims a bird that soon dies.
Other reports of strange phenomena soon become evident on the island, including tons of dead fish washing ashore. Meanwhile, Harry notices strange behavior from his father such as taking his fishing boat out during the middle of the night and becoming unresponsive during conversation. Despite some misgivings, Harry's sister Audry who lives on the Rhode Island mainland is sent from her job at the Environmental Protection Agency to investigate the strange wildlife occurrences along with her coworker Paul. Audry takes her daughter Emily along and decides to stay on the island with her father and brother despite some lingering tension after the death of her mother.
As Audry and Paul investigate the strange occurrences, Harry attempts to bond with his niece by showing Emily how to fish and catch frogs. Tom's behavior becomes increasingly erratic, and one night the house is awoken by Emily's screams on the couch while Tom hovers over her. They chalk this up to night terrors, but Audry's concerns for her father are later realized when Tom again takes his boat out during the middle of the night and vanishes without a trace. The local police persuade Audry and Harry to accept that their father has likely drowned, which is soon proven true as Tom's body washes ashore.
Harry struggles to accept the circumstances of his father's death, including several bruises and lacerations on his face and additional signs of disarray and a malfunctioning radio aboard the fishing vessel after Tom disappeared. Harry's mental health deteriorates as his other estranged sister Jen returns home to Block Island from New York for the funeral, during which Harry gets in a fight with an older man resulting in a night spent in jail. After being released, he talks more with Dale and learns that similar disturbances have been happening across the world. He also decides to borrow scuba equipment to investigate the area where Tom drowned, but becomes unconscious underwater only to awaken on the fishing vessel while the electronics are scrambled and a strange noise is emitted.
Harry hits a deer while distracted by a vision of Tom after dropping Jen off at the ferry, and his increasingly erratic behavior spurs Audry to bring him to a psychologist in Providence to help diagnose Harry's condition. The psychologist speculates that he may be suffering from electromagnetic hypersensitivity caused by the Block Island Wind Farm and encourages Harry and Audry to contact a former patient with similar experiences who has cut himself off from all contact with electronics. Harry escalates on a path of insanity, stealing a neighbor's dog and bringing it aboard his boat, then steering toward the same spot in Block Island Sound until a bizarre experience occurs where everything on the boat, including Harry and the dog, begins to ascend toward the sky. Harry crashes back down onto the boat but the dog goes missing, leaving behind only its leash.
Enraged by this most recent episode and news of the missing dog, Audry entrusts Paul to watch Emily and look after Harry while she drives to meet the former patient, who lives alone in a camper in West Greenwich. The man explains to Audry that his paranoia is a result of being watched or influenced by some otherworldly force. He warns her that someone will get hurt if she doesn't get Harry away from the island.
While Audry is unsettled by the encounter and drives back to take the last ferry home, Harry resists yet another vision of his father telling him to take the "girl" (Emily), instead going for a nighttime drive where he narrowly avoids crashing into a female jogger. He then attempts to attack the woman but fails, and returns to the house where Paul still watches Emily.
Audry returns to find that Paul has been knocked unconscious and hears Emily's screams as Harry abducts her onto the fishing boat. Audry manages to jump onto the vessel right as it leaves the dock but is unable to reason with her psychotic brother, who again returns to the site of the disturbance. Audry barricades Emily and herself in the cabin of the boat; they soon experience a wailing sound and rattling as objects on the boat start ascending into the sky again. Audry and Emily are sent flying to the cabin ceiling and Audry is then carried into the sky as the cabin door gives way. The next morning, Emily is discovered alone in the cabin of the vessel by the local authorities.
The movie ends with Audry being dropped into the ocean alive and treading water as a voiceover plays from an earlier scene where she describes to Emily why biologists justify taking certain individual fish out of their natural habitat to study them.
The narrator tells how he and two others, Baird, the commander, and Hernandez, the engineer, flew the spaceship ''Benjamin Franklin'' to the Moon, landing just outside the crater Plato. The Soviet Union has already placed a space station in orbit and may have already secretly landed on the Moon.
After completing routine exploration and sampling, the crew decide to trek up the crater wall of Plato. When they reach a point where they can see into the crater, they notice some out-gassing taking place below them. The narrator wants to climb down and investigate the cloud of vapor, but Baird, who does not trust him, opposes this until Hernandez intervenes. Climbing down, they find themselves on a flat ledge under the vapor cloud, with the sunlight acting on the cloud to produce a light that the narrator finds strangely familiar. Then to their shock, they find footprints, but not those of a space suit. Instead, they seem to have been made by hobnailed boots. Baird insists on returning to the ship to report this, but the narrator wants to follow the prints back to their source. Eventually he goes alone down to the crater floor and finds traces of a camp, the tracks of some kind of vehicle, but no trace of a rocket. Finally he notices the shape of the Holy Cross etched into a rock. Barely making it back to the ship before his suit's power and air run out, the narrator says he knows who was there before them.
Believing that the previous explorer must have had access to some revolutionary technology, technology that could win or start a war, the narrator reveals to the professor that the light he saw on the ledge was the same as that used in the painting ''Virgin of the Rocks'', and that their mission is search museums and old papers to find some clue as to how Leonardo da Vinci could have walked on the Moon.
The Fever tells the story of Justino (Regis Myrupu), a 45-year-old member of the indigenous Desana people, who emigrate to the city of Manaus leaving behind his village on the Upper Rio Negro region. Widowed, Justino works as a security guard at a cargo port, while his daughter Vanessa (Rosa Peixoto) takes several jobs as a nursing technician, and his eldest son lives in his own home with his wife and son. Caught up in the stream of a modest life, their routine comes down to the transit between their work and home, on the outskirts of Manaus.
When Vanessa hears that she has been approved to study medicine at the University of Brasília, her father's lack of ability to deal with the demands of urban life makes her question her decision to leave. At the same time, the visions that have been disturbing Justino in his dreams, start to manifest themselves in the form of a mysterious and intermittent fever, which coincides with rumors about the presence of a mysterious creature in the neighborhood.
In the port, his monotonous work routine is broken with the arrival of a new guard (Lourinelson Wladmir), with whom Justino has to deal with during the shift changes. Working before as a foreman of a cattle ranch in the countryside, Wanderlei does not hide his deep prejudice against native people. Meanwhile, the visit of his brother (Edmildo Vaz) and his sister-in-law (Anunciata Teles) makes Justino remember his village in the forest, from where he left twenty years ago.
The tale unfolds in Changan, capital of China during the Tang Dynasty. People are suffering and dying from floods, epidemics, and famine, and the Emperor believes he can save his country if he can obtain the holy script, San Tsang, from distant India. He discovers, however, that no one is willing to make the long journey because the roads to India are infested with savages and devils. The Emperor has a dream in which a hermit appears and tells him there is a brave boy, only 13 years old, by the name of Genjo who would be able to accomplish the mission. The Emperor summons the boy, gives him the name of San Tsang, after the name of the holy script, and sends him on the dangerous journey to India. San Tsang is first attacked by a band of savages and barely escapes death. When he is resting from exhaustion on the summit of a mountain, he hears strange music and notices a ray of light shining on him. Then appears Pon, messager of the goddess of Mercy, who leads him to a cave where Sun Wu Kong has been confined for 500 years. Monkey King becomes San Tsang's first disciple to protect him on his long journey. Later they are joined by Pa Chieh and Wu Ching. The four are attacked by devils and spiders disguised in various forms, but finally San Tsang and his faithful followers reach the top of a mountain where they see their destination, India. The morning sun is shining on the snow-covered Himalayas, and the sweet voice of Pon is heard from the valley below.
Seye George (Richard Mofe-Damijo), a divorced entrepreneur with two adult children—socialite/events manager Temi (Zainab Balogun) and London-based investment banker Sammy (Baaj Adebule)—is named ''Forbes Africa's'' Top African Businessman. To finance his newest venture—a winery—George applies for a loan with a bank where Tunji (Demola Adedoyin), an ambitious but toxic accounts officer, is employed. His girlfriend Kaima (Ego Nwosu) is a corper and aspiring banker whose tenure with her workplace is almost complete but her future uncertain, as is her relationship with Tunji who hardly appreciates her.
Kaima is furious when Tunji cancels their date as he is busy running work-related errands, but she agrees to meet him in a high-end restaurant where he runs late. A frustrated Kaima waits until George sits at her table, assuming she is the reporter (Georgette Monnou) who has arranged to meet him. Kaima mistakenly believes he is making a pass at her, and rudely chastises him before departing, leaving George stunned. Tunji suddenly arrives with documents for George to sign, and Kaima realises she has made a mistake which infuriates Tunji who orders her to apologise.
Kaima approaches George at his workplace with a bottle of wine as a peace offering, and George not only accepts her apology but invites her out to lunch where they discuss her career. At the bank, Kaima's position is retained after George pulls in a favour with the bank manager (Segun Arinze), but Tunji's job is threatened following a transaction error. He asks his girlfriend to convince George to sign new documents, she finds him ill with the flu at his residence, but offers to make her mother's medicinal peppersoup which quickly helps him recover. To show his gratitude, George invites Kaima to dinner at his home where they taste wine from his winery.
Tunji grows suspicious of Kaima's friendship with the considerably older George, and accuses her of cheating on him which she denies. However, Kaima accepts George's invitation to celebrate her birthday on a yacht, not realising a spy has taken photos of the pair. Upon her arrival home, she discovers Tunji has thrown her an impromptu birthday party after implying he had forgotten, and he proposes in front of their guests which she halfheartedly accepts. Tunji is enraged when photos of her and George on the yacht are subsequently leaked, but Kaima's mother (Tina Mba) begs him not to break off the engagement.
Upon realising the egocentric Tunji would never turn a new leaf after he delivers yet another put-down, Kaima dumps him publicly, stating George is more of a gentleman than he would ever be, and Kaima's sister Kamsi (Bofie Itombra) reveals Tunji had indeed forgotten Kaima's birthday until she reminded him. However, Kaima remains uncertain of a future with George especially after his ex-wife Ame (Nse Ikpe-Etim) warns her to keep her distance, until George reminds Ame she had left him for a richer man years before George acquired his own wealth, making her the real gold-digger. He warns his ex to permanently stay out of his affairs or he would cut her off financially, to which she agrees.
Kaima, who has resigned herself to losing George forever, is surprised to find him pulling up to her house with Temi. It is here Kaima's friend Angela (Belinda Effah) confesses to releasing footage of her breakup with Tunji on social media which Temi subsequently showed her father, confirming Kaima's true feelings. George asks Kaima again what she wants for her birthday to which she replies "You".
Noelle and Addie are young adults who are viewing an apartment on the Upper East Side. Despite peculiar elements of the apartment, including abandoned furnishings and a suspicious realtor, the two move in. On their first evening there, Noelle finds a tarot card, while Addie is plagued by nightmares.
A mysterious girl shows up at the apartment, having previously been spotted by Noelle and Addie looking inside from the street. Initially posing as a realtor, she reveals that she is there to investigate notorious sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. She believes that the apartment was previously owned by Epstein, and suggests that crimes, including child prostitution and murder, may have taken place there. Noelle and the girl begin to obsessively research conspiracy theories surrounding Epstein's death and his alleged activities, and eventually begin a romantic relationship. Meanwhile, Addie becomes psychologically disturbed, seemingly as a result of living in the apartment. She wanders the streets of New York in a daze. During sex with her boyfriend Greg, she asks him to pretend they are on Epstein's 'Lolita Express' private plane, and engages in ageplay, demanding Greg to treat her like she is 13 years old in a voice that is not her own; she has no memory of the events immediately afterward. She also masturbates to images of Prince Andrew, who was an alleged associate of Epstein's, while dressing and behaving childishly.
Noelle and the girl's research reveals two other Epstein properties five blocks away from the apartment on either side; Noelle suggests a connection to the pentagram. The girl reveals that she also found a tarot card, this one in Addie's bedroom. The two visit a 'magical apothecary' to discover the meaning behind the cards, whose owner warns them to leave the apartment immediately and gives them an obsidian crystal for protection. They return to the apartment to find Addie, still seemingly entranced and sexually obsessed with Prince Andrew. Noelle and the girl visit the Metropolitan Correctional Center where Epstein died, only to find Addie there, dressed similarly to a young girl pictured in a photo with Epstein. The two meet Greg at his work and learn the story of the bizarre sexual encounter between him and Addie.
The girl suggests that Addie is a victim of CIA mind control experiments, similar to Project MKUltra. Describing Addie as a 'liability', the girl implies that she should be killed, which Noelle angrily rejects. The girl returns to the apartment to find the door chained shut, and evidence of Addie's masturbatory activities. She flees to the apartment's basement to find Addie before a large poster of The Sun tarot card, which includes depictions of nude children. When she discovers the girl's presence, Addie knocks her unconscious and begins to abuse her physically and sexually. She is interrupted by the arrival of Noelle, who kills her by stabbing her repeatedly with a knife. She returns to the apartment to meet the realtor who first showed them the apartment; their conversation implies that Addie's death was a planned part of a Satanic ritual.
The girl regains consciousness and finds Noelle in the apartment. Noelle attacks her and attempts to kill her, but the girl fights back, bashing Noelle's skull with the obsidian crystal. She flees to Greg's workplace, but when the two return together, the apartment and the basement are empty and clean, with no bodies or evidence of a struggle. Greg leaves angrily. The girl returns to the apartment to find an anonymous note, telling her that the events she experienced are a warning for her to give up her investigations.
Having moved from Arizona, Stargirl and her mother Ana arrive in Los Angeles to start a new life. Ana has gotten a job as a costume designer for a feature film, but the director is notoriously difficult to work with. While strumming in her room, Stargirl meets Evan, who lives in her new apartment building. He and his brother Terrell are making a sizzle reel for a potential film and would like her to write the music and possibly act in the film. While Stargirl has never acted before, she is convinced by the brothers and visits Terrell's workplace, a bar called Forte. Stargirl recognizes one of the regular visitors, known to the brothers as "Table Six", as Roxanne Martel, a one-hit wonder who left the music scene to become a producer; she is the actual owner of Forte.
Ana's busy work schedule leaves Stargirl to her own devices. She buys a pair of headphones for her grumpy neighbor, Mr. Mitchell, who begins to open up and reveals that he was once a film producer. Stargirl also meets with Roxanne to ask if she may use her song "Miracle Mile" for the sizzle reel, but Roxanne refuses, giving the impression that she is anti-social and bitter. Stargirl and Evan decide to write their own song, "Figure It Out", and Roxanne reveals that she denied them the use of her song to encourage them to create their own. She allows them to use a professional studio to record. Stargirl and Evan begin a romance.
Stargirl, Evan and Terrell finish the sizzle reel and send it out. As they wait for a response, Stargirl relates her past to Evan. Terrell eventually learns that an executive named Priya Collins has picked up the sizzle reel. She offers them a budget of one million dollars; enough to shoot their film. At home, Ana tells Stargirl that her film's production has shut down due to the director's behavior and that she has accepted a job in Berkeley. Stargirl is angry, as she is growing to love life in Los Angeles and realizes that Ana's issues stem from her fear of settling down. Mr. Mitchell advises her that one should learn from their mistakes and tells her that he was inspired by hearing her conversation with Terrell.
Stargirl persuades Ana that they should stay and that she needs to accept the mistakes in life. At Forte, Evan and Terrell are surprised to see Stargirl with Roxanne in a new music group called Table Six and the Shirley Temples. They are happy to learn that she will be staying after. Later, Terrell begins filming his new movie, ''Tell Your Story'', with Evan and Stargirl in the leads.
Stonewall Jackson (Jack) Hunt attends Harvard University where, besides his studies, he also runs track. One day, he receives a letter from his grandfather, Judge Randolph. The judge's letter informs Jack he can no longer send money to support his education. The judge explains his Virginia plantation is now fully mortgaged. He only remains on the plantation through the good graces of the mortgage holder - The New York Trust Company. While traveling to a competition, Jack catches his first glimpse of the younger Virginia Payne. It intrigues him.
Virginia Payne lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with her grandmother, who uses a wheelchair, Virginia Warrington Payne. Virginia has decided to attend a local college meet. Before she leaves home, she gives her grandmother and her old silk purse, which she always keeps close by, and puts an old gown of her youth on a nearby chair. Virginia's friends pick her up, and they head to the games. During the meet, she sees Jack for the first time. After a while, she starts cheering for him.
While her granddaughter is away, her grandmother dreams about her old sweetheart and how they parted, never to see each other again. Then she sighed and went to sleep. She would never awake. At the same time, Judge Randolph is sitting in front of his fireplace. He is dreaming about the love of his life and how he lets her slip away.
When Virginia returns home, she finds her grandmother has passed away. Her grandmother is holding a packet. An attached note says Virginia should not open this package until she is engaged. Virginia also finds a letter addressed to Judge William Randolph. She mails the letter. When the judge receives the letter, he finds out Virginia is now alone in the world. Virginia's grandmother then asked Judge Randolph if he could protect Virginia for old time's sake. The judge wires Virginia to travel to his plantation.
Jack is desperate for money, so he enters a poker game. He loses everything. Jack finds out where Virginia lives and decides on a visit. Jack becomes concerned when he sees crepe draped all over the house and is relieved to find out it is for Virginia's grandmother. With no money and no prospects, he decided to return to his grandfather's plantation in Virginia. On the same day, Jack decides to return to his grandfather's plantation; unbeknownst to Jack, Virginia is traveling to the same destination. Jack tries to ride for free with the baggage but is caught and thrown off the train. Amid the chaos, Virginia recognized Jack, learns of his circumstances, and offers to pay his fare. Jack refuses at first, then finds out they are both headed to his grandfather's plantation. He then accepts Virginia's offer.
It surprises the judge when they both show up at his front door. The judge is amazed at the resemblance of Virginia to her grandmother. The judge soon learns Jack has gambled away everything. The judge tells Jack if he wants to live like a gentleman, he will need to work on the plantation alongside the other laborers. Jack has no choice but to accept.
Soon after that, the judge discovers Jack and Virginia kissing in the back of a shed. The judge warns Jack not to trifle with her affections. Jack assures the judge that will never happen. Soon the young lovers have a squabble over some petty matter. A concerned judge chooses to impart some of his wisdom.
The judge tells Virginia: : Nothing is the beginning - Nothing is the end - but many heartaches lie between. The judge then relates how a minor quarrel led to a breakup with the women he loved more than life itself. They never got back together. He never stopped loving her and will until the day he dies. He then tells Virginia the woman he loved was her grandmother. Virginia is overcome with emotion and begs the judge to talk to Jack.
The judge speaks to Jack and tells him to apologize to Virginia. After some persuasive back-and-forth, Jack leaves to find Virginia. When he finds her, she is dressed in her grandmother's old gown, the same dress her grandmother wore when she broke up with the judge. Jack says he is genuinely sorry for the quarrel. They engage in a warm embrace.
Virginia feels now is the time to open the sealed packet her grandmother left her. The pack contains the mortgage from Judge Randolph to the New York Trust Company. The mortgage is paid in full, and the property is assigned to her grandmother. Virginia recognizes her grandmother had lived a frugal life to save the judge's plantation. While still wearing her grandmother's gown, she takes the mortgage to Judge Randolph. The judge imagines he sees Virginia Warrington and realizes that Virginia's grandmother never stopped loving him.
Follows Brenda Lee who is diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer and sets on a journey to find a daughter she gave up for adoption.
They proceed to come up with a breast cancer bucket list until she suddenly finds a coupon for free wings at Buffalo Wild Wings.
After a fantastic lunch, they head out for an amazing adventure through the woods to fight grizzly bears, mountain lions, and breast cancer.
Aspiring actor Sam and his botanist girlfriend Rylie have travelled to rural New England to investigate an outbreak of an ergot-type fungus called "sordico" that has been devastating local farms. They camp on a remote farm after their car breaks down, but elderly farmer Eulis, claiming to be the landowner, asks the couple to leave. Sam and Rylie return to their car to discover its battery died, leaving them stranded. They look for help at a nearby farmhouse and meet Karen, an eccentric old woman, and her supposed son Gunni, who is mute, partially catatonic, constantly watching vintage cartoons, and wears bandages around his head. Karen explains Gunni’s bizarre behavior by claiming a bull kicked him in the head.
Karen supposedly calls a mechanic named Pete to come and jumpstart the couple’s car. While waiting, she feeds Sam and Rylie strange food that conflicts with their strict vegan diet, while also engaging in odd conversation, which includes Rylie asking about weird Polaroids of Karen’s family. When Pete fails to show up, Karen sets up Sam and Rylie with sleeping arrangements in the cellar. Addicted after years of maintaining his diet, Sam leaves Rylie alone to gorge on more of Karen’s food in the kitchen, and Gunni experiences a seizure while seemingly trying to say something to Sam. Sam then passes out and has a dream where everyone turns into Popeye characters discussing a medical condition with his stomach. Meanwhile, Rylie investigates unsettling sounds in the cellar. Sam returns to the basement to find her missing, and he also discovers Karen is gone from her bedroom. Sam calls 911 before investigating Karen’s barn. However, once he is inside, Karen injects Sam with a drug that knocks him unconscious.
Sam and Rylie recover to find themselves restrained on a raised platform and wearing breathing masks connected to gas tanks, one of Sam’s buttocks bleeding and bandaged. Karen, Eulis, and Gunni eat at a picnic table beneath the couple. Driven mad from sordico and justifying their lifestyle through a misinterpretation of God’s will, Karen explains that she and Eulis became cannibals to compensate for crops turning bad. Karen additionally reveals that she and Eulis “adopt” unwilling participants to feed on. Gunni is revealed to have been a random hunter who was lobotomized before Karen and Eulis began cutting off body parts like his cheeks to eat. Karen and Eulis open a crate containing Delilah, a lobotomized woman without limbs whom they call their daughter. Karen and Eulis feed Delilah pieces of Sam’s cooked rump flesh.
Eulis prepares to lobotomize Sam when a cop unexpectedly interrupts. While Karen and Eulis deal with the police officer, Sam talks Gunni into freeing him and Rylie. After the cop leaves, Karen and Eulis catch Sam, Rylie, and Gunni trying to escape. Gunni dies after triggering an animal trap. Karen recaptures Sam and Rylie. Some time later, Rylie is seen in Gunni’s seat at Karen’s table. Rylie is lobotomized, wearing head bandages from having her cheeks eaten, and is visibly pregnant too. In the basement, Sam is seen having been turned into a semi-sentient torso like Delilah. After feeding them, Karen forces Sam and Delilah to have sex.
A doorbell interrupts the work of an unnamed narrator, but there is no one at the door. He merely hears a voice and finds a letter smelling of incense that contains an obituary. It reads:
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Loved by none, hated by none, died today after long suffering endured with heavenly patience: God. |multiline=yes |source=
Despite his wife's suspicions that he is just trying to sneak away to play Skat, the narrator, seemingly unsurprised by the news, sets off for St.-Zebedäus cemetery, where the funeral is set to take place that night. The people he meets on the way react indifferently to the news. The newspapers do not report the death; he only finds the death notice on the last page of a freesheet. The priest is not even familiar with the name of the deceased, whom he remembers as "Klott or Gott or something like that" ( ).
At the cemetery, apart from the narrator and the priest, only two gravediggers, a smocked man resembling a street sweeper, two Heimkehrer and an inspector gather. The funeral takes place in pouring rain under the illumination of carbide lamps in an atmosphere of general apathy. An incident occurs in which the dead man falls out of the coffin. After the very first words, the priest breaks off the funeral oration amid the bustle of the gravediggers. After the mourners have thrown wet clay into the open grave, they start thinking about the pleasures of the following night. At the cemetery fence, the narrator once again finds God's death notice; the priest limps as he leaves.
Virginie, a widow and single mother, lives in rural France with her two children, Laura and Gaston. She has been unsuccessfully raising locusts for protein, much to her disappointment and her daughter's embarrassment. The family used to raise goats when Virginie's husband, Nico, was still alive, but locusts are now the focus after his death, alluded to have been by suicide. Virginie struggles to make ends meet as the locusts are not reproducing at a large enough volume.
Gaston discovers that the locusts are interested in human flesh and blood after one of his own pet locusts feeds on a wound on his hand. Later on, Laura has an altercation with Kévin, a boy at her school, over videos posted online where he mocks her and her family. Frustrated by the fact that nobody is willing to pay good money for the locusts or only buy from her out of pity when her friend Karim asks them, Virginie goes to her locust enclosure and angrily trashes the nests, only to slip and be knocked out. Upon waking, Virginie discovers the locusts eating from wounds on her arm and she quickly flees the enclosure.
Overnight, the locusts become more active. Virginie notices this change and in a moment of desperation, she partially opens the enclosure, unbandages her arm and allows the locusts to feed from her.
The locusts continue to multiply at rapid rate, allowing Virginie to sell large quantities, however, she must continue to supply them with blood and flesh. Laura is frustrated by her mother's increasing obsession with the locusts, and in a fit of rage, tears open one of the greenhouses, which allows a swarm to escape. Gaston is in a truck nearby with his goat Huguette tied in the back. Attracted by the goat, the swarm attacks the truck and when they leave, Huguette is nowhere to be seen.
When Virginie returns from a trip to town, Gaston cries to her that Huguette was taken by the locusts. Virginie later finds out that Laura caused the tear in the greenhouse and berates her, after which she finds Huguette in a field, covered in locusts that are feeding on her. She doesn't tell Gaston that she has found his goat and drives him around while he calls out for Huguette.
Virginie's mental state continues to deteriorate as she supplies the locusts with her own blood, and she begins to kill nearby animals such as her neighbour's dog and cow to feed the locusts. Her relationship with Karim also suffers. She becomes distant as she cannot tell him why she has open wounds upon her body, and she refuses to remove her clothing when they begin to kiss in his winery.
Gaston is finally able to go to a soccer camp he has been wanting to go to, however, Laura is the one who has to drop him off as Virginie has been up all night feeding the locusts; Laura does not know this as her mother didn't allow her into her room. When Laura returns home, she finds her mother's room is open and the floor is covered in bloody clothing. She rushes to the greenhouses, only to find her mother in her undergarments and being fed upon by the locusts. Horrified, Laura contacts Karim over text and tells him to come over to her home because her mother is not well.
Karim tries to cheer the family up with a movie night at his home, however when he is alone in the kitchen with Laura, she is unable to tell him what's wrong with Virginie, but mentions the locusts. Virginie shows up and an argument ensues between her and Karim, and Karim says that Laura shouldn't go back home. Meanwhile, the neighbor goes into one of the greenhouses to look for his dog. Later that night, Karim returns Virginie and Laura home.
When he sees that Virginie and Laura have entered their home, he begins to look around the greenhouses, only to find the body of the neighbor who had been looking for his dog; the man has been killed by the locusts. Karim is also attacked by the locusts, but manages to escape the greenhouse. Virginie finds him outside and realises that he's discovered her secret. He runs back to his truck and takes out a tank of gasoline, dousing the greenhouses and lighting them on fire.
Virginie tries to stop him and put out the fire, but they notice that the locusts have escaped and begun to swarm, attacking the house in which Karim and Laura have hidden. Virginie hears Laura screaming and runs into the house, finding Karim covered and being eaten by locusts. Laura escapes from the house and runs into a nearby forest, followed by Virginie.
Laura is chased by the swarm and hides under an overturned boat on a lake. The swarm begin to cover the boat, the weight of them pushing it down and starting to drown Laura. Virginie sees this and cuts open her palms with a pocket knife, covering her face with her blood and beckoning the swarm towards her. The swarm attack Virginie, leaving Laura be. When Laura realises what has happened, she swims out from underneath the boat and swims towards her injured mother, taking her into her arms. Virginie clings to her daughter in the water as the swarm dissipates above them and dawn breaks.
For a detailed plot, see ''David Copperfield (novel)''.
The mayor of a small town, which is being terrorised by a bloodthirsty Easter bunny, refuses to act. The kills start to pile up when the "Beaster" bunny starts to crave more human flesh. It is up to a dumb witted dog-catcher and a wannabe actress to save the town. The townsfolk are confused by the origins of this evil bunny and his history remains a mystery. Attacks are growing more gruesome by the minute and time is running out for the small town.
It is a parody of ''Here Comes Peter Cottontail'' (1971).
The eccentric Lenz is in a life crisis. He leaves his home Berlin in order to explore Georg Büchner's fragment "Lenz" in the Vogesen. Soon, however, he travels to Zermatt in the Swiss Alps to see his nine-year-old son Noah. With his help, he organises a meeting with his ex-wife Natalie, whom he still loves. However, the illusion of family life is short-lived due to Lenz's strange behaviour. Noah and Natalie return to Zurich, and Lenz remains alone in the mountains.
In the year 2202, the USS ''Endeavor'' receives a distress call from the previously thought-destroyed Katanga refinery station orbiting the planet LV-895 and moves in to investigate, sending a fireteam of Colonial Marines to board the station. The Marines quickly discover that the entire station has been overrun by Xenomorphs. They manage to rescue the sole survivor of the station, Weyland-Yutani scientist Dr. Timothy Hoenikker. Hoenikker reveals that Weyland-Yutani discovered Xenomorph eggs as well as a mutagenic substance dubbed the "Pathogen" on LV-895, and have been secretly breeding Xenomorphs and experimenting with the Pathogen before the Xenomorphs broke containment.
Determined to find answers, the Marines head down to the surface of LV-895, where they discover alien Engineer ruins that were being studied by Weyland-Yutani. They make contact with another Weyland-Yutani survivor, Cynthia Rodriguez, and head over to stage a rescue despite her insisting she is safe. The Marines fight their way through Xenomorphs and Weyland-Yutani combat synthetics until they reach the Weyland-Yutani facility, where they discover Rodriguez is actually a Mother AI called SN/TH/YA. Since SN/TH/YA has gone rogue, the Marines shut her down, but not before she activates "Asset Zero." The Marines travel further into the ruins and find that Asset Zero is an intact Engineer starship loaded with Pathogen that SN/TH/YA has arranged to send back to Earth. Realizing the danger the ship poses, the Marines sabotage its power source to prevent it from lifting off.
The Marines are then sent back to Katanga to manually overload the station's fusion power core and destroy the Xenomorph hive on board. While they succeed, they are forced to flee when they anger the Hive's Xenomorph Queen, and narrowly escape the station before it explodes.
However, despite the mission's success, Xenomorphs and large stores of Pathogen are still on the surface of LV-895, and both Weyland-Yutani and rival corporation Hyperdyne Systems are sending forces to claim the planet. The ''Endeavor'' and its Marines remain to prevent the Xenomorph infestation from spreading and the Pathogen from falling into the wrong hands.
The prequel to the game is the book ''Aliens: Infiltrator'' by Weston Ochse, published by Titan Books. The novel tells the backstory of the events that lead up to the game and ends when then game begins.
Based on the real life story of the late Brian Brown-Easley, a former Marine Corps veteran in financial trouble. Easley is concerned over the effects of this on his daughter alongside the prospects of homelessness to the point of robbing a Wells Fargo Bank with a bomb threat in 2017.
The first season is set in Riyadh in the year 2050, revolving around an old woman named Asmaa who narrates folktales from the Arabian Peninsula to her three grandchildren. The second season will be set in Neom.
In the spring of 1929, a team of student botanists arrive in an uncharted forest somewhere in North America on expedition to chart the native flora. The students arrive to find their professor absent and their food supplies destroyed. After a day of waiting for the his return, they begin a search to find the missing professor. The professor is found deceased, wearing a gas mask, at a nearby abandoned mining town. Gradually, some of the students begin falling ill to an unknown pathogen.
The professor's protégé, Matsudaira Basho, is able to deduce from the complete absence of animal life in the region that the pathogen may be an endophyte present in the local plant life and transmitted by consumption or plants or through inhalation of pollen. In light of the lack of food supplies, the students embark on a trek through the forest to reach a railway where they might be able to rendezvous with a monthly train that is scheduled to pass by in several days time. The students prepare foods from local plant material by boiling the harvest in order to render them non-pathogenic and create biohazard suits with gas masks to prevent infection.
Along the journey, all but one of the students falls ill to the pathogen. She arrives at the railway and sees the train coming.
This film takes a look at the early days of the war and the deployment of young forces to the front. Naneh Gilaneh and her young son and daughter live a difficult life during the war and the bombing of Tehran.
Isobel (Royle), a silent young girl, is lost and alone on the streets of London. She looks like she wants help, but no-one notices her.
It is six days until Christmas. Isobel intently watches a world-weary commuter, Jack (Heffernan), as he speaks to his troubled young son on the phone. She seems to share his concerns and follows him.
Jack walks to Benedict (Cosmo), an older homeless man, giving him a coffee as part of his daily ritual. Benedict stares vacantly and barely responds, but Jack accepts this as normal and continues on his way. Isobel stops to look at Benedict, empathising with his plight.
Wandering the streets, increasingly hopeless, she that night comes across him again and, despite her own situation, she feels sad for him and stops to look. To her amazement, Benedict looks up and stares right at her. He is the only person who can see her and is, she realises, her only hope.
In an effort to communicate with Benedict, Isobel gives him her teddy bear as he sleeps. But next morning, the bear has disappeared. Benedict thinks little of it, assuming he was dreaming. The same thing happens over the next several days as Isobel tries - and fails - to communicate with Benedict, succeeding only in frustrating him.
As the days go by, Isobel’s hope diminishes until, two nights before Christmas, Benedict becomes angry and yells at her to leave him alone. Terrified and distraught, Isobel runs away.
On Christmas Eve, straying from his usual spot after Jack gives him cash to buy a coffee, Benedict sees a photograph of Isobel nestled among old bouquets of flowers that mark the site of a fatal traffic accident. The penny drops.
That night, finally realising that Isobel needs his help, not the other way around, Benedict finds her and apologises. She offers him her bear and, looking at it in a new light, he now notices that sown into the label is the name and address of Owen, Isobel’s brother. He promises to get the bear to Owen in time for Christmas. Content at last that her message will be passed on, she hugs Benedict and disappears, leaving her balloon to ascend into the night sky.
With renewed purpose, Benedict goes to Isobel’s house. He is greeted by Owen, a four year old full of beans, who runs off for his parents. He returns with his father, a very surprised Jack. When Benedict gives the bear to Owen, he learns that Owen blames himself for Isobel’s death because she was hit by a car after running to pick up Owen’s bear which he had dropped - and Isobel is trying to tell him that she’s ok.
As Benedict turns to leave, Jack, struggling to come to terms with what has just happened, invites Benedict in.
As the credits start to roll, a young man carrying a sports bag arrives at Benedict’s now empty spot and starts to settle in. Even on Christmas Morning, the cycle of homelessness continues.
While chasing after a stray arrow into the forest, a young Boy Scout finds the arrow has landed in a corpse. NCIS agents Leroy Jethro Gibbs, Vivian Blackadder, and Anthony DiNozzo arrive on the scene and meet up with NCIS Medical Examiner Dr. Donald Mallard who informs them that the corpse is that of a pregnant Navy Lieutenant. DiNozzo determine she is a JAG, while Gibbs determines that she washed up from the nearby river.
At the JAG headquarters, Admiral A. J. Chegwidden informs his team that the NCIS has found the body of a Navy Lieutenant, who is believed to be five months pregnant. The team is unable to get in contact with Lieutenant Loren Singer, who is almost nine months pregnant, so they are told that the NCIS plans to use DNA to confirm if the body is Singer's. Commander Harmon Rabb leaves the room causing Chegwidden to wonder aloud if there is something going on between Rabb and Singer.
NCIS Director Thomas Morrow and his team go to the MTAC, where they watch as other NCIS agents successfully capture Amad Bin Atwa. Meanwhile, Dr. Mallard determines that the body is Singer's and was dumped in the river at the top of the falls after being hit with a metal object.
At JAG headquarters, Chegwidden tells his team what the NCIS has found. Chegwidden privately asks Rabb how he is involved with the murder and thinks that Rabb might know who the father of Singer's baby is. Gibbs and Blackadder question everyone except for Rabb, who calls his half-brother Sergei Zhukov to tell him about Singer's death.
DiNozzo finds Singer's car and determines which bridge Singer was thrown off of and gives the evidence he collected to Forensic Scientist Abby Sciuto, who finds Rabb's fingerprint in the car. Dr. Mallard determines that Singer has been dead for three months, Sciuto learns that she called Zhukov before she died, and Special Agent Don Dobbs finds a Navy Commander's hat near the crime scene. Gibbs interrogates and arrests Rabb, as he believes that Zhukov is the father of Singer's baby and that Rabb killed Singer to cover for his half-brother.
Rabb meets with Lieutenant Commander Faith Coleman, who has been assigned as his legal counsel, while Gibbs meets with Major Jack McBurney, who will be arguing against Rabb. Morrow tells Gibbs that he needs him to interrogate Bin Atwa as soon as possible. Sciuto, Dr. Mallard, and Gibbs all testify and Gibbs admits that he no longer believes Rabb killed Singer.
Gibbs, Coleman, and McBurney meet with Sciuto, who tells them that the hat Dobbs found belongs to Rabb. Gibbs interrogates Bin Atwa and uses information Blackadder received from the FBI to get him to reveal information about the location of terrorist Hussan Mohammed. Meanwhile, Abby determines that the hat was planted at the scene recently.
With Gibbs busy on the Bin Atwa case, DiNozzo and Blackadder continue the case without him and learn that Singer regularly met with a man for dinner. Using information from restaurant employees and the JAG security logs, they determine that the man was Commander Ted Lindsey, who Rabb recalls stole his hat. While DiNozzo interrogates him, Lindsey claims that it was an accident and Singer fell off the bridge, but DiNozzo tells him that Singer was thrown off the bridge.
DiNozzo and Blackadder meet up with Gibbs and tell him that Lindsey admitted to everything. They then go with Gibbs to capture Mohammed. They are successful, but Mohammed saw Blackadder and nearly killed Gibbs with a grenade.
During the 1930s depression, the poor and unemployed engineer Reino Aro is secretly in love with Maire Rauta, the daughter of the wealthy industrialist K.L. Rauta; however, the father has other suitors in mind for her. Much confusion and many misunderstandings later, the situation finally resolves to a happy ending.
Lukas, an interpreter for the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe), drives three colleagues into the deserted countryside of the southern Ukrainian steppe for an inspection tour of military checkpoints near the Crimean border.
Their car breaks down and with no cell phone reception, they find themselves at Beryslaw a district of Ukraine in the Oblast of Kherson. Here Lukas walks in search of assistance but fails to find any. On his return, the car with his colleagues has mysteriously disappeared, though he has the keys.
Left alone Lukas is picked up in a tank by Vova, and brought to a village overlooking the Kakhovka Reservoir. Once at the village Vova with his daughter Marushka decides to host Lukas, who during his staying is distressed by unfortunate events but each time Lukas is strangely saved by Vova.
Lukas's life changes while living with Vova, as he realise the feeling of happiness he thought he lost. The more he stays with Vova the more he understands the anarchic life of the village, as detached by any common structures. Although Lukas dislike Vova's eccentricities, he needs his support in the village where drunken gangs carry assault rifles, police rob detainees, slave labour is practiced, and nobody has a conventional job.
Even though the village's image Lukas begins to understand the people through their collective past. Also he grows interested in Vova's figures and falls in love with his daughter Marushka. Finally Lukas joins Vova in one of his get-rich schemes, diving to one of the drowned villages in the reservoir.
Jake Doyle (Neil Patrick Harris) recounts to his young cell phone obsessed daughter, Annie, how, as a child in the late 1980s, he got his first Nintendo Entertainment System. The movie is told in flashbacks as Jake recalls the memory of that Christmas season when all he wanted was the game console.
Timothy Keane, the richest kid in the grade, is the only kid in town with the new Nintendo entertainment system and all of the latest accessories. Every day, Jake and his friends gather with the rest of the school outside of Timmy's house where he chooses ten kids to play in his basement. Timmy even ends up getting the NES Power Glove, only to discover that the product is a bit of a joke.
Tired of pandering to Timmy for access to the coveted Nintendo, Jake dreams of getting his own system for Christmas and approaches his distracted mom and forever DIY
Jake's quest for a Nintendo intensifies after Timmy angrily destroys his TV after losing a game, seriously injuring his family's dog. Hearing the first prize of a Scout fundraiser for selling the most Christmas wreaths will be a Nintendo, Jake and his friends compete to sell the most wreaths and win the system.
Jake endures the humiliation of wearing girl boots, shoveling dog poop, and family shopping trips to the mall. His sister has her own desired toy, a Cabbage Patch Kids doll, and Jake agrees to drop hints on her behalf, and even accompany his father to a back alley deal to buy one of the sold out dolls, in exchange for tips on selling wreaths in the old folks' home.
The wreath sales ends up being a dead end, after Timmy's father convinced the community to ban video games. The children decide to take matters into their own hands, selling baseball cards (including a rare Bill Ripken card) to pool their money, and buy a system to share. Without a ride to the mall, they concoct an elaborate plan to sneak away during the school field trip to make the purchase. Jake manages to evade parents, who are protesting video games in front of the game store, to buy the Nintendo and run back to the bus, only for the game system to be crushed by the school bus. A kind adult who sends Jake back to his field trip advises him to focus less on the presents, and more on the season of giving.
Christmas Day comes, and Jake does not receive a Nintendo. Instead, his father surprises Jake with a backyard tree fort he made himself with a trap door, ladders, and lights. Jake never got a Nintendo for Christmas, but the tree fort and his father's love for him was the better gift.
Adult Jake tells his daughter he eventually bought his own Nintendo after working all summer to earn one, and shows her the tree fort, which remains standing, reminiscing about all of the good memories made, and the adventures he had because of his father's gift.
Following the events a few months after the events of New Kid, Jordan Banks, a young African American boy, is feeling discomfort about going to eighth grade at RAD also known as Riverdale Academy Day School, a prestigious school. He has a dream to go to art school and become an artist, but his mother still wants him to go to RAD and enrolled him there last year. At school, Jordan meets up with his friends Drew and Liam. However, at school, Drew becomes annoyed when several other students attempt to touch his new hairstyle, and to add the group's problems, they meet their old enemy from last year, Andy Peterson. Drew attempts to make up with Andy, but Andy just walks off in a huff. After meeting other friends at school, Jordan and his friends go home. A few weeks later, Andy comes to Jordan's group of friends, suggesting that the group dress up as the Avengers for Halloween. When the others don't play along, Andy gets angry and walks off. On the day of Halloween, Andy is dismayed to discover that hardly any of his classmates have dressed as the Avengers. Things come to a head when Andy appears at school with his skin dyed green, as a result of a prank. Andy is then teased about it the entire day. At the end of the day, one of the teachers, Mr. Roche, asks that Drew help serve as a student ambassador for visiting students from another school, this school having mainly African American students. Things go from bad to worse when Mr. Roche is unable to pronounce the visiting students' names, and when the students are appalled at how bad their school is compared to RAD. Jordan and Drew go to Liam's house for Thanksgiving Break, but Liam feels uncomfortable when Drew questions him about his privileged lifestyle. Tension builds up between Drew and Liam, since Drew finds it hard to be with Liam, since he thinks that Liam has privileges that he could never get. Jordan finds it hard to be able to keep their friend group together. When Drew goes home, Liam's driver, Mr Pierre reminds Drew that he shouldn't let Liam's privilege change how he treats Liam. As the year finishes out, the school is called to an assembly, where they watch a movie about urban life. Drew and Jordan do not enjoy the movie, as it paints an inaccurate picture of how most African Americans live, and random students give Drew and other African American students gifts and money after the movie. Mr. Roche also attempts to start a diversity group, but the group doesn't end up accomplishing much. Drew finally tells Liam how he feels about him, and the two are able to be friends again and make up. The school also finally starts to make real efforts to make it more diverse. Jordan, Drew and Liam are finally able to be themselves around each other, and respect their differences.
A man named Mario comes home, having just sold his bingo hall. Seemingly in a daze...he dances around to the tune of classic Italian music playing on vinyl. He begins speaking to himself, and then a picture of his dead wife Patricia about the sale. He says he can fulfill his promise of leaving "this place". He puts down a suitcase of money, and begins to greedily eat a serving tray full of bingo balls. An ominous voice coaxes him on, until he chokes to death.
An elderly woman named Lupita walks around Oak Springs one morning and meets up with her friend Clancy (who owns an auto repair shop).
Lupita then goes to see her hairdresser, Yolanda, whose electricity is being fixed by Morris. Morris is not able to fix because he says he doesn't have the right tools and leaves.
Cut to Dolores, who is mad at her daughter-in-law Raquel for not providing proper discipline for her grandson who has been breaking into cars and getting away with whatever he wants. She is also angry at the daughter-in-law for not doing her part and being irresponsible around the house after moving in when her husband died.
Dolores then goes to Yolanda's and meets up with Lupita who is already there. They have discussion about Caleb, and Lupita brings up the similarities with Dolores's son who has died and takes issue to it. After an awkward silence, Lupita apologizes and Dolores accepts begrudgingly before Lupita leaves.
Lupita goes to a bingo game at the local bingo hall, but they finish up when they realize Mario has not paid his electricity bills.
The next day, Lupita and her friends find flyers around town saying that the bingo hall is under new management. Lupita, Morris, Clancy, Dolores and Yolanda decide to take a look at it and realize that the bingo hall has been transformed into a casino. While there, Dolores spots Raquel, who wins ten thousand dollars from the owner, Mr. Big.
The next morning, Caleb and Dolores find that Raquel left them with her money. Raquel arrives at a motel, where she begins to rip off the straps of a dress. However, standing behind her is Mr. Big, who makes her hallucinate it while in reality she is using her fingernails to rip off her flesh. Lupita breaks into Mario's house and finds his corpse, before realizing that she hallucinated it.
They go back to the bingo hall, and this time Clarence wins one hundred thousand dollars. That night, Clancy parties by himself next to his car, drinking a bottle of beer, not realizing that he is actually drinking motor oil. He then sticks his arm into a car motor, violently shredding it and eventually killing him, not seeing the shadow of Mr. Big inside the car.
Lupita finds Clarence's body and sees Morris talking to Mr. Big, who gives him a stamp on his hand which begins to disintegrate. Lupita realizes the entire Oak Springs have been lured into the bingo hall, and heads there with her shotgun and with Eric. Caleb tries to break in, blaming the place for his mom's disappearance, but Eric catches him and chases him inside. Mr. Big confronts him and then makes Eric stab himself in the neck with a poisoned syringe, before killing him by stomping on his skull.
Lupita tries to get the residents to leave but Mr. Big begins to crush her head against a podium, before Caleb shoots him in the back. Lupita destroys the TV and the residents attack Mr. Big, brutally beating him, until Lupita cracks open his head with the butt of her shotgun. Caleb sets fire to the money and they escape, leaving Mr. Big to burn.
The amnesiac Neon White awakens in Heaven alongside other sinners who have floated up from Hell. They are informed by the Believers, a group of beings who claim to speak for God, that they are "Neons" whom God has judged "most unfavorably". Their only chance at salvation is through the Ten Days of Judgement competition, held annually to cull the demons infesting Heaven. The Neon who can kill the most demons by the competition's end will receive a mechanical halo that will allow them to stay in Heaven for a year. White and the other Neons are given weapons and non-removable, explosive masks that the Believers can detonate to execute any Neon who steps out of line. As the competition begins, White meets fellow Neons Yellow, Violet, and Red, all of whom vaguely claim to have known him in his past life, and the angels Mikey and Gabby, who manage the Neons' assignments.
During a daily sermon from the Believers, White meets Neon Green, the current bearer of the mechanical halo, who is feared for killing other Neons. Later, Violet tells White about the Old City, an abandoned area of Heaven rumored to have powerful weapons. Red warns White against going there since Green uses it as his hunting grounds, but White ignores this and proceeds to the Old City with Yellow. The pair encounter Green, and Yellow is killed when he blocks an attack meant for White. As Green makes his escape after being defeated by White, he explains that the Believers crafted his halo using a page from the Book of Death, and promises that he has plans for White. Following the confrontation, White learns of the counterpart Book of Life, and decides to seek it out as his suspicions about the competition and the Believers mount.
White catches up with Green, who tells him the Book of Life is at Heaven's Edge. Red intervenes to prevent a second fight, and reveals their shared past: White, Red, Yellow, and Violet had worked together as a crew of assassins under the leadership of Green, and their last operation had been to assassinate Blue, who was Green's old boss. They all died during the mission, although Green successfully killed Blue. The next day, Mikey refuses White's request to be assigned to Heaven's Edge, explaining that he knows the competition is a sham and that he would rather see White for ten days every year than risk him being unable to return to Heaven ever again. White and Red venture into Heaven's Edge anyway, but Mikey catches up to them and divulges the truth. Heaven was originally Sheol, but Sheol did not live up to the Believers' expectations of the afterlife and they eventually overthrew God to seize his books and remake the realm into their ideal version of paradise. The Believers also killed most of the angels during the war, and only spared those angels who swore loyalty and service to them. The Believers defeated God and acquired the Book of Death, but God closed his hands around the Book of Life and the Inkhorn used to write into both divine books, preventing the Believers from gaining total power over Heaven and leaving it vulnerable to demonic invasion. As Mikey concludes his story, a stray page from the Book of Life appears, giving White a way to seek out the location of the full book.
White arrives at the Third Temple, where he finds one of God's hands clenched around the Book of Life. The hand opens at White's approach, but Violet, who was slighted by White earlier, swoops in and snatches the book, only for Green to fatally wound her. As White and Green clash, Green's mechanical halo is broken, freeing him from the Believers' control. The vengeful Green declares he will use the books to destroy Heaven, but Violet stymies his plan by blowing herself up and scattering the Book of Life's pages. Green returns to Outer Heaven and steals the Book of Death from the Believers, preventing them from detonating the Neons' masks. All of the remaining Neons begin to riot throughout Heaven, and Green kills off the Believers. Meanwhile, White uses the remaining page of the Book of Life to recover its pages and reassemble it.
Once the Book of Life is whole, White turns his attention to the Inkhorn, the last item needed to bring back God. In the course of the search, Mikey reveals to White that the sinners who float up to Heaven are free of guilt, which make them the best Neons as they are unquestioning; White had been weighed down by guilt, but he ascended to Heaven anyway because Red pulled him up, and this unusual method of entry caused his amnesia. God's other hand is found, but it lies outside Heaven and a soul is needed to trigger the process to push it into Heaven so it can reopen. Red sacrifices herself by detonating her mask, and Green and White have a final duel over the Books and the Inkhorn. White is once again victorious, and the angels undertake the ritual to restore God. However, Green reappears and charges at White, intent on writing everyone's names into the Book of Death.
If White failed to collect enough gifts to unlock all of his memories, White's only option is to write Green's name into the Book of Death, wherein Green is transformed into a demon and sent to Hell. God then writes Yellow, Violet, and Red's names into the Book of Life, but excludes White because he failed to earn salvation. If all memories have been unlocked, White is given a second option to write Green's name into the Book of Life, forgiving Green for his actions and showing that White can let go of his past issues. After this, God writes White's name into the book with the rest of his crew, and an additional scene is shown of them enjoying an eternity of peace together.
Alexio spends his earliest years in Makosa, an ancestral village, but then moves to Salisbury (later Harare, the country's capital) to live with his cousin who works as a servant for a white family. Alexio then becomes a farmer in Jena's village and is given the opportunity to be sent to school. Being successful in his studies, at age 12 he travels back to Salisbury to attend Goromonzi Secondary School, funded partially by an official of the African Party, which evidently is opposed to Rhodesia's minority rule.
In Salisbury he has two white teachers, Paul and Sarah Davies, who came to Rhodesia as volunteers, and this, plus the association with the African Party, gets Alexio in trouble with the police. They attempt to charge him with being a political activist and a communist, but fail. They then try to make him a police informer, but Alexio refuses and is harassed constantly. His only way to continue his education is to travel to England. This plan fails because once again, he is accused of being a communist while applying for a passport. Alexio is beat up and asked again if he wants to become a police informer. A black police officer grants Alexio some time to consider the offer, and it is here that Alexio escapes detention in order to become a guerrilla fighter.
''Halita'' is the story of a 19-year-old village girl who is forced to leave the village in order to send money home when her mother Rebecca, takes ill. She is promised a job as a secretary but by fate, she ends up in the Zamani home and her fortunes take a turn.
Avery Hansen-White holds herself back from doing things she's not excellent at. So when her long-distance boyfriend seems to want to take their relationship to the next level at the upcoming STEM conference ("nerd prom"), she resolves to master her sexuality. Avery starts studying the mechanics of love and realizes that relationships involve less science and more heart.
The United States has two interceptor launch sites aimed at intercepting any nuclear warhead launches; the first, Fort Greely in Alaska, is attacked by unknown assailants presumably affiliated with a terrorist faction, while 16 nuclear warheads are simultaneously seized from Russian territory. The second site is a remote platform in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. U.S. Army Captain J. J. Collins is recently reassigned to the latter of the two interceptor missile launch sites. Following the conclusion of a high-profile case where she reported sexual misconduct by one of her superiors, she experienced hazing, bullying and threats from her peers in the military as revenge, hence her new deployment to this remote station.
Under the command of Lt. Colonel Marshall, and working alongside Baker and Shah in the station's command center, Collins finds herself as part of the last line of defense after the hostile takeover of Fort Greely. The station is infiltrated by a small group of operatives led by ex-military intelligence soldier Kessel, who promptly kill Marshall and the other occupants of the base, leaving only Collins, Shah, and an unconscious Baker, who was grazed by a stray bullet, as the survivors, holed up in the command center. The infiltrators attempt to negotiate entry into the command center, by which they can disarm the interceptor system and leave the continental U.S. open to nuclear attack from the sixteen stolen warheads. They are rebuffed however, and attempt to forcibly enter instead with blowtorches. An operative launches a surprise attack after entering via a floor hatch, but is defeated and killed by Collins and Shah. Baker regains consciousness and reveals himself to be an inside man for the infiltrators and motivated by a big pay day and xenophobia, holding both Collins and Shah at gunpoint while allowing Kessel and the remaining operatives to enter and assume control.
Kessel hijacks a live feed and streams his manifesto about the failures in the history of the United States online, naming the sixteen American cities to be destroyed, and instructing the terrorist faction to launch the nukes immediately. Collins breaks free of her restraints and locks Kessel, Baker, and a henchman back out of the command center, while defeating and killing Kira, the lone enemy operative still in the room, and another henchman. Kessel attempts to force Collins to surrender, torturing her father, but she refuses and her father is apparently killed when the transmission is cut. Kessel turns to plan B, initiating the station's scuttling protocol, hoping to sink the station if he cannot take control of it. As the station begins to sink, Shah volunteers to drop through the floor hatch to the ocean below and manually re-engage the station's hatches, in order to slow down the station from sinking, such that the interceptors are still able to launch and destroy the warheads when they eventually pass through the airspace overhead. Shah succeeds, but he is killed by Baker.
Collins decides to make a risky gamble, hiding in the command center and letting Kessel, Baker, and the remaining henchman take over and disable the seemingly empty center. Her ruse works, with Baker going to check up on the station's roof to find and eliminate her. Collins is able to stealthily dispatch the remaining henchman while Kessel flees the room. Grabbing a laptop, Collins ascends to the roof and plugs the device in, hoping to manually launch the interceptor missiles using this method. She is found by Baker however, and the two engage in hand to hand combat, with Collins emerging victorious after using razor wire to decapitate Baker. Kessel, who had called in a Russian submarine to pick up the team of operatives earlier, finds Collins just as she successfully launches the interceptor missiles with a fraction of a second left before the nukes would have crossed the point of interception. His plan failed, he engages in combat with Collins, who manages to defeat and subdue him, just as the Russian submarine ascends from the sea. A pair of Russians emerge from the submarine tower, but rather than shooting Collins, they fire at Kessel instead, and the Russian Captain salutes Collins before departing.
Collins later recovers from her ordeal in the hospital, and she is personally given a promotion by the U.S. president for her efforts. She also receives a visit of her father who had been rescued by friends who had witnessed his plight on the live broadcast, and he comforts her over her grief for Shah's death.
At Christmas a tanker truck crashes in a Norwegian tunnel, causing a big fire to break out. Elise the daughter of volunteer firefighter Stein Berge is trapped with many other people in the tunnel. Now Stein and his colleagues try to save everyone.
Klara serves in Syria in the French Army as an interpreter for ''Opération Chammal''. After the apprehension of a suspected terrorist, she witnesses the man's young son blow himself up at his father's behest with explosives hidden on his body. Traumatized by the blast and experiencing migraine headaches from it, she is transferred home to Nice and moves back in with her mother, Maria, and her sister, Tania, while serving in counter-terrorist operations as part of ''Opération Sentinelle''. On patrol, her trauma manifests itself in impulsive, sometimes disproportionally violent behavior towards suspects. The painkillers she was prescribed are not enough for her and she begins to buy more illegally.
One night, Klara and Tania go out to a nightclub. Tania separates from Klara to join a party of Russians and signals to Klara that she is leaving with them. Klara keeps an eye on her sister as she begins to dance with a woman, and afterwards has a one night stand with her. The next day she is notified that Tania had been raped and savagely beaten into a coma. Klara starts her own investigation of the crime, inspects the club's security footage, finds out the name of the man Tania was with, and takes a photograph of him in the footage. Captain Muller of the French Police, who is leading the investigation, identifies the suspect as Yvan Kadnikov, the son of Leonid Kadnikov who is a very influential Russian tycoon. Yvan is hiding out in his father's villa at Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, but both have diplomatic passports and immunity, making them untouchable without a complicated legal process.
Unwilling to wait for justice, Klara catches Yvan at the nightclub and he tells her that he had not touched her sister. His friends come to his rescue and Klara is evicted after a fight with them. Later, she infiltrates Leonid's villa to find Yvan, but is captured by Leonid's bodyguards. Leonid taunts Klara, freely admitting that it was he who had raped Tania since his son was not interested in women because he was a homosexual. He leaves her to be drowned by his guards, but Klara fights free and escapes. Tania later awakens from her coma, but decides not to press charges despite Klara's urging her to do so. While outside her sister's hospital room, Klara sees a news report in which Leonid states that he will be returning to Russia soon. She notices a nurse rushing past her and right afterwards Tania has a sudden embolism. Suspecting an attempt on her sister's life, Klara pursues and catches the female assassin. Captain Muller informs Klara that she had been sent by Leonid.
Now fully bent on revenge, Klara steals several weapons from her garrison's armory and sneaks into Leonid's hideout. After killing the bodyguards, she pushes Leonid off a bannister when he tries to bribe her, and when she observes his body assumes he's been killed. Klara is stabbed by Yvan and shoots him dead. Seriously injured, she retreats as a tactical police unit arrives. Leonid, however, surprisingly survived the fall and regained consciousness.
Three months later, Leonid is in his Dubai hotel suite and asks the hostesses for room service. Disguised as one of them, Klara brings him a fruit basket, grabs a fork, and rapidly stabs Leonid several times in the jugular and around the neck with it. She secretly travels back to Nice to check in on Tania from a distance. Tania is hanging out with friends and has physically recovered from her ordeal. After observing Tania without her noticing and seeing that she is all right, Klara walks away, now as a fugitive from the law.
All the events of the story are read in a phantasmagoric way.
The story is based on real events, as evidenced by the date put at the beginning of the narrative: October 24, 1917. It was at that time, at night, that the Bolsheviks seized power in Russia, overthrowing the Provisional Government.
The heroes of the story, Nikolai Muromtsev and Yuri Popovich (persons fictionalized), are sent on night duty to prevent Lenin and his associates from entering Smolny. Attention should be drawn to the names of these cadets, which refer the reader to the epic Russian heroes Ilya Muromets and Alyosha Popovich, who back in the day faithfully defended the borders of the Russian land. Like these bogatyrs, Nikolai and Yuri, although they occasionally snort cocaine, which brings them closer to our contemporaries, who in the 1990s lived in an "inverted consciousness" provoked by drugs and alcohol, perform the function of defenders of a rolling Russia into the abyss, trying at a new historical turn to save and preserve the illusory "crystal world", personifying "the past known past of Russia and its unknown future". The fact that there is no third protector, Dobryny Nikitich, among these decadent bogatyrs "gives rise to the omnipotence of chance in Pelevin's Crystal World.
On the eve of the October Revolution in Petrograd, cadets Nikolai and Yuri are on duty on Shpalernaya Street with the main task of not letting anyone into the Smolny. The cadets are on duty, taking various drugs and having philosophical conversations, constantly interrupted by attempts of unknown persons to pass to Smolny.
Along the way, Yuri, one of the Junkers, explains to the other that every man has a mission, which may be unexpected for himself. When asked how to discover his mission, Yuri reveals that he once listened to lectures by Rudolf Steiner, the founder of the religious-mystical teachings of anthroposophy. Steiner revealed to Yuri that he had a special mark on him, that he had a special mission in his destiny: to protect the world from an ancient demon.
Gradually it turns out that the Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin himself is trying to break into Smolny. And so, once again, as the Junkers suffer the consequences of taking ephedrine, they let in worker Eino Reichy ostensibly with a shipment of lemonade from the firm Karl Liebknecht & Sons. In fact, the historical event in question is how the Finnish Communist Eino Rahja escorted Lenin to the Smolny in St. Petersburg during the October Revolution in Russia.
In so doing, the Junkers have failed in their mission, and the ancient demon takes possession of Russia.
Pelevin creates a new reality in the story. It helps to see and realize the images of Alexander Blok and references to the works of cultural and historical heritage. And this reality is that it is impossible to save the "crystal world" due to its fragility and transparency, and hence its fragility. Therefore, this world, beautiful in its purity, must perish, shattering, like glass, into small pieces.
Pelevin's story forms a cycle of works together with the stories "''The Reconstructor''", "''Kreger's Revelation''" and "''Music from the Pillar''" the plots of which overlap. Not infrequently, elements of the plot of some stories in the cycle are contained in a convoluted form in others. The stories receive a continuation or are given a backstory within the general artistic world of the characters.
The title of the story is taken from a series of projects of Nazi Germany under the general title "Weapon of Retaliation" to develop a new type of weapon to turn the tide of World War II. The beginning does list the various projects that existed, then the story moves into the realm of dystopian fiction, how the Allies sought weapons of retaliation, how Stalin used blatant threats against the British and Americans, suspected deception, and so on.
Just as in life, no weapons were found. But the author argues that weapons did in fact exist and were even used, namely psychological weapons in the form of rumors of a formidable weapon of retaliation: "as rumors of a weapon of retaliation emerge and spread, they arise by themselves."
In conclusion, the author refers to the results of the use of weapons against the USSR, "although we can do without words, especially as they are bitter and not new". To see the results of the weapon, it is enough to go to the window in the morning on tiptoe, slightly open the curtain and look out the window.
In the story, the Weapon of Retaliation itself is constructed out of many metaphors, although it is initially physically absent. However, it begins to manifest itself as a result of collective faith. Existing only in people's minds, the Weapon of Retaliation begins to fulfill its function of destroying or altering reality.
Reflecting on the principles of balance, the narrator cites the example of the candle and the mirror: if somehow the reflection of the candle is placed in the mirror, it should materialize in front of the mirror. However, it is impossible to do this. Propaganda, however, is capable of creating a simulacrum, which will eventually generate its "reflected", i.e. the original.
The choice of a metaphor to replace the missing name of the weapon of death somewhat narrows the limitless field of interpretive variations, objectifying the idea of something that cannot have a visual image, because it does not exist even as an "idea.
For example, likening the weapons to the spear of Wotan implied the appearance of projectiles of incredible power, the metaphor "Siegfried's sword" prompted thoughts of a bomb, and the message that "the fire-eyed Valkyries of the Reich are about to unleash their holy madness on the aggressor" generated associations with rays or psychic gas.
The text of the story is an attempt by the author to conduct a study of the peculiarities of the course of cognitive processes in the collective consciousness of an entire nation (the German nation of the Third Reich). The work subtly and pseudoscientifically actualizes and explores the theme of the linguistic conditionality of consciousness and the role of the subject in determining the degree of reality of objects of reality.
The events of Pelevin's early period story take place in Soviet times (judging by the line "we've had so much incomprehensible stuff these seventy years" - in the second half of the 1980s).
The hero of the story, a retired humanitarian named Maralov, who in order not to feel permanently retired, responds to readers' letters to journals, for example, to a schoolboy's question, "Why do I live?" The rest of the time he chats with a single student on general philosophical topics. And so, during another drunken conversation, he expresses the unexpected idea that God is the personified generalization of everything incomprehensible in an individual country. He exists objectively, and a certain religious mysticism corresponds to him.
The morning after the hangover it turns out that the idea is rooted in the soul of its inventor in the form of a strange word "uhryb", Russian for "ухряб". Uhryb is just a set of letters or sounds that accompany the hero.
The hero begins to see the ubiquitous "uhryb" everywhere: in the sounds of chopping meat, in a hidden form in works of classical literature, as an acrostic in slogans ("Success to participants of the XI International Festival for Disarmament and Nuclear Safety!"), in the sequence of pictures on the wall.
Gradually the new local deity becomes the manic passion of the hero, he sees himself sandwiched between two "uhryb" as in the press, and he does not yet agree to recognize himself as one, although this is not fair, since the "uhryb" and inside. The mania leads to the hero's voluntary death - outside the city in a snow-covered pit, which appears to him to be "an uhrab in its original form," which is the natural end of the story, the last, ninth chapter of which consists of one sentence: "They found him two days later - skiers, by a red sock sticking out of the snow."
In the story, the main character at a certain point realizes the meaninglessness and emptiness of the world around him. And he must come to terms with it. But to come to terms not because he is a victim of the Soviet system, but because for Pelevin and his hero, who accepts the world in all its manifestations, there is no other way out. There is no way out in the usual sense, because in any case Pelevin's hero will only find himself in a different name of the huge world, the essence of it will not change.
Uhryb is a mind-blowing Deity (or its symbol), the personification of everything incomprehensible. Uhryb in its pure form is "a long snowy hole with two rather tall, half the height of a red deer, icy ridges on the edges. Such an uhryb resembles both a grave and a woman's womb, which makes death a return to the earthly womb. The neologism "uhryb" represents verdichtung (condensation, condensation) in the Freudian sense, i.e., the combination of different images, concepts, words or syllables into one whole.
In the story, Pelevin uses the technique of wordplay: combining parts of adjacent words to form a new meaning. This is how the "uhryb" appears.
Some literary critics find in the story a reference to the work of Nabokaov.
"Music from the Pillar" together with the stories "''The Reconstructor''", "''Weapon of Retaliation''" and "''Kreger’s Revelation''" constitute a single cycle of works in the alternative history genre. The plots of these stories overlap.
At the beginning of the story, the worker Matvey reads on a magazine page an account of an American physicist's ideas about the existence of points of space that are on different evolutionary lines, but are at the same time their intersection: "crossing over such a point will cause the event "B1" of area "A" to begin to occur instead of the event "A1" of area "B". But the event that occurred in area "A" will now be an event occurring in area "B." This quote describes the compositional structure of the story, where the protagonist's consciousness is divided, intertwining dream and reality.
Matvey, along with two colleagues, has a desire to drink vodka at the beginning of his work day, but since the store is closed and there is no money, they decide to expand their consciousness by eating fly mushrooms. Under the influence of mushrooms, the characters begin to hallucinate.
"Music from the Pillar" appears in Matvey's mind, after which "Something battered, mutilated and driven into the deepest and darkest corner of Matvey's soul stirred and crawled timidly toward the light, flinching and waiting to strike every minute. Matvey let this strange, incomprehensible thing fully emerge and now looked at it with an inner gaze, trying to understand what it was. Suddenly he noticed that this strange thing was himself and that it was looking at everything else that had just considered itself to be him and trying to make sense of what was just trying to make sense of him.
Then in the back room, the characters see a fragment of Seventeen Moments of Spring, and then they get into the back of a truck and drive to work. This is where the character's split consciousness occurs: Matvei becomes Himmler riding in an armored truck with Hitler, but at the same time he continues to be himself.
Pelevin argues that people tend to cling to reality. In Matthew's hallucinations, Hitler says, "...why are we so afraid of losing something, without even knowing what we are losing? Let burdocks be burdocks, fences be fences, and then the roads will have a beginning and an end, the road will once again have a meaning. So let us finally adopt a way of looking at things that will restore simplicity to the world, and that will enable us to live in it without the fear of the nostalgia that awaits us around every tomorrow's corner...".
"Music from the Pillar" echoes another of Pelevin's short stories, "Kreger's Revelation" where Himmler said, "Did you ever happen to dream that you were driving in the back of a rundown truck to some unknown place, and there were some monsters sitting around you?" Thus, the events of the story "Kreger's Revelation" could have been a hallucination by Matvei, or Matvei's trip could have been a dream by Himmler. Pelevin does not give an unequivocal answer to the question of which of the two stories is reality and which is a dream.
The story "The Reconstructor" is written in the genre of a review of the fictional book "The Memory of the Fiery Years" by P. Stetsyuk, which, based on declassified military archives, tells about the real personality of Stalin.
Narrator-editor with a large share of irony and skepticism reviews uninteresting and boring, from his point of view, a book devoted to the discovery of historical "truth" about the true identity of the mystified Stalin, according to the narrator, -Ruler of Russia Joseph Stalin (but in patronymic Andreevich, born in 1894).
The reviewer advises the reader not to read the unnecessary research and at the same time assures him that the book is still worth reading. The narrative is framed in a pseudoscientific style, on behalf of a group of researchers whose arguments the author lays out.
Pelevin actively uses in the text the arsenal of "nabokov's" techniques. For example, the narrator quotes passages from a fictional book by the fictional author P. Stetsyuk, polemicizes with his conclusions, sneers at the style, the shambolic and metaphorical manner of statements (and the stereotype of the reader's perception).
P. Stetsyuk's "Memory of the Fiery Years" tells of a mysterious steel tube made by a Minsk radio factory, because of which a series of grotesque deaths follows. Next is the discovery that instead of one Stalin was as many as seven of his doubles, who lived in an isolated underground and there led the Soviet Union.
Despite the implausibility of the "truth" presented in "The Reconstructor", the abundance of specific details, dates, names, addresses, references to archives and document ciphers creates the illusion of reliability of the "facts" presented.
Thus, blatant fiction begins to claim the status of a "real" historical event, and previously functioning documented evidence loses its certifying power and is refuted by new pseudo-facts.
Pelevin works with modern myths and the reader's consciousness, eager to join the fantastic mystery. The author creates an alternative history, breaks the logic of cause-and-effect relations of known to all events out of text reality in a mockery of the hypothetical possibility of such a project, at the same time demonstrating the unlimited power of artistic discourse over reality.
The narrative itself becomes an illustration of the professional application of methods and techniques of falsification of any fact, designed to destroy the boundary between reality and fiction. The main discovery made by the author of "Memory of the Fiery Years" after the study of declassified documentation of the Minsk radio factory, which produced a mysterious steel tube, which provoked the appearance of a series of absurdly grotesque deaths, P. Stetsyuk investigated is the proof of the existence of seven of his doubles, living in an underground isolated from the world.
The narrator, following the author of the book, names their names and periods of government, describes certain facts of their scanty biographies, traces the influence of underground drunken debauches on events in the country.
Thus, among those who lived in the Stalin bunker was Nikita Khrushchev: the external ground double outsmarted the "real" Khrushchev by flooding the underground with concrete together with all its inhabitants, and continued ruling under an alias. The country was also ruled by a certain Serob Nalbandian (from 1932 to 1935). For some time, the role of leader was played by three "drinking companions" who happened to get to power.
The abundance of versions and assumptions produced by the narrator of "The Reconstructor" about P. Stetsyuk's book only further confuses the reader, distancing him from the truth, problematizing the status of the reviewed text. In the final part of the story, the narrator, who alluded to the fictitiousness of "Memories of the Fiery Years," gives a metaphysical interpretation of everything described that multiplies the uncertainty.
The story, together with the stories ''"The Reconstructor"'', ''"Weapon of Retaliation"'' and ''"Music from the Pillar"'' constitute a kind of cycle of pseudo-historical stories by Pelevin devoted to ideology, agitation and propaganda during World War II. It is written in a satirical pseudo-historical form.
In the story the author makes an attempt to fictionalize history. Formally, this work - the official correspondence (the reader sees reports, memos, minutes, transcripts of tape recordings) between the Reichsfuhrer SS Heinrich Himmler, the junior imperial magician Kreger, chief restructurer Wolf and other figures of the Third Reich. The reports, memos, protocols, transcripts of tape recordings are presented in the form of a mystical beginning, which guided the highest Nazi command made the most important decisions during the World War II.
The story literally interprets the title of Lenin's work "Leo Tolstoy as a mirror of the Russian Revolution". At first, Kreger sees Leo Tolstoy in the astral with a medical mirror on his forehead, then it turns out that a huge reflector was built in the Yasnaya Polyana area and Tolstoy's collected works were published with varying numbers of each volume to guide and focus the spiritual-mystical mirror. From the reconstruction of Leo Tolstoy's "mirror" (an allusion to the German organization of the Third Reich - Ahnenerbe), the conclusion that Italy must attack Abyssinia follows.
In Pelevin's dreamed up mystical system of Molotov and Kaganovich, on the basis of which Soviet Russia is ruled, the sacred Russian text of Lenin, which the chief magician of the Third Reich deciphers and especially its title, is given great importance in Nazi Germany. Initially Stalin (presumably Serob Nalbandian replaced him during the war) and his entourage accepted the thesis of Kaganovich, who argued that this sacred phrase of Lenin should be understood literally. This attitude entails the following conclusion: by manipulating the mirror reflecting the Russian revolution, it is possible to move its reflection to any other state, which will lead, according to the laws of sympathetic connection, to a similar revolution in the selected country.
All of the "crazy" theories set forth in the official documentation are also, to avoid an unambiguous reading, discredited by Ernst's account of Kreger and Wolfe drinking with Soviet defectors for two weeks.
The story ends with the fact that for his astral heroism, the management of Anenerbe asks that Kreger be awarded the Knight's Cross of the first degree with oak leaves.
Agatha Harkness attempts to take Wanda Maximoff's chaos magic but is interrupted by the white, re-assembled, and re-animated Vision who attacks Maximoff, revealing S.W.O.R.D. director Tyler Hayward's orders to eliminate her. He is foiled by the version of Vision created by Maximoff who fights with White Vision across Westview while Harkness continues to attack Maximoff. Harkness frees the residents of Westview from Maximoff's spell that trapped them in sitcom personas, and they plead with Maximoff to let them leave.
Maximoff begins to open the barrier to allow the residents to escape, but her Vision and their sons Billy and Tommy begin to disintegrate. She closes the barrier again, but not before Hayward enters with multiple S.W.O.R.D. personnel. Monica Rambeau removes a magical necklace from "Pietro Maximoff", releasing him from Harkness's control and revealing his true identity as Ralph Bohner. Maximoff attempts to overpower Harkness with illusions of her past, but Harkness gains control and overpowers Maximoff. Using newly developed powers, Rambeau saves Billy and Tommy from Hayward, who is detained by Darcy Lewis.
Maximoff's Vision helps unlock the White Vision's memories, and the latter departs Westview. Harkness takes Maximoff's magic but does not realize that Maximoff has created magical runes around the barrier to prevent Harkness from using her own magic. Maximoff then reclaims all of her magic and becomes the Scarlet Witch. She traps Harkness as the sitcom persona "Agnes", and then takes her family home as she collapses the barrier. Maximoff and Vision put their sons to bed and then say goodbye, before Vision, the boys, and their house all disappear. Faced with the Westview residents that she has harmed, Maximoff makes peace with Rambeau and goes into hiding.
In a mid-credits scene, Hayward is arrested while Rambeau is informed by a Skrull disguised as an FBI agent that a friend of her mother Maria wants to meet with her in space. In a post-credits scene, while studying the ''Darkhold'' in her astral form at a remote cabin, Maximoff hears her sons calling for her help.
In the 1950s, Laura and her seven-year-old son, Cody, drive to a remote home in California to flee from her abusive ex-husband. The family is threatened by the possibility of his return as well as the presence of a monster lurking in a nearby lake.
They settle in, she sends her son to school, makes lunch for him and works at a company doing a typing job. Her son seems frightened because some entity from the nearby lake lurks around his room at night. But after a direct encounter with that monster he seems comfortable with it and calls it "pretty lady from the lake". But still he wants to go home, he always seems sad and depressed and argues with his mom to go back. But she always refuses. On his birthday she arranges a party and makes invitations for his classmates. But he says no one will come, even when she insists that he should at least give it a chance. Both of them decorate their house with balloons and Laura cooks delicious meals, but no one shows up.
Laura gets drunk and quits her job. Then she goes to school to pick up her son but he is nowhere to be seen. She asks a policeman for help.
At the police station, a lady asks Laura to recall the accident that happened to her son last year. Laura says that she was out for groceries, and her husband was looking after their son, but Cody fell into the pool. When she came back he was still there, so she jumped in the pool and tried to save him and paramedics arrived. She insists that they revived her son and he was alright, then asks for water and leaves the police station.
When she gets home she finds Cody waiting for her there. He begs her to let him go as he should leave with the "pretty lady of the lake".
In reality her son died in the accident, but she was unable to cope with the grief and became delusional. She relents and allows her dead son to go with the "pretty lady in the lake" and achieves a degree of peace at last.
Jaelyn and her husband, Kyle are spending a holiday at a beach tourist retreat in Vietnam, housed in an overwater bungalow. Jaelyn is partially withdrawn and traumatized since she suffered a stillbirth during a homebirth, keeping contact with her family and friends mostly through social media; the trip is meant to restore her spirits again. However, on their second night, a violent tropical storm hits the resort. The bungalow is flooded and torn off its moorings, drifting away from the mainland, and Kyle's leg is severely injured.
As the days pass, Jaelyn and Kyle try to take stock of their situation and wait for rescue. When a ship passes by, they try to create a smoke signal, but the fire instead destroys their shelter, forcing them to abandon it and climb onto a floating piece of wooden flooring. As they drift, Kyle apologizes to his wife for leaving her alone to deal with her trauma, and they reconcile. Soon afterwards, a great white shark attacks their raft and bites off Kyle's injured leg, leaving him to bleed to death. That night, the raft finally hits a beach; Jaelyn drags Kyle's body onto the sand and then collapses from exhaustion. As she wakes the next morning, the tide has come in, leaving Kyle floating in the water. Before Jaelyn can retrieve him, several sharks arrive and devour the body. When she wades back to shore, a shark attacks her and bites her leg before she can drive it off.
After recovering, Jaelyn walks off along the coastline until she meets a local fisherman in his coracle, who stitches her wounds; but as she falls asleep, he dives down to check his weir and is fatally attacked by the shark. As the shark then assaults the coracle, Jaelyn first drives it off by shredding its head with a handheld outboard engine. Enraged, the shark returns and upends the coracle. As Jaelyn frantically wraps the coracle's anchor rope around herself to stop herself from sinking, the shark comes in for another attack, but its jaws accidentally close around the boat's raised anchor, driving one of its flukes directly through its brain and killing it. Climbing onto the upside-down coracle, Jaelyn drifts to a fishing village, where she is soon spotted by fishermen on the beach.
In 1979, Carl, a Lumberjack working in Alaska, is abducted by aliens. In the present day, a computer engineer named Isaac starts a video diary, after a hike in the woods, he encounters a flying saucer and encounters an alien. Three days later he wakes up near the water. He discovers that he is having hallucinations. He visits the doctor and discovers his bone broken with a precise cut. He got the abduction on camera and uploads it to the internet, and it goes viral. The news, media, and government question Isaac. Isaac realizes mysterious signs of alien life throughout history prove that aliens exist, he finds a post on the internet by a girl his age named Sara that includes a similar story, the two meet at a local diner.
Isaac is asked to do a lie detector test for proof of the abduction and he passes it leading to him being apprehended by Men in black run by Agent Graves. The government discovers that Sara and Isaac have an alien tracker in their arms and Isaac refuses to cooperate in the government's procedure. Isaac escapes with Sara and they're chased by androids. They realize that they have been taken to Costa Rica and find a hacker named Zed who helps them and admits that he knows about the United Nations agency behind the kidnapping. Zed helps them locate an elderly Carl and they Video Chat with him. The group discovers that the aliens will come to British Columbia in five days.
Zed, Sara, and Isaac travel to British Columbia and find Carl living in a cabin. Carl disables the United Nations trackers allowing them to stay with him for the next two days. In two days, the aliens arrive and explain that they are studying humans believing that Jesus Christ is important to the creation of the universe. They remove Sara's tracker as the men in black surround the cabin. Agent Graves demands an answer about his father's death from Carl who refuses and is shot by laser guns. Sara walks out of the cabin and is shot as well. The aliens remove Isaac's tracker and he unleashes telekinetic and chronokinetic powers which he uses to escape by saving Zed and carrying Sara and Carl to safety as the cabin is destroyed. The aliens save Sara and Carl and the group escapes in a flying saucer.
Six months later, Isaac and Sara are living a normal life in Costa Rica. Zed and Carl are running a new science program and Agent Graves has been fired.
General Livingstone is the only person who knows where Yamashita's gold is located, and he is currently held captive in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. Seven Filipino soldiers are thus recruited by the military with the task of retrieving General Livingstone and bringing him to the Philippines to find the lost gold, which can potentially bolster the Philippine economy.
The film is described in the Pathé catalogue as a Historical Scene in 8 tableaux : * Mutiny at Sea. * Landing in America. * Indians Rejoicing. * Triumphal Entry into Barcelona. * Reception at the Spanish Court. * Christopher Columbus disgraced. * Christopher Columbus in prison. * To the glory of Christopher Columbus.
Four granies namely , Mollykutty (Pauly Valsan), Saroja (Sarasa Balussery), Rosemary (Savithri Sreedharan) and Vilasini (Sethu Lakshmi) lives with their helper Jeemon (Aju Varghese). They learn things like WhatsApp with the help of Jeemon.
Kuttan Pilla (Alencier) who was the lover of Mollykutty who left her in their young age comes back. Kuttan Pilla betrays a local don named Mayan (Chemban Vinod) in a hawala dealing and escapes with money. Maayan kidnaps Kuttan Pillai.
In the later part these four grandmother's with the help their aid and his friend Vikraman Parudeesa (Saiju Kurup) a local gangster helps them.These elderly women call Maayan as '''Dakini''' (cartoon character from Mayavi). Later they saves Kuttan Pillai from the hands of Maayan.
Gabi and Winston, two employees of South Africa's forestry service, are travelling along a river in the Tsitsikamma forest when Gabi loses the drone she is controlling. Gabi decides to enter the forest, retrieve the drone and rejoin Winston later, saying: "we can't just leave our trash here."
While walking through the forest, Gabi triggers a trap, which leads to a wooden stake piercing through her foot. Gabi removes the stake and heads deeper into the forest, which is soon covered by a red glow as night falls. She comes across a wooden house, and enters it to rest and recover from her injury. Barend and his son Stefan, two survivalists who had set up the trap and who live in the house, find Gabi resting in the house and treat her injury.
Winston hears Gabi scream as she pulls out the stake, and he heads into the forest to look for her, but is unable to find her. After night falls, he encounters strange creatures in the forest, and becomes infected by a rapidly-growing fungus while hiding from the creatures.
Throughout the film, Gabi grows close to Stefan, and she also experiences nightmares that involve fungi growing from her body, later finding patches of fungi growing on her arms and legs. She learns from Barend that he used to be a plant pathologist who started living in the forest after his wife Lily died of bone cancer thirteen years prior, and that Stefan was conceived in the house, which was where he and Lily had their honeymoon. Barend then states that he met "God" while in the forest.
Later, Gabi is almost infected by a similar rapidly-growing fungus while sleeping, but she is saved when Barend wakes her up due to the creatures trying to break into the house. The creatures break in, and are revealed to be ordinary humans covered with fungus. Barend explains that the fungus infects humans and feeds on the eyes, mouth and lungs, and that they infect other people via spores. He also explains that the largest organism on the planet lives close to the house and is looking to spread, saying: "She was here long before the apes started dreaming of gods."
The next day, Gabi finds Barend's writings, which compare humanity to monkeys in captivity. Barend provides offerings to a tree, which contains the previously-mentioned organism, and both he and Stefan eat some of the mushrooms growing in the tree. Barend and Gabi start heading out of the forest when Gabi finds Winston's flashlight, and they find Winston, who is now covered with several species of fungi. Winston, who is still alive, begs them to kill him. Gabi stops Barend from shooting him with an arrow. Barend then places an arrow in front of Winston's mouth which he impales himself on it. The noise attracts the attention of the creatures, forcing Barend and Gabi to return to the house.
After finding lichen on her thigh, Stefan secretly gives Gabi one of the mushrooms that Barend has been harvesting from the offering tree.
Stefan takes Gabi to see his mother, who has been transformed into an animate tree, and still has her wedding ring on one of her transformed fingers. Gabi goes through the photos stored in an SD card from one of the cameras she and Winston placed in the forest, and finds that several of the photos show the creatures. Barend reveals in a rant that he believes the world is doomed due to humanity's actions.
Gabi and Stefan begin heading towards the city, but are confronted by Barend, who convinces Stefan to stay in the forest. Gabi begins heading back to the city alone, and Barend decides to sacrifice Stefan to the organism. However, Gabi changes her mind, and she returns in time to stop Barend from sacrificing Stefan; Stefan ends up stabbing Barend in the spine during their struggle. Barend is later shown with the fungus growing from his back and offering his own blood to the organism.
Some time later, Gabi becomes infected by the fungus, and her body becomes covered with it. She begs Stefan to kill her, and it is implied that he does so. Stefan leaves Gabi's body in the house and heads to the city, where he has a meal and then leaves the restaurant; the leftovers of his meal quickly become covered with fungus.
Daniel Powell's plan to reconnect with his siblings hits a snag when he discovers they all want to kill him for his inheritance. As the brothers and sisters are forced to spend the weekend together at the family beach house on the Cayman Islands, one thing becomes painfully clear: Daniel's going to find out what family means, even if it kills him.
Changzhou is Itako Kanno Tetsusai Old man Son Suzunosuke was raised by his grandfather Tetsusai as a brave boy without knowing his parents' faces. He was good at vacuum slashing with his father's red body and eventually became a fine young man. One day, he was excommunicated because he played another style match that Tetsusai had forbidden against two people, Takerinbo and Hikyomono Taiten, who came to break the dojo. However, this had Tetsusai's compassion for letting the cute girl travel. Suzunosuke regretted parting with his childhood friend Shinobu and went to Edo to enter the dojo of Shusaku Chiba, who is in the same class as his late father. I also heard that there is a mother in Edo. At the Chiba Dojo, Suzunosuke was ordered to do chores from morning till night. Shusaku's daughter, Sayuri, sympathized with him, but her brother, Tornado Rainoshin, was willing to hit Suzunosuke. Suzunosuke was attacked by the Tayu gang who aimed at the Shusaku family and bravely responded when he accompanied Sayuri who went to visit Asakusa Kannon instead of Rainoshin, but Rainosuke bent his sword more and more. went. However, on the day of the promotion match, Suzunosuke confronted Rainoshin and won the victory. Rainoshin, who grudges about the defeat, assisted the Monotayu gang. On the other hand, in Itako, Tetsusai died due to the wounds struck by the Tayu. Shinobu visited the Chiba Dojo to inform him of this. Eventually, Suzunosuke received a letter of challenge from Rainoshin to recover his former defeat in a serious game, and went to the promised place, Gokokuji. However, the Monota Tenkaippin was waiting on the way. Suzunosuke, who was cornered, escaped into the tower with Shinobu, who was worried about him. Part 2, Moonlit Night Phantom --- Suzunosuke Toshinobu in the precincts of Gokokuji is just a crisis. However, due to the work of the Chiba Dojo, who suddenly knew it, the crew broke away. Around that time, Tsujigiri appeared on the bank of Yanagihara every night, and the townspeople were suspicious of the disciples of the Chiba Dojo because they were Hokushin Ittou style users. By the way, Suzunosuke's mother, Ofuji, abandoned Tetsunosuke for some reason, but he lived safely in Edo while doing needlework for his internal job at the expense of Shusaku. One day, Suzunosuke went to Ofuji's house to ask for a tailor-made by Shusaku, but when he passed the Yanagihara bank, the black mask suddenly slashed. But this is what Shusaku did to test his skills. And, the real Tsujigiri was staring at this situation from behind. Among them, Suzunosuke received a letter of challenge from Rainoshin again, which he could not fulfil at Gokokuji Temple. Suzunosuke and Rainoshin continued their deadly battle at the promised Gojiin Kehara. However, the gentle words of Shusaku, who came to him, revealed that Rainoshin was also converted now and that Monotayu was a terrifying Tsujigiri. Yukinoshin decided to leave Edo for training, and Suzunosuke also decided to leave to avenge his grandfather's death, Monotayu. Shusaku gave a farewell gift to the two. A knife for Rainoshin and a mother's wisteria for Suzunosuke. After meeting his mother, Suzunosuke set out on a journey of mourning.
During Winter of his third middle school year, water polo star Minato Kiyomizu got caught in an accident and has been in coma ever since. Exactly 203 days later, Minato regained his consciousness, but lost three years of his memories. Due to a certain reason, he decided to go back to water polo, but has no memories of his skill, let alone the sports' rules. Thus, Minato's efforts to catch up on what he has lost begins.
Faruk (Pavle Čemerikić), a teenage orphan living with his grandmother in the suburbs of Sarajevo, is drawn into a romance with Mona (Sumeja Dardagan), a member of a wealthy, politically powerful family.
The film's cast also includes Izudin Bajrović, Ermin Bravo, Hasija Borić, Kerim Čutuna and Jasmin Geljo.
Padgett Sawyer is a TikTok influencer in her final year of high school who lives with her divorced mother, a local nurse, although she pretends to live in an upscale condo in order to hide her real living conditions from her followers and sponsors. One day, Padgett discovers that her boyfriend, influencer and aspiring hip hop artist Jordan Van Draanen, ditched her for a backup dancer, and finds herself being humiliated when a live stream of her outburst results in her loss of followers and sponsorship deals.
To redeem herself, she accepts a bet to turn the school's least popular young man, Cameron Kweller, an antisocial photography student, into prom king. Despite his indifference towards her, Padgett continues with the bet. She gains information about him from his younger sister Brin, and to become closer, begins taking horse riding lessons with him. Over time, while keeping her word on the bet, Padgett begins to bond more with Cameron and discovers that he and his younger sister lost their mother years ago and that they live with their grandmother while their father is residing in Sweden. Padgett fixes up Cameron's appearance and attire, and tries expanding his social interactions at her friend Quinn's party, where he saves her from suffering humiliation when Jordan appears with his date.
At Padgett's friend Alden's ''Great Gatsby''-themed birthday party, Cameron gets into a fight with Jordan when he tries to get sexual with Brin, and his mother's camera is ruined in the process, causing him to leave the party in a rage despite Padgett's attempts to console him, causing her to regret following through with the bet, but she does not back down from the bet. The next day, Alden turns on Padgett and reveals her plot to become prom queen alongside Jordan, revealing her true colors and that she is responsible for live-streaming Padgett's outburst. Padgett begins to fall for Cameron but she is afraid to express her feelings after she kisses him. When Brin finds out that Padgett kissed Cameron, she advises him to ask her to prom. In an attempt to ensure Padgett's loss, Alden exposes the bet she made with Padgett, which makes Cameron, who now believes that Padgett only loved him because of the bet, angry. On the day of the prom, Padgett's mother wants her to still go and tells her to be the person she’s always been and not the person who she was before as a social influencer.
Cameron refuses to go to prom but Brin, realizing that her older brother has been smiling for the first time ever since their mother's death and Padgett came into his life, persuades him to go. He doesn't show up and Padgett declines her role as Prom Queen. Padgett then meets with Cameron outside the school riding on a horse and kisses him after apologizing. Following the events after the prom, Padgett gains her fan following back and takes her social media influencing in a new direction, by travelling to various different destinations across the world alongside Cameron, now her devoted boyfriend.
The series follows Fernanda Linares (Livia Brito), a woman who only seeks to avenge her husband, murdered on their wedding night, where in addition to this unfortunate event, she is raped. Fernanda's memory is not clear, which leads her to doubt and making mistakes in judgement. When she meets Rafael (José Ron), she falls deeply in love with him, but confuses him with the man who harmed her. Over time, as her memory clears up, she realizes her error and that it was not Rafael, but his father, who ruined her life.
Jaganath (Vijayakanth) lived with (Sujatha) Saradha and his son Vijay (himself again) with joy, while Saradha's father constantly humiliates him because he does not have enough resources. Disturbed, Jaganath try to explain with Saradha his father's inappropriate behavior towards him. With pride, one evening he abandons his wife and his son for whom he later integrates as police constable. Jaganath comes back to the house where he left them but they have moved. He sees her twenty five years later in crimes she committed and ends up in prison in which Inspector K. Jaganath appears as cop. She is accused of death penalty but Vijay goes to the rescue in jail to save her and captured her for her survival. In confrontation with his father, he gives her a challenge to find her.
Set in post-apocalyptic Japan, the land is ravaged by rust, a deadly plague-like wind which affects everything it touches, including humans. It is believed to originate from mushroom spores and so Bisco Akaboshi, a Mushroom Keeper and archer whose arrows instantly grow mushrooms wherever they land, is a wanted criminal. He and his giant crab Akutagawa team up with the young doctor Milo Nekoyanagi to search the wastelands for the legendary "Sabikui", a mushroom said to devour all forms of rust.
The film is a historical drama which takes place in the 19th century in the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It begins in the city of Stanislav in 1868, when a fire destroys the home of Dr. Anger. His wife is killed, but he is able to rescue his daughter Adela and the daughter of a servant, Stephania Czorneńko. Dr. Anger raises them together, and the film jumps forward 25 years.
The remainder of the film follows Stefania and her relationship with Adele, with whom she grew up with and now works for as a maid. The film uses their friendship and understanding as a frame for the inequality which is seen in the background throughout the movie.
In late-1970s London, middle-aged civil servant Jordan March, apprehended by authorities, recounts the various murders he committed to Inspector Simmons, which are relayed through flashbacks. Jordan's killing spree began with a young former art student, Joe, whom he meets at a pub. After the two have drinks, Joe returns home with Jordan. Jordan finds Joe attractive, agrees to let Joe stay in his flat until he can regain stability. The next morning, Jordan spies on Joe as he takes a bath. Joe and Jordan have coffee at a cafe, but their conversation soon turns contentious. After Jordan departs for work, Joe cruises a young man for sex in the cafe bathroom.
Jordan soon become possessive of the young and freewheeling Joe, who gradually unabashedly takes advantage of him. One morning, while Joe lies sleeping, Jordan strangles him to death, before collapsing atop his body. He then experiences a flashback of the death of his grandfather as a child.
He keeps Joe's corpse in his bed, engaging in necrophilia with the body. Later, while walking through a red-light district, Jordan is approached by a female prostitute who ushers him into her flat. She attempts to seduce him, but he rebuffs her efforts; nonetheless, he pays her for her efforts before nervously departing.
Later, Jordan returns to the cafe and is approached by a young homeless man who asks for a cigarette. Though Jordan is annoyed, the man manages to convince Jordan to let him stay with him. Once at his flat, Jordan attacks the man, strangling him as he sits in an armchair before drowning him in his bathtub. After the murder, Jordan falls into a drunken sleep, and has nightmares about his grandfather's death, which he witnessed as a child. The following day, Jordan dismembers and skins the man's corpse, flushing heaps of flesh down the toilet, and boiling his severed head.
Jordan encounters another young punk, Stephen, on the streets of London, and saves him from a drug overdose. Stephen returns with Jordan to his flat, where he locks himself in the bathroom and injects himself with heroin. After stumbling out of the bathroom, Stephen collapses, suffering another overdose. Jordan proceeds to strangle him to death with a belt.
The next day, Julie, another tenant who lives beneath Jordan's flat, finds her bathroom plumbing appears to be clogged, and phones the landlord to inspect it. She informs Jordan of this, which causes him to panic. Jordan brings pieces of Stephen's flesh and organs outside, where he disposes of them in a storm drain. Meanwhile, the plumber inspecting the building notices a stench of decay, and finds remnants of human flesh in the pipes, leading him to contact the police. Jordan is arrested, and his flat dismantled by police. Beneath the floorboards, they uncover Joe's corpse, along with the dismembered bodies of the two other men.
The player takes the role of Val Haris, the leader of the Drullian defence counsel on the planet Chromos in its war against the evil computer ''Titan-Net'' for control of the planet.
The story belongs to the early stage of the writer's work, and applies a characteristic author's trick: playing with the reader's expectations and unpredictable ending. A similar gimmick is found in his other works: "''The Life of Insects''", "''Hermit and Six-Toes''", "''Nika''".
The action of the story takes place in a Viennese café, judging by the description, the beginning of 20th century. A certain Sigmund sits in the café and closely observes the couples around him: a lady and a gentleman who have come to the cafe for dinner, a girl and a boy playing in the corner, a hostess and a waiter changing a blown bulb. The story details the details of each couple's behavior, and Sigmund comments on each episode with a short "Aha."
Each episode elicits a monotonous commentary from him, characterized only by a gradually increasing excitement as the episodes depicted contain sexual meaning and phallic details.
In Sigmund's field of vision are a couple of customers, a man and a woman, the hostess' children, a brother and sister, the hostess herself, and the waiter. To the first and subsequent episodes, Sigmund reacts with a quiet exclamation of "Aha." He sees the displeasure of the woman who has noticed the snow crammed into the unzipped handbag carried by her companion, the long umbrella that the lady has placed in the corner, "for some reason having turned its handle down."
Sigmund sees the children quarreling and the girl's tongue, which she showed to her brother and "held it out so long that it could probably be seen in every detail."
This is followed by a detailed description of the episode of changing a burned-out light bulb, in which the characters do not say a single word and exchange gestures.
The following episodes (blowing a long stream of tobacco smoke through tobacco rings, children playing with disheveled dolls and shapeless pieces of colorful plasticine) and seeing an avant-garde canvas on the wall, showing two open pianos "in which lay the dead Bunuel and Salvador Dali, both with oddly long ears," cause Sigmund to exclaim and worry: "Aha! – Sigmund shouted with all his might. – Aha! Aha!!! Aha!!!!".
After several such repetitions, the reader concludes that the visitor to the Vienna café is the founder of psychoanalysis, Dr. Sigmund Freud. And then the reader begins to interpret everyday life episodes in terms of Freudianism.
Sigmund draws everyone's attention to himself by his behavior. The hostess of the establishment approaches him, a man approaches him. It is only here, almost in the epilogue, that the reader is informed that Sigmund is a parrot. The space of the city and the café instantly narrows to the boundaries of the third spatial point, to the cage in which Siegmund is sitting. The cage is all crap, which does not please the hostess.
Thus, the reasoning to which the reader was provoked could not have been born in a bird's head.
The story is permeated with Nabokovian-type irony in relation to Freud and his theory of all-pervasive sexuality. At the end follows a phrase about the riddled cage in which Sigmund is to live – this is probably a mockery of the proponents of psychoanalysis.
The main motifs of Pelevin's story are the themes of sleep, loneliness, the ascent to an unknown goal, and the mortality of the human world.
The main character of the story Peter Petrovich together with the unfamiliar interlocutor are walking through the night city in the light of the moon on a silvery path. Peter Petrovich argues about the meaning of life, about faith, about the human soul.
His interlocutor is speechless and wears a dark hood that hides his face. At some point Peter Petrovich begins to suspect that the stranger is his own reflection. He sees a cable hanging from the wall and recalls a childhood pastime: bungee jumping.
To check if the person he is talking to is a reflection, Petr Petrovich hangs on the cable and, swinging, hits the person he is talking to. It turns out that the interlocutor is not his reflection. In response to Petr Petrovich's request to tell him the truth, the interlocutor replies: "Does the word 'lunatic' mean anything to you?" And then Petr Petrovich realizes that he is standing on the ledge of a house thirty meters above the ground. The tin ledge was the silvery path. Peter Petrovich is horrified. The interlocutor moves away, and Petr Petrovich unsuccessfully tries to remember who he was.
In the end, the story ends safely for Pyotr Petrovich: "He turned back, stepped around the corner and easily jumped down a few meters, where it was more comfortable to walk... He looked around one last time, then meekly looked up, smiled and slowly wandered along the shimmering silver lane."
One might suggest that the Dream of the Soul in the story is an evil that gets in the way of going forward. Everyone around him is asleep and only Peter Petrovich walks forward because he is awake. And this path along the moonlit path is endless. This path is interpreted as the road of truth, surrounded on all sides by darkness. The hero sometimes veers off the path, pursuing erroneous goals, but in the end he still returns to this road.
The space in the story "The Tarzan Swing" is distinct and concrete, and it is possible to visualize it. The lyrical hero is contrasted with the people. He is not with them, but beyond the windows, which are very often mentioned in the story, and he goes to the truth.
The silvery road is the path of truth, moving along which the main character becomes happy. The road is surrounded by darkness on all sides. The hero strayed from the true path, plunging into the darkness, pursuing erroneous goals (he chased a cat, which ended up being a package). But he returns to the road of truth all the same.
The hero travels through parts of space as the story progresses. At the end, the reader sees him move to a new level: the ledge of a house. The hero climbs higher and higher, eventually becoming "a perfectly happy man."
There are several boundaries in the space of the story, which are the basis for the oppositions: street - apartment; the lyrical hero - the people outside the windows; the moon - the human world; the top - the bottom.
The theme of sleep is revealed in the story as follows: the lyrical hero's soul used to be awake and now wakes up only rarely. Sleep in the story is evil and the impossibility to move forward to the eternal. All the people around are asleep; only the protagonist can move forward because he is awake.
The story is written in the form of one complex sentence, stretching over 13 pages containing almost 2,800 words. The author uses this technique to illustrate the journey of life. Life seems endless, but its end is a point.
The main role in the story is played by images, physical space is absent in it. One might assume that the story describes the vivid experiences of Pelevin himself, but its time frame is shifted backwards: the hero's childhood memory is of the builders laying out the year "1928" on the water tower.
Of the images presented in the story: first impressions of childhood, adult memories of the Civil War, school, geography teacher, pioneer camp, fashion for aviation and pilots, repressions of the 30s, songs by Utesov, the Great Patriotic War, children, Stalin's death, work, cosmonauts, Soviet "Victory" cars, the death of his wife, jogging in the park, the impression of old age and the near-death pain in the heart.
The water tower, which is visible to the narrator, serves as a point of departure for the narrator's reasoning, which forms the plot of the story, in which Pelevin's familiar ideas and images are revealed with the utmost clarity. The water tower becomes a point of account for the narrator's multiple observations and reflections, opens up his life and description, and then closes, creating a circular composition. Each new thought or judgement by the narrator seems to build this tower, creating another ring that takes the tower all the way to the heavens.
The narrative of the story is organized with the knowledge of the protagonist, who is notoriously difficult. Literary studies to be the author's alter ego. It seems as if the author's character is watching from his room at night, observing the construction of a water tower.
However, the date that the soldiers-constructors put at the top of the tower under construction goes far beyond the author's age and does not correspond to the chronological timeline of Pelevin's timeline. The author seems to shift the vertical of time, taking 1928 as a preconditioned reference point (perhaps a random date seen on this tower).
This shift in the timeline means that the "author's" character, modeling his life (built, like the tower) in a postmodernist way, breaks down the timeline, turns out to be more realistic and realistic than what the author might have appeared to be in - not in contemporary Plevin's Moscow, not in the revolutionary capital, but (relatively) in Moscow of the 1950s or 1960s. The iconic features of the depicted time are the hero's childhood fascination with model planes.
The image of the tower, which could have been built in the sky, gives rise in the text to an allusion to the image of the Biblical Tower of Babel. This is alluded to by a small piece of text borrowed from the Bible in the story.
Pelevin's satirical-philosophical psychedelic fantasy story shows the reality of 1990s Russia through the aesthetics of medieval Chinese culture.
The Chinese emperor Yuan Meng travels among the worlds using a magical little cart made from magic Hallucinogenic mushrooms.
Traveling to the lower tundra, the emperor needs it to restore harmony and peace to the underworld, because, the former court magician Songham dared to violate the ancient harmonies bequeathed to people by the "Book of Songs". He has created music of destruction and decay. He plays it on upturned cauldrons for boiling rams, which he calls Singing Bowls. It turns out to be a kind of bronze bells of different sizes. Wherever its sounds are heard, people cease to know which is up and which is down. Horror and longing settle in their hearts. Leaving their homes and gardens, they go out on the road and, bowing their necks, dutifully wait for their fate.
To restore the balance, the Emperor goes to the Spirit of the Polar Star in the lower tundra.
Soon the protagonist finds himself in the plague of an American pilot shot down over Siberia, who lives in the plague and listens to "One of Us" by Joan Osborne. He was shot down in an SR-71 "Blackbird" plane, and has been living in the tundra for 20 years. He describes the U.S.-Russia relationship of the 1990s as follows.
"Our places have long been ruled by the spirit of the Big Bucket, and yours by the spirit of the Bear. And they were at enmity with each other. The spirit of the Big Dipper served many like me. We thought we would fight. But then suddenly it turned out that all your shamans have been secretly worshipping the Big Dipper themselves for a long time. The Cold World came, so it was called because it is very cold in our tundra, as well as in yours. Your shamans submitted to ours, and warriors like me were of no use to anyone."
Soon it turns out that the main character needs to get to the conservatory near the Kursk station in Moscow to resolve the issue. He gets to Moscow in a car with a military man who gets him drunk on vodka and steals his fur coat.
The narration then takes an unexpected turn, in which the author tries to show the human consciousness's ability to cling to the reality in which it believes, even though a large number of facts point to the fallacy of those judgments.
According to the plot, the emperor wakes up in Moscow's Sklifosovsky Emergency Hospital. When asked how he got there, it turns out that he is an ordinary Muscovite who yesterday drank vodka at the restaurant "Northern Lights" and was poisoned with clafelin for the purpose of robbery.
For a long time the patient had been undergoing treatment in the hospital and he continued to consider himself an emperor and hatched a plan to escape. He remembered that a pigeon with a white ribbon tied to its leg would show him the way back to the upper tundra. Having escaped from the hospital the emperor caught the pigeon, smeared one feather from its tail with yellow mud from the roadside, tied it by a long rope to his finger and stopped the cab and told it to go in the direction in which the pigeon would fly. In the woods where the bird led Yuan Meng, in a round clearing with traces of campfires, hung a familiar silk cord leading home, he jumped up and clung to the cord, which immediately began to rise up.
At the end of the story, the reader must decide for himself who the narrator was, the emperor or a clafellin-poisoned and temporarily insane resident of Moscow in the early 1990s.
The story is a postmodern philosophical treatise written in the traditions of Buddhism and Vedanism.
Having a traditional Russian name Ivan, the last name of the hero of the story - Kublakhanov refers to Coleridge's poem "Kubla Khan: or, A Vision in a Dream: A Fragment". The author addresses the idea of illusory existence and the existence of the soul in a multitude of bodily reincarnations. The story is also based on the Indian myth of Brahma and the creation of the universe: Brahma sleeps on a golden egg, from which the universe is born when he wakes up and dies out when he falls asleep.
At the beginning of the story, a certain impersonal absolute finds that something is beginning to happen in it, even though nothing is supposed to and cannot happen in it. A kind of mysterious birth of the world from some primordial "cosmic egg. In the end, it realizes that it is simply dreaming a dream that comes from "its infinite power over being," one of those dreams that "it has always dreamed.
This idea is precisely the Vedantic idea of an impersonal Brahman, as a "divine play" in infinite periodic succession, producing and then destroying the illusory world that is actually a dream.
The reader of the story realizes quite quickly that he is being described the feelings and reflections of a fetus developing in the mother's womb. The development that began from zero, as if from nothingness, begins to be realized by the powerful limitless consciousness of the Brahman, which, by some miracle, is at the same time the consciousness of the fetus growing in the mother's womb. Conscious of himself as a developing, growing being, Brahman knows that he sees a dream, and he is especially aware of this, awakening, from time to time (at the moment when the fetus apparently falls asleep), from it completely.
The awakened Brahman sees the truth and knows directly that he is one and the same, and multiplicity is only an illusion of a confused and fantastic dream, so according to Pelevin, living people are only part of reality, namely an illusory reality, a reality that exists only as a dream of Brahman, that is, unreal. Therefore any individual is unreal, his fears and thirst for immortality are unreal.
The reader is encouraged by Plevin to think about the following questions: what is the nature of consciousness and its relation to physical reality, first of all the body? From the moment when time appears, the experience of the future Ivan Kublakhanov has been accumulated in relation to the surrounding world. With the experience of relating to the world, consciousness emerges and acquires its own meaning.
Human reality is treated as a distressing dream from which one must awaken. After awakening from the dream (physical death), and finding himself in his true reality, the hero forgets that he was once Ivan Kublakhanov.
After being in the human form and the cessation of material existence, Ivan Kublakhanov is absorbed into the primordial, unformed inner consciousness, which in its turn becomes the new Koblakhan.
The title of the story, "The Origin of Species," refers the reader to the major life work of Charles Darwin, the founder of the all-conquering doctrine of the origin of species, who was a cult figure in Soviet society. In the materialistic and atheistic society that was the Soviet Union, Charles Darwin's theory of evolution is attributed a major role. The author of the theory himself seemed to be a cult figure, as the founder of the all-conquering doctrine of the origin of species as opposed to the divine creation of the world.
In this cultural context, the absurdist atmosphere of Pelevin's story becomes clear. In the story, Darwin travels on the brig Beagle in the general adulation of the crew on a scientific expedition. The bosun follows him with a bucket of frozen champagne bottles.
All the attention of the captain and crew is directed to Darwin's great experiments on the theory of evolution. However, the venerable scientist does not limit himself to naked speculation in his research - with his sleeves rolled up, he summons another primate to his hold - to be tested in the wild and to study the origin of species in practice.
The hero of the story, Darwin, is let inside the ship, where they let the monkeys in, in physical combat with some of them, they prove that the struggle for existence survives the strongest.
The consequence of the seizure is animal corpses and two concepts of the past. The natural-scientific theory interprets the "irreconcilable struggle for life" as "simply the interaction of the two atoms of existence, a kind of chemical reaction", which is inexplicable in its own senselessness: "In fact, we are the cells of one immortal creature, continuously devouring itself.
The poetic version looks particularly ironic against the background of the naturalistic reproduction of the bloody details of meaningless murder: "Existence is such a beautiful thing, isn't it? But only combat is capable of making that existence tangible. A merciless, brutal fight for the right to breathe this air, to look at it, to look at the moray of these people.
The world is conceived in terms of absence; it depicts something that does not exist, has not been, and probably will not exist. And the conflict is as simulacrumatic as anything else. "The fierce and merciless battle for existence in this cruel world" is reproduced as a false myth, like the origin of man from an ape.
However, if only the reality of the bodily beginning is acknowledged and the spiritual one is questioned, then the distinction between man and monkey becomes undefined. Pelevinsky Darwin, as one would expect from a natural-scientific legend, senses a non-human beginning in the beast. In Darwin's Origin of Species, a classic work, the origin of species through natural selection, or the preservation of favored breeds in the struggle for life, is represented as the consequence of a "scientific" experiment.
Fairy Drama in Three Acts
; Prologue
Old forest in Volyn, a wild and mysterious place. The beginning of spring. "He who rends the dikes" runs out of the forest. He talks to the Lost Babes and Rusalka, who reminds him of his love, reproaches him for betrayal. Water Goblin argues with Rusalka that she is dating a deceitful stranger. He only tempts Mermaids.
; '''The first Act'''
Uncle Lev and his nephew Lukash are going to build a house in the same area. Lev is an old man, kind. Lukash is still a young man. The old man tells the boy that he should be careful with the forest dwellers. Forest Elf tells Rusalka that Lev will not offend them.
Lukash makes a flute out of reeds, which is heard by Mavka, who previously talked to Forest Elf. Forest Elf warned the girl to avoid people, because they were only a disaster.
When Lukash is going to cut a birch with a knife, Mavka stops him and asks not to offend his sister. Lukash is surprised to have met such an unusually lush and beautiful young lady in the forest and asks who she is. Her name is Forest Mavka.
Lukash likes the girl for her changeable beauty, kind language, sensitivity to music and beauty. He says that people mate with each other when they love.
The boy also tells Mavka that they are going to build a house in the forest.
Mavka and Lukash fall in love with each other.
; The second '''Act'''
Late summer, a house has already been built on the lawn, a garden has been planted. Lukash's mother scolds him for wasting time playing the flute. She shouts at Mavka, calling her useless and sloven. She reproaches her for her clothes and sends her to harvest wheat. But Mavka can't reap wheat, because it speaks to her.
Lukash explains to Mavka that his mother needs a daughter-in-law who would work in the fields and at home. Mavka tries to understand all these laws with her loving heart, but such small worries are alien to her, she lives in the world of beauty.
Widow Kylyna comes to the house. She takes a sickle from Mavka and begins to reap. She jokes with Lukash and then goes to the house. His mother kindly accepts her. Lukash accompanies Kylyna to the village.
Mavka suffers, and the Mermaid soothes her but warns against love, which can ruin a free soul. Lisovyk warns Mavka. He asks her to remember her freedom, the beauty of nature, and to free herself from the shackles of human love.
Mavka is going to become a forest princess again. She dresses in a crimson, silver haze. Perelesnyk begins to court her. They start dancing. But there comes Marishte, who wants to take Mavka away. She shouts that she is still alive.
Lukash treats Mavka rudely and shouts to his mother that he wants to send elders to Kylyna. Suffering from grief, Mavka goes to Marishte herself. ; The third '''Act'''
On a cloudy autumn night, the figure of Mavka hangs out near Lukash's house. Lisovyk emerges from the forest. He explains that he ordered to turn Lukash into a werewolf. But Mavka hopes to turn him into a man by the power of her love. Lukash is scared of Mavka, runs away from her.
Kutz says that there is poverty in the Lukash's family, the mother-in-law, and the daughter-in-law are constantly arguing.
Mavka turns into a dry willow, from which Kylyna's boy cuts a flute. Flute says in Mavka's voice: "How sweet it plays, how deep it cuts, it cuts my chest, it takes my heart out…"
Kylyna wants to cut down a willow, but Perelesnyk saves her.
Kylyna asks her husband to return to the village. Lost Destiny comes, pointing to the flute. Lukash gave Mavka her soul but deprived her of her body. But she does not grieve for her body, her love is now eternal.
Mavka's last monologue, where she addresses Lukash is the culmination of the Act.
Lukash starts playing. Mavka flares up with her beauty, and he rushes to her. But she disappears. It's snowing. Lukash freezes with a smile on his face.
A group of English nuns travel to Mopu (near Darjeeling) to set up a convent school. They are situated in a palace at the top of an isolated mountain above a valley in the Himalayas. The palace has ancient and erotic artwork on the walls and was once a harem. Although the sisters' intentions are noble, they understand little of the area's people and culture.
Mr. Dean, a local agent predicts the failure of their mission. Sister Clodagh, the Sister Superior of the group, is ambitious but questions her capabilities. She presses on, sometimes clashing with Mr. Dean. Sister Ruth becomes increasingly emotionally unwell.
The sisters often clash with Angu Ayah, the building's caretaker as well as the local population. A young local girl called Kanchi becomes involved with "the Young General" who has begun to attend classes at the convent. He wishes to understand Western culture better and improve his English. As each sister begins to suffer emotionally due to her situation, Sister Ruth becomes jealous of Sister Clodagh and obsessed with Mr. Dean.
At the beginning of the game, a disembodied voice directly addresses the player, asking them to "abandon their humanity and accept immortality" in order to enter the land of Everhood. After accepting, the player is given control over Red, a mute wooden doll who awakens after their arm is stolen by Blue Thief. Red's other limbs are strewn about the ground, but quickly reattach themselves, allowing Red to begin following the thief's trail out of the forest to a Nightclub. Guards and patrons bar Red's way to a backroom where the hostile Gold Pig keeps Red's missing arm.
Gold Pig throws Red into an incinerator, an almost-unwinnable battle which does not end the game. After succumbing, Red is transported to the post-mortem world, where he must survive a strange battle with mysterious figures and gnomes on a psychedelic playfield. Following this the voice once again speaks directly to the player and offers them an "Absolute Truth" before returning Red to the now-broken incinerator.
Red exits the incinerator, and discovers that Gold Pig has stolen Blue Thief's legs and abandoned him. They set out together to find Gold Pig, retrieve their stolen limbs, and understand the nature of Everhood.
It is gradually revealed that Everhood is the tattered remains of an ancient realm of Immortals. Its remaining inhabitants mostly don't enjoy existence, but some are trapped by their fear of oblivion. The player must choose what is the right thing to do - use Red's arm to kill the inhabitants, even the unwilling ones, or abandon their quest.
Victor Pelevin's works are characterized by numerous implicit references to various aspects of Chinese literature and culture. There are also texts explicitly devoted to Chinese philosophy, and this story is one of them, written in the spirit of Eastern philosophical narratives that appeal to various semiotic codes and simulacra that substitute reality, but do not seriously assert the validity of these codes and images.
The narrative is written in the form of an Eastern letter on behalf of a Chinese student of Gradual Ordering to his teacher named Elegance of Wisdom. The narrative traces an obvious orientation to the stereotypical notion of the epistolary genre.
The story is told that a sage living on a holy mountain treats his disciple to a powder of five stones, after which the disciple has a miraculous stream of consciousness. He tries to write a literary work about comprehending the Way and ends up thinking that any addition of another symbol (image, word) will move him further and further away from the truth. All this resembles a treatise of Taoist philosophy transformed by the author into a story.
In the story, the principle of the mapping of reality, meaning, and signification, obscured by a multitude of signifiers, is interpreted by an ancient Chinese man and takes on the status of a Buddhist truth: "The most monstrous conspiracy that ever existed in the Middle Kingdom was revealed to me... The world is but a reflection of the hieroglyphs. But the hieroglyphs that make it up do not indicate anything real and only reflect each other, for one sign is always defined by another. This transcoding of Western theory appeared to be mystical and "Oriental" in a sudden way after the use of some suspicious remedy.
Researchers of the writer's work conclude that the key word "way" in Pelevin's story is directly related to the main concept of the Taoist doctrine, the "Tao".
Lao Tzu believes that the nature of the Way and the highest level of practice is to achieve "ultimate impartiality" and to preserve "peace," which is the essence of life. All material things only conform to nature and preserve inner peace in order to obtain infinite vitality. The concept of "all things" in this case implies man as well. Pelevin interprets this idea in his own way: his hero believes that "one should not strive too much for peace; both peace and excitement are manifestations of the same thing.
"Refusal to use arms" in the protagonist's reflections points to a specific way of following the principles of nature. The story says that the constructions of the mind can be likened to ladders, but it is impossible to climb these ladders to the castle of truth, nor even to approach the truth. From this point of view, the ladder is the "tool" we want to use.
Pelevin has it that "the longer our ladders are, the higher the walls will become. When we lower the ladder and no longer intend to storm the castle, the castle of truth will disappear. "Refusing to use weapons" will help us learn the truth.
Pelevin's story is based on the theses of the samurai Jete Yamamoto ("Hagakure"), which express his view of life as an instant, saying that man is on the verge of death at every moment and that the way of the samurai is death. The story is written on behalf of the dying Yukio Mishima, a Japanese writer and playwright who continued the tradition of Japanese aestheticism.
That is why there is an underlying idea in the mind of the Bon-Samurai Yukio Mishima: everyone is just an object in this life. Man is a puppet with a mechanism created by a puppet master. The puppet plays out the puppet's first performance, then the puppet disappears and the puppet disappears. And Yukio Mishima's head already rolls on the floor.
But there is no tragedy, death is true to the original concept: man is the master's thought, so one cannot kill the puppet and the puppet will not die; God the master simply ceases to play. Such a philosophy is a parent for the samurai, when he realizes that his youth has passed, the only thing left to do is not to kill his death in the old age and to tear up his life with his own hands. This philosophy is a consolation for those who have the thought of killing themselves and killing God: the human puppet after death becomes a spirit.
In other words, the life of the samurai is shown as a mignification: everyone is a puppet with a mechanism created by a puppet-master, man is the thought of God the master.
In the story there is a single Buddhist model of the world picture with its denial of the individual soul, the "self" of man. Here the negation of the self is elevated to a cult, and with the self, all its predicates, all objects and things that could fall under the denominator of the self are negated.
According to the doctrine of dharma, the ego can claim a certain status for its being through the moment of conditionality and the totality of the five elements, but at any moment this status can be destroyed because of the mutability and impermanence of this union of elements. This knowledge further reinforces the illusory nature of human existence.
The subject-oriented model of evaluation is the concept of contrast, according to which life is opposed to death, which is one of the fundamental foundations of human existence, but a peculiarity of Pelevin's language is that the concepts "life" and "death" act as contextual synonyms, which results in a shift of emphasis in the understanding of life and death. Thus the vowel hero of the story reflects: "All the roads on which she (the mystery) has met have been met with death. This means that the search for beauty ultimately led to death, that is, death and beauty turned out to be, in essence, the same thing".
In essay is subtitled "Experiences of Comparative Anthropology," setting the reader up for a scientific narrative. The protagonist of the first chapter is James Bond. He studies Patrick Lay Fermor's "''The Traveller's Tree''", a book about the Haitian voodoo religion and the transformation of humans into zombies. It turns out that James Bond will have to fight a Haitian Negro zombie who worked for SMERSH.
The author goes on to explain the reason why Jan Flemming associates the Haitian cult with the Stalinist counterintelligence. Natural science writings on zombification, works of fiction, and religious and philosophical treatises are mentioned in this connection. The "scientific" context of the narrative is underscored by the use of many special terms, as well as verbiage typical of scientific literature: "note the connection," "researchers have long speculated," "samples were submitted for analysis," "attempt to give a more or less complete description," "engaged in the study of this problem," and so on.
The essay details the ritual of turning a man into a zombie in Haiti. Adherents of the voodoo cult believe that a person is "several bodies superimposed on each other": a physical body, a "spirit of flesh" (an energetic duplicate of the physical body), and a soul. The soul, in turn, is subdivided into a "big good angel" and a "little good angel." The "big good angel" is the energetic essence that nourishes all living things, while the "little good angel" is the individualized part of the soul. It is the "good little angel" that the magical rituals of the voodoo zombifiers are aimed at.
The chapters "Poisons and Procedures" and "Fugu" describe the physical aspect of Haitian zombification. A person is given "zombie powder," containing a poison secreted from the fugu fish, after which the person is put into a deathlike state and the part of the brain responsible for speech and willpower is destroyed. The zombified person is buried, but after a while he is dug up and given a substance which causes disorientation and amnesia.
The author stresses that the psychological aspect of zombification is more important than the physical one. As an example, the so-called "death command" of the Australian Aborigines is cited. When a shaman pronounces it and points a magic rod at a tribesman, the latter realizes that he has been cursed, falls ill, and dies in a few days. However, such a command will not work on a European: "he will see a short naked man waving an animal bone and muttering some words. That is, psychological mechanisms are shaped by culture, which can be used as a tool of manipulation. Likewise, an Australian Aboriginal person who had gone to an Anatoly Kashpirovsky séance "would have seen a short, well-dressed man mumbling some words and staring intently into the hall.
In the second part of the essay, beginning with the chapter "homo sovetskii", the author shows how the phenomenon of zombification spreads to the inhabitants of the USSR. Many parallels are drawn between archaic rites and Soviet reality. It turns out that magic played an even greater role in the USSR than in Haiti.
Magic begins in childhood: the first initiation is the reception to the Little Octobrists, and the second is the reception to the Pioneers, where the rudiments of magical rituals (salute, tie and "honest pioneering") are already evident. The author uses the turn "magic haunts", the word "educator" is taken in quotes, "administrative and pedagogical staff" is used instead of the word "teacher". In this way, Pelevin emphasizes that the goal of the described procedures is not to raise a harmoniously developed person, but to create a flawed creature with a suppressed will. The third stage of initiation is called admission to the Komsomol, when a person already participates in "numerous and little-noticed magical procedures. An important feature of this stage is the transition of rituals to the subconscious level and their becoming a part of behavior. The fourth stage of initiation is joining a party.
Drawing a parallel with the Haitian concept of the structure of the soul, Pelevin writes that a resident of the USSR "in addition to the physical, has several subtle bodies, as if superimposed on each other: the domestic, industrial, party, military, international and deputy bodies.
When ideology moves to the subconscious level, a person forms an "inner party committee" that dictates his behavior. And if the Haitian sorcerer steals his "good little angel" to subdue the zombified person to his will, in the USSR such an "angel" is replaced by a "party" controlled by the state. Thus, a person acquires a communist "loyalty," which he is afraid to lose.
Another important factor in the zombification of the Soviet man is service in the army, which the author calls "zombification". By this term is meant a change in a person's consciousness and his enslavement.
The Aguinaldos have planned out to a sincere spirit of christmas despite the pandemic began their lives awhole as part together, in the cohersive shocks to their family.
The secrets and scandals in the Aguinaldo family, led by matriarch Faith, get more complicated as a new family threatens to upend their lives. The arrival of the Dominante-Cruz family helmed by its matriarch Elvira, takes an interesting twist as she vows to strip the Aguinaldo’s of their everything – wealth, honor, and heir.
Cyberpunk literature, which emerged as a branch of science fiction, describes the symbiosis of man and machine, with the machine (and all the elements associated with it: cyberspace, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, cyborgs, biorotobots, etc.) necessarily winning.
To a certain extent, "Xmas Cyberpunk" can be seen as a remake of Turgenev's story "Mumu".
The story simulates a situation in which an entire city is put under the power of a computer for 24 hours. At the beginning of the story, the author refers the reader to computer reality. The Latin characters ".DIR" refer to the video file format Adobe Director Movie (a video that can be opened with the help of the Adobe Director program). In the case of Pelevin's story, the ending ".DIR" in the title serves as an unambiguous allusion to the fact that the text is to be taken as an internal computer file, rather than as a written text.
The story was written in the late 1990s, precisely at a time when the development of computer technology allowed the average user to interact successfully with a computer at a new level. With the advent of the operating system Windows-95, equipped with the now familiar graphical (rather than text, as was the DOS system) interface, the computer began to play an increasingly important role in the life of the individual and society as a whole.
The central event of the story is that the virus "PH-117.DIR" ("Christmas Night"), having infected the computer of the mayor of the fictional town of Petroplahovsk, for one day "took over" the management of the state and criminal structures of the town.
The computer, infected by the virus, appears as one of the main characters in the story. In this sense, the ending is telling, where the mayor Vanyukov, who considered the computer "a quite animate being," "bursting into his office and snatching a nickel-plated Beretta from his shoulder holster, pushed away the shrieking secretary and with fifteen 9mm bullets blew to pieces the magnificent Pentium-100 with a real Intel processor."
The events of the story take place on Christmas Eve. Traditionally, the poetry of fateful mysteries and horrors predominates in the Christmas texts. The fantastic element in the story is tied directly to the computer virus: a special mystery surrounds the story of the virus infecting the computer, the malicious program appears out of nowhere. The alleged author of the virus – engineer Gerasimov – had no way to transfer the virus to the Mayor's computer: "Gerasimov has never appeared at the Mayor's office, and it is extremely doubtful that he could have infected his computer with such a virus through the Internet".
Thus, the reader is entitled to assume that this is a consequence of the intervention of supernatural forces – a necessary condition for the unfolding of the plot of the Christmas story. The author likens the computer virus (information weapon) to ancient incantation magic.
Bernie Gunther, house detective at the Hotel Adlon, accidentally kills policeman August Krichbaum with a single punch. He goes to see his old friend Otto Schuchardt in the Gestapo about Aryanizing the Jewish female detective at the Adlon, but instead is advised to launder his racial records by removing his Jewish grandmother. Schuchardt recommends forger Emil Linthe, who completes the 'Aryan infusion', and also gives him an alibi for the murder, saying they were drinking together. Bernie recruits Dora Bauer, a classy part-time prostitute, as the hotel’s stenographer.
A Ming dynasty box is stolen from the room of Max Reles, an American gangster. The minister, Frick, had removed it from the Ethnological Museum of Berlin and given it to him as a diplomatic gift (i.e. bribe). Chief suspect is the previous stenographer, Ilse Szrajbman, a Jew who has fled to Danzig. Reles is bidding for building contracts connected with the 1936 Summer Olympics, and entertains Nazis at the opera. He has a large amount of cash and a sub-machine gun hidden in his bathroom.
Heinrich Rubusch dies of a heart attack in the hotel after having sex. Bernie forces his drunken colleague Muller to resign.
Policeman Liebermann von Sonnenberg asks Bernie to mentor young officer Richard Bömer, and he takes him along to investigate a body found floating in the river. The Adlon’s boss Hedda Adlon then asks Bernie to show round her highly attractive friend Noreen Charalambides, an American journalist who is looking for a story to support an American boycott of the Olympics. They examine the body, and work out that he’s boxer and a Jew, as he is circumcised. They visit his old gym and a Jewish encampment in the Grunewald and identify him as Isaac Deutsch. The salt water in his lungs is explained by is having worked on the Olympic stadium at Pichelsberg, where there are underground pockets of salty water left over from the Zechstein Sea (as they find out from geologist Stefan Blitz). So he probably died of an accident and his body was dumped in the canal – no big story for Noreen. Bernie and Noreen start an affair.
Bernie goes to the , where Jewish workers wait to be hired, and is taken on by gang master Eric Goerz. A disappointed Jew informs Goetz that he was asking after Isaac Deutsch, and the latter tortures him. He tells the truth, and is rescued by Isaac’s father, Joey Deutsch. Joey is willing to talk to Noreen as a memorial to Isaac, but commits suicide in his flat in Britz. Otto Trettin sends the Chinese box to Bernie, who returns it to Reles, minus the tender documents that were inside. After he leaves, Reles immediately phones Von Helldorf, head of the Potsdam police, whose men promptly arrest him. He refuses to sign a 'D-11' form consenting to protective custody (i.e. concentration camp) and after a week they release him – the explanation being that Noreen went back to America and promised not to wrote about the Olympic scandal. Bernie is downcast but cashes her cheque to set himself up as a private detective and decides to recuperate in Würzburg, where Rubusch came from. He reads Noreen’s love letter in the train. Mrs Angelika Rubusch is hospitable, hard as nails and glad to know her husband has been murdered. The Rubusches were tendering to supply beige Jura limestone for the Olympics. But the quote in Reles’s possession, on fake Rubusch letterhead, is double their real price. So Reles was rigging the bids.
Bernie visits the Würzburg Gestapo. Othman Weinberger, who has ambitions to be promoted to Berlin, tells him Reles is a Hungarian-German Jewish gangster from Brooklyn, who mysteriously took over the Würzburg Jura Limestone company. He murders his victims with an ice pick through the ear, leaving no trace.
Back in Berlin, Reles has Bernie abducted and is about to drown him in a lake, but Bernie has taken out insurance in the form of a letter exposing Reles which he has given to a friend at the Alexanderplatz police station, to be posted if he disappears. He is struck by the irony of his denouncing a Jew to the Gestapo. He has also told Krempel and Dora about the fortune behind the bathroom panel, and is hoping she will shoot Reles. But instead Reles shoots Dora and Krempel and they disappear into the lake – Dora still alive. Then Reles brings out his own insurance policy – he will instruct his brother in New York to kill Noreen if Bernie exposes him. The last detail is that Reles needs a hold on Weinberger to keep him quiet. It is later revealed that Bernie told Reles that he could silence Weinberger by threatening to have Emil Linthe fabricate him a Jewish past.
Twenty years later Bernie has become Carlos Hausner, and is angling for a job selling cigars in Germany. He had left Argentina with $100,000. He has a Dublo trainset. Noreen (now called Eisner again) is now a successful author and is in the ''La Moderna Poesia'' bookshop signing books. She was hauled up before the HUAC and is a guest of Ernest Hemingway. They repair to the Floridita and she invites him to dinner. They embrace but fight as she is so disgusted by his cynicism, and he feels manipulated. But he is not so cynical that he doesn’t save rebel Alfredo Lopez’s life by warning him of a militia roadblock. Noreen asks Bernie to help keep her daughter Dinah on the straight and narrow as she has fallen into bad company and plans to marry Reles.
Reles had continued to admire Bernie and gives him a job as general manager of the Saratoga Hotel, and an Asprey backgammon set. Bernie wins 32,000 pesos from Jose Orozco Garcia, owner of the sleazy Shanghai club, using the latter’s pornographic set.
Reles is found shot. The gangsters employ Bernie to investigate. Noreen and Dinah suspect each other, but Bernie defuses the row and Dinah goes to college in America as her mother wanted. Noreen then asks Bernie to help Lopez, her lawyer lover who has been arrested. But he says he is no longer her ‘knight of heaven’ from ''Tannhäuser''. Local militia captain Sanchez, who has become his friend, asks him to accompany him to look at yet another body, that of Irving Goldstein, a pit boss at the casino. Sanchez is, like Bernie, a ‘good policeman’, trying to reform a corrupt regime. At Goldstein’s place, Sanchez conveniently finds the plans for Bramit silencer for a Nagant revolver, which solves the Reles killing and defuses an incipient gang war. Bernie collects his $20,000 reward, and prepares to leave for Bonn to sell cigars.
Bernie rescues Lopez from secret policeman Quevedo, who has pulled out his fingernails, but in turn has to agree to spy on another gangster, Lansky. He confesses to Noreen that he killed Reles. Finally Noreen tells him that Dinah is his daughter, as he had known since Lopez told him out of gratitude for saving his life."It gave me some kind of hope that my life hasn’t entirely been wasted," he says.
Daya is an average girl whose dream is to become an established writer. She is the second daughter of Sidharth and Sreelatha. Elder daughter, Kshama is an employee at a company, while Sidharth runs a hand-loom showroom. In order to find time pursue her writing dreams while escaping her mother and sister's criticism, Daya spends most of her time at her father's showroom and helps him around the store. Daya's mother Sreelatha thinks that being married would be good for her daughter. Daya does not want to get married. As a result, her mother presents her with two options: take a corporate job like her sister, or get married and become a family wife. So she takes job in her sisters company there she falls in love with Pavan madhav,chairman's son later when he becomes the chairman intake as his father's goes to USA
The game begins after the world has ended, with the introductory dialogue explaining that an evil lich obliterated reality and all of the things in it. The hero awakens in a small camp on a path and sets out to try and rebuild his world. Along the way, he encounters other survivors who either assist him in trying to reconstruct the world or who, in despair, consider it lost and attack him in an effort to further their own survival.
However, as the hero defeats the Lich and his followers, he discovers that the end of reality is being instigated by God himself, Omega. Omega explains that his previous incarnation, Alpha, created the universe as well as humanity, and took a particular liking to them. On a whim, Alpha decided to descend to one of his worlds to appear personally to humans. However, to his shock and amazement, the primitive human he met attacked him with a spear in an effort to protect his family. Intrigued by humanity's defiance against him, Alpha allowed himself to be killed by the human, and was reborn as Omega, now determined to destroy the universe to re-experience the sensation of death.
The hero battles and is able to defeat Omega, and it is revealed that one of companions, Yota, was actually the Goddess of Probability who has been secretly aiding him all this time. Defeated, Omega congratulates the hero and explains that it will take a thousand years for him to reincarnate back into Alpha to create a new universe. The hero promises to keep rebuilding his world in Alpha's absence so that his descendants will be ready to greet him upon his reincarnation. Yota then tells the hero that he has the option of retiring to his village to rebuild the world, or travel to alternate worlds where the hero failed so that he can save them from Omega.
A biographical film about an indigenous child named Gono Tirtowidjojo, this film tells the story of his life's struggles from being a diamond slave to becoming a successful shipping entrepreneur in his day. This film starts from childhood, until he reaches adulthood until past the Dutch era, the Japanese era, the early days of independence to the era of independence. Due to economic pressures, Gono was sold to China from birth and lived from one adoptive parent to another, until Gono met his biological mother in Karawang, Indonesia. As an adult, Gono tried to improve his economic life until he finally succeeded in becoming a successful shipping entrepreneur.
Three men of different generations live in the Ukrainian Carpathians: 82-year-old Ivan spends his old age alone, having recently buried his wife, and he himself is preparing for a funeral. At the same time, 10-year-old Ivanko starts life from scratch at a boarding school in the district center, and 39-year-old Vasily manages an animal farm and feeds young sheep. But spring will come and all three will climb the mountains following the shepherd's vocation, which is increasingly difficult to continue in today's world.
The novel's main protagonist is Goytom, a young radical, who accompanies his ageing father on a pilgrimage. ''Fitawrary'' Woldu, his nobleman father, holds traditional beliefs and travels to St Abbo's Shrine on Mount Zuqualla in the hope of finding a cure for his heart disease. Despite his frailty, he continues to assert his authority to the frustration of his son. Travelling with the party is Woynitu, the ''Fitawrary''
As they ascend the mountain they find a place to stay overnight with a peasant and his wife, who is also known as the 'conjure woman'. The ''Fitawrary'' arranges for the peasant's wife to perform a sacrifice on his behalf. The peasant rapes Woynitu later that night.
The party reach the shrine on their third day and the Fitawrary takes the Sacrament and acknowledges Woynitu as his daughter. Later that day they return to stay with the peasant and his wife. The Fitawrary shoots his gun at the door, killing the peasant standing outside. He then falls back and dies.
The party wait two days for the police to arrive, but when they fail to show up Goytom leads them back down the mountain.
Setting: Racially segregated 20th-century colonial Africa
Native African Toime Ukamba is a scientist and former pupil of Dr. Arnek, a white man who is one of few white individuals who treats the African natives with respect, kindness, and dignity. Unable to find work due to racial prejudice, Toime drinks heavily and becomes a thief. Dr. Arnek confronts Toime on his self destructive behavior, and encourages him to pursue his significant intellectual gifts. Toime stops drinking and stealing and applies himself to his studies in chemistry, leading to the discovery of a valuable scientific formula that will bring wealth to his nation and enable him to become "the most important man". After revealing the formula which will enable him to alter the world to a group of white scientists, a power struggle over how the formula will be used and who will take credit for it ensues as the scientists attempt to take the formula from Ukamba. Ukamba flees into the wilds of the African savannah with Cora, the daughter of Dr. Arnek, with whom he has fallen in love. Dr. Arnek's wife, Leona, and his other white assistant, Eric Rupert, are distraught over Cora's assignation with a black man. They scheme against the couple and ultimately use the tools of the "white state" to thwart the happiness of the couple. Toime is tragically disgraced and killed, but not before he burns his research. This leaves Dr. Arnek as the "most important man" as he is now the only one who has seen Ukamba's research and knows the important formula. The opera ends with the other scientists demanding Dr. Arnek divulge the formula held within his mind. Will he divulge it?
The novel is composed of seven chapters.
The first chapter serves as an exposure, which reveals the hero's background. The former mercenary Ivan Didukh, who had served 10 years in the imperial army, returned home and found only a dilapidated house and the worst part of the field on a barren sandhill, inherited from his dead parents. And even though Ivan brought the money from the army, with which he bought a good land and became owner, he still undertook to cultivate the mound, setting himself an ambitious goal: forcing this mound to produce bread. Ivan devoted his whole life to achieving this goal. Every year he harnessed himself next to a horse and took manure, covered the hill with sod so that the rains would not wash away the soil, and cultivated the field. He lost his strength in taking care of the hump, and the work bent him in an arc, for which Ivan was called Perelamaniy (broken) in the village. He denied himself everything he needed, went to church only on Easter, had lunch in a hurry, without even sitting at the table; trained chickens who did not dare to rake the manure because every small thing was destined for the hump, every minute of time was given to work. It is noticeable sаy that Ivan works on the hill, and his relatives cultivate other fields. Exhaustive work on a barren hill and a great desire to master it appear as a duel with a powerful opponent, like a duel of two giants: on the one hand, it is a hill, a "terrible giant"; on the other hand, he is an exhausted worker, a small man whose creative work turns a barren hill into a flowering field, and therefore Ivan's shadow on the hill in the rays of the setting sun looks like the shadow of a giant. Ivan transforms the embodiment of his dream, about which he says: "Oh no, God forbid, ran into an arc! But as long as he has no legs, he must give birth to bread!" The author's final words sound enthusiastic: "Such was Ivan, strange both in nature and in work."
In the second chapter, which serves as a tie, Ivan, finally succumbing to the persuasion of his sons, decides to emigrate to Canada. The reader is presented with pictures of Ivan's farewell to his fellow villagers, whom he invited to his household before leaving abroad. He thanked the people who came to say goodbye, treated them to vodka, and spoke kind words to them. He turned to Mikhail's godfather, Timothy's godmother, and shouted at the woman to cry less and watch the guests more. The writer avoids unnecessary descriptions, forcing the protagonist to reveal himself, makes maximum use of dialogues and monologues. Thus, he focuses on describing the emotional drama of the hero, who is compared to a stone that was thrown, albeit from a difficult, but native place. With stingy strokes, the author conveys the longing that tears the soul of the sаe hero: "He gritted his teeth like a millstone, threatened the woman with his fist like a bullet and beat in the chest."
In the third chapter, Ivan explains to people the reasons for his decision to leave, about how difficult it was for him because hard work has completely exhausted him, he does not have the strength to start a new life overseas. He was forced to agree because of the future of his sons, for whom there was no prospect in his native land. Neighbors comfort Ivan, emphasizing the complete hopelessness of the peasants: "This land is not worthy of restraining a few people and of enduring a few troubles. The man is not worthy, and she is not worthy", on the fact that soon he will have to leave himself. Ivan appreciates the support, but he cannot accept this situation calmly; when he has to leave the world in his old age from his native place, he is frightened by an unknown life, which for him is like death. He publicly apologizes to his wife Catherine for the wrongs he did to her during her married life, as before her death, because he does not know whether they will survive the crossing of the ocean or die on the way.
In the fourth chapter, Ivan addressed his fellow villagers with a request that as soon as the news of his death with his wife arrives, they should hold a memorial service for the repose of their souls and left the money to decent Jacob. People promised to comply with the request. Although he was a little ashamed, he decided to confess to the people about the sin he had almost committed the day before. He again remembered the hill on which he had great difficulty erecting a stone cross in memory of him and his wife on this land. Ivan confessed that he misses this hill the most, in which he put so much effort: "I spent my age on it and crippled by it. If I could, I would hide it in my bosom and take it with him into the world." Ivan admitted that in a moment of despair and inability to come to terms with the new trials of fate, he almost had committed suicide, going to hang himself on a pear, but remembered the hump, had run to his cross, where he resigned himself to the decision to go overseas. All of Ivan's thoughts are concentrated around the hill: he asked the neighbors not to pass him on Easter, to send one of the young people to sprinkle the cross with holy water. Consoling the godfather, Mykhailo said that people will always remember him because "you were a decent man, you didn't snore on anyone, you didn't plow or sift anyone, you didn't pound someone else's grain."
The fifth chapter depicts how already well-drunk Ivan invited people to dances, games, and drink, and then the song sung by Ivan and Mykhailo burst into the noise of conversation, into the noise of music and dances. "The words of those songs are going, like yellow autumn leaves, which the wind drives across the frozen ground, and it stops again and again on each fair and trembles with torn shores, as before death." The farewell song resembled a kind of funeral.
The sixth chapter of the short story is the culmination. The son reminded his father that it was time to go to the railway track, but when he saw his father's eyes, he stepped back. Ivan and his wife changed into "lord's" clothes, a sudden change in the usual appearance of the characters, who were throwing off their peasant clothes as if leaving the world, caused a spooky reaction of people: "… The whole house cried. As if a cloud of weeping hung over the village, torn, as if human grief broke through the Danube dam - such was the weeping." In a sudden rush, Ivan began to dance with the wife of the last dance, from which "people got stuck," in which he poured out all the despair of farewell forever. The sons forcibly took their parents out of the house, but Ivan continued to dance outside by inertia, and Ivaniha (Ivan's wife) grabbed the threshold with her hands and told: "how deep she trampled that threshold out."
The final seventh chapter is the denouement. The whole village accompanied Ivan on the train; the fences on the road cracked and fell. Ivan, hunched over, danced in a frenzy until they compared to the hill. Seeing his stone cross, Ivan stopped and said to wife: "Do you see, old woman, our cross? Your name is also embossed there. Don't be afraid, and there are both mine and yours."
Rachel, her husband Anthony, and their son Elliot have moved to Finland from New York in order to deal with the grief of losing Elliot's twin brother Nathan in a car accident. During an excursion Elliot discovers a wall purported to grant wishes and makes a secret wish. Shortly thereafter he begins talking to an invisible person. Rachel attends a welcome party held by the townspeople where she meets the town doctor and Helen, the latter of whom cryptically references Elliot's wish.
Elliot begins to exhibit increasingly disturbing behaviors, including him claiming that he is Nathan. An attempt by Rachel to get the town doctor to treat Elliot ends with him insisting that she is sick and needs therapy. Desperate for answers Rachel reaches out to Helen, who tells her that the town is part of a satanic cult. Helen further remarks that her dead husband was possessed by an evil entity that showed up in photographs. At home, Rachel takes photographs of Elliot and brings them to the town to get developed. Later she and Elliot hold a séance of sorts that is interrupted by the townspeople and Anthony, who inform her that they want to use Elliot as part of a ritual.
The following day Rachel retrieves the photographs and is terrified when Elliot doesn't show up in any of the pictures. She takes them to Helen, who tells her that this is the demon taunting her. She convinces Rachel to take her to Elliot so she can try to save him, but upon meeting the boy Helen instead tells Rachel that she is sick. The two women are then surrounded by the townspeople. Rachel is sedated and forced to participate in a satanic ritual, after which she is again sedated. When she awakens Rachel is locked in her room, but manages to escape after she hears Elliot call for help.
Anthony chases Rachel into the forest, where he reveals that Elliot does not exist. Rachel was trying to leave Anthony and take Nathan with her when the accident occurred. Out of a sense of grief and anger she created Elliot as a coping mechanism. Eager to avoid leaving Rachel in an asylum, he went along with the delusion and moved her to Finland to start over. "Elliot" then flees, insisting that Anthony is trying to kill him. Rachel follows him to a grain silo, where Anthony again tries to appeal to his wife by "killing" Elliot by submerging him in the grain. This instead results in Rachel accidentally killing Anthony in an attempt to stop him. She then tries digging Elliot out of the grain, only to find nothing.
The film ends with Rachel returning to New York, where it is shown that she is still delusional. Despite visiting Nathan and Anthony's graves, she believes that they, along with Elliot, are still alive.
1939, to the occupation of Western Ukraine, the Bolsheviks remains several weeks. In Vorokhta comes an American of Ukrainian origin Yaro (Maxim Lozinsky) to marry Ukrainian. Only in this condition, he inherit large wealth of his father. Yuro is familiar with Ksenia (Varvara Lushchka), which changes his plans.
The film takes place in modern Kyiv, where the main 27-year-old "non-heroes" are trying to make a difficult choice in the conditions of a "heroic time."
Anton, a musical prodigy who failed to meet the expectations placed on him, returns home after two years of study in Switzerland and six months of treatment for alcohol addiction in a neuropsychiatric dispensary near Kyiv. His grandfather, a man of strict principles, takes the guy to the village, far from the charms of the big city. One day Anton meets Katya, who, like him, is trying to find her own way in life. She is due to travel to Berlin soon with her boyfriend Johann, a German photojournalist whom she met during the Maidan events. However, her meeting with Anton brings a new impetus to her life and has a profound impact on both of them...
The protagonist is the Carabiniere Alessandro Corso, nicknamed "The ram" for his impetuousness and physical prowess. Transferred to a small town in the Apennines after a raid that ended with the death of a close friend and colleague of his, Alex is charged with escorting a girl, Antavleva Bottazzi, known as Leva, and bringing her to testify before a judge. The girl has been accused of murder, when in reality she is the eyewitness able to frame the real culprits, who are on her trail.
The story "One Vogue" is in the form of a terminological definition, with the term itself on the left side and a definition, that is, a verbal expression that reveals the essence of the term being defined, on the right side.
The story is structured as an argument about the comparative characteristics of three female visitors to a restaurant in the center of Moscow, who happened to cross paths in the women's restroom room. The unit of measurement of these women, which allows us to evaluate and compare them in relation to each other, is "One Vogue".
By "One Vogue" is meant the amount of "futility" allocated to each of the girls. Literally, in Russian the word vanity means the absence of meaning, value in anything, uselessness, vanity, futility.
As a physical phenomenon, futility is thought by Pelevin to be measurable, and the author introduces a special quantitative qualifier "vogue".
The principle of nomination of this qualifier refers the reader of the story to the process of naming the units of measurement in physics, a significant part of which are named after the scientists-physicists: Ohm - (Georges Ohm), Ampere - (Andre Amper), Newton - (Isaac Newton), Hertz - (Henry Hertz), Volt - (Alessandro Volta), etc.
The unit of electric charge mentioned in the epigraph is named after the French physicist Charles Coulomb. The name of the unit of measure of futility is also motivated by a proper name, but formed not from an anthroponym, but from the name of one of the most famous and authoritative periodicals in the fashion world, the magazine "Vogue".
Vogue and similar publications not only determine the style of clothing and various accessories, they dictate styles of behavior, entertainment, ideas, interiors, literature, taste preferences, and even a certain lifestyle. Since fashion trends are always time-limited and characterized by a periodic change of role models, any human action that is reduced to striving to follow fashion prescriptions has no true value, that is, it is futile.
The volume of information and pragmatic attitudes contained in a single issue of Vogue served as the basis for measuring futility and allocating a special unit of measurement.
Also noteworthy is the fact that in the story the idea of clothing as a form of communication is traced on the example of corporate forms, branded clothing brands, which have their own language and carry certain messages. The main characters of the story draw conclusions about each other for a fraction of a second without saying a word. The generalizing concepts for them are brands: Armani, Gucci, Prada, Burberry, Brabus.
Marcus, The Alliance's greatest weapon is dead. Nathan is once again on the run. And he is out for revenge. Forced to consume his father's heart he must now learn to master his many new gifts that might be the now decimated Alliance's only hope for survival. Nathan's only chance of defeating Wallend and Soul and their army of Hunters is to find the reclusive black witch Ledger and convince them to give him the second half of Gabriel's amulet so that he might become invincible.
For a detailed plot, see ''Oliver Twist''.
High schoolers Rindo Kanade and Tosai "Fret" Furesawa are unexpectedly drawn into the "Reapers' Game", a competition for the recently deceased in which they must battle other teams over the course of a week for their survival. The two form a team called the "Wicked Twisters" and recruit former Reaper Sho Minamimoto and college student Nagi Usui in order to survive. Overseen by Game Master Shiba Miyakaze and several of his subordinates, including Tanzo Kubo and Shoka Sakurane, the group does battle with the other teams and clashes with the Ruinbringers, a powerful team consisting of Kaichi "Susukichi" Susuki and Tsugumi Matsunae, who have won every preceding game and keep choosing to re-enter the next round, thereby trapping the other teams in a never-ending series of game loops. During this time, Rindo discovers he has the ability to rewind time. At the end of the week, the Wicked Twisters battle Susukichi, but are nearly defeated. They are rescued by a masked man presumed to be legendary former Player Neku Sakuraba. Shiba declares the Ruinbringers victorious and erases the last place team, the Reaper's Game is extended another week, and Minamimoto deserts the group.
During the second week, the Wicked Twisters recruit "Neku", revealed to be former Player Daisukenojo "Beat" Bito. They learn that Shiba and his Reapers hail from Shinjuku, which was erased in an event known as Inversion; they plan to do the same to Shibuya. They also learn that Shiba has been using Player Pins to pull living Players into the Reaper's Game, including Rindo, Fret, Nagi and Beat. Shoka defects to the Wicked Twisters near the end of the week after the Reapers learn she was secretly helping the Wicked Twisters, and Shiba subsequently reveals that he is the leader of the Ruinbringers and that Susukichi and Tsugumi are Reapers; he declares victory in the second week and challenges the Wicked Twisters to face him in one last game with Shibuya at stake.
Over the course of the third week, the Wicked Twisters do battle with Shiba's Plague Noise, which can erode the barrier between reality and the afterlife. Due to their aggressive mind-consuming behavior spreading in both planes, victims of those attacked have their psyche warped in different ways, ranging from total apathy dubbed “Shibuya Syndrome” among the living, to more severe cases of aggression as well as amnesia among Players. Minamimoto returns and challenges the group to a fight; they are rescued by the real Neku, who explains that Reaper Coco Atarashi orchestrated his second death in a futile attempt to save Shinjuku from erasure, and that they have since been investigating the incident in the hopes of protecting Shibuya. Coco reveals that Tsugumi is the lone survivor of Shinjuku's erasure and that her soul has been sealed in a stuffed Mr. Mew, revealed to be the original Mr. Mew that Shiki made; the group uses their powers to talk with her and learn that she has been sending visions of the future to Neku and Rindo to try to avert Shibuya's erasure.
The Wicked Twisters battle and erase Shiba, but are confronted by Kubo. Kubo reveals that he has been masquerading as one of Shiba's Reaper subordinates but is in fact an Angel who gave Shiba his powers over Plague Noise and is the true mastermind behind the erasure of Shinjuku. He also gave Rindo his time-traveling powers via his Player Pin, which absorbs the lost thoughts of the timelines he leaves behind in order to fuel a swarm of Noise that Kubo releases to destroy Shibuya. The Wicked Twisters battle Kubo, but all save Rindo are erased before Kubo is annihilated from reality by Shinjuku's Composer, Hazuki "Haz" Mikagi.
Shibuya is saved and Rindo finds himself back in the real world, but all of his teammates have been erased from reality. Haz offers Rindo the chance to go back in time once more to save his friends, although doing so will once again put the city at risk of being destroyed by Kubo's Noise. Rindo rallies all of the survivors and with the help of his friends, overwrites the lost thoughts with the thoughts of present-day Shibuya, which weakens Kubo's Noise swarm. The remaining Noise coalesce into a powerful Noise called Phoenix Cantus, which the Wicked Twisters destroy. In the aftermath, Rindo and his friends all return to reality along with Shoka, who is brought back to life by Yoshiya "Joshua" Kiryu, Shibuya's Composer; the repentant Shiba returns to Shinjuku along with the remaining Shinjuku Reapers to rebuild the city.
When Mia, a social media influencer, becomes the target of an online terror campaign, she has to solve a series of games to prevent people she cares about from getting murdered. But is it real? Or is it just a game at her expense?
The show is an original musical based on the tale of Cinderella.
The film begins in 1933. In the home of Albert Jensen, a worker, he and his wife are struggling to give their son Tor a good education. Tor is a student at the high school together with Liv West, the daughter of Jensen's employer. Jensen tries to mediate during a labor dispute in the workshop, with the result that he is fired. Jensen's wife dies, and Tor has to leave school because his father cannot get a job. The father and son stand in line every day among thousands of unemployed people looking for work. The Marxist trade union movement persecutes Jensen, who eventually drowns himself in despair.
When West, the company director, discovers that Liv loves the son of a worker, he sends her away to an English college. Tor believes that she no longer wants to have anything to do with him, and travels doing voluntary labor service. He arrives at a new farm run by Bjørn Storhaug, a farmer who has been evicted from his allodial farm by director West. Bjørn advises Tor to clear and cultivate a new farm in Valdres, and he follows this advice.
After three years, Liv returns from England. She is now an adult, and she breaks ties with her father. After a long but fruitless search for Tor, she also travels doing voluntary labor service, where she finds Tor.
Zanthodon is envisioned as an immense circular cavern five hundred miles wide, one hundred miles beneath the Sahara Desert, a refugium preserving various prehistoric faunas and antique human cultures that have found their way into it throughout the ages.
The story follows the adventures of several of the series's protagonists, who were split up at the end of the previous book. Eric Carstairs and Professor Potter, the explorers from the surface world, have been taken captive by the Tyrannosaurus-worshipping Minoans of the Scarlet City of Zaar on the Lugar-Jad, a mountain-girded inland sea. Carstairs's Neanderthal comrade Hurok and the native warrior Garth of Sothar search for them and the latter's daughter Yualla. Meanwhile, Tharn seeks heroine Darya after both were carried off by thakdols. Much of the action takes place in Zaar, whose seductive empress Zarys displaces an unhealthy interested in Eric. In the end all, thanks to Hurok, are rescued aside from Darya, last seen imprisoned on a ship bound for the Barbary Pirate haven of El Cazar.
The plot follows the progression in the criminal career of Ángel, a young man from the Madrid suburbs, after he meets Estrella in a club.
The film tells about a young girl named Masha and her hooligan friends. They love and protect her, and she sings jazz to them. And suddenly the cruel truth about them is revealed to her.
ICAC senior principal investigator William Luk makes a presentation at the PanAsia Convention Against Corruption (PACAC) in W City where his boss, Yu Sir, introduces him to the legal adviser of the SE Anti-corruption Association, Chief Justice of Asia Emma Pong, who plans to travel to Hong Kong next week to host a forum addressing the issue trafficking sex slaves. There, a female suicide bomber and holds Pong hostage while a group of terrorists led by Sirius and a gunfight ensues where Sirius kills the suicide bomber and Yu Sir. Luk then shoots Sirius dead while the other terrorists escape as Luk runs out of ammunition. Back in Hong Kong, the ICAC starts investigating the sex trafficking case while Luk's friend and informant, Wong Lam-luk snaps photos of senior customs inspector Kwong Yat-long discussing business with Chumook. The next day, Luk leads his squad, which include Kenny Ching, on an operation to spy on Kwong at the Kwai Tsing Container Terminals. By night time, they notice sex slaves being unloaded from one of the containers and a gunfight ensues between the ICAC and the traffickers, while Luk's friend and police inspector Lau Po-keung arrive with his squad to back the ICAC. One of the slaves, whose younger sister was killed in the gunfight, reveals to the ICAC that they were from Thailand who were forced to work in clubs in Hong Kong and at the same time, Ching finds out the fake passports found from the terminal had fake visas which can only be made by the higher ups in the Immigration Department.
Ching later confronts his younger half-brother Ching Fei-hung, a customs officer who was also present at the terminal, but Fei-hung is tight-lipped. Through investigation, the police discovers that the terrorists at the PACAC and the terminal are led by King, a former drug lord of the Golden Triangle who is on Interpol's Red Notice, while Judge Pong has been sanctioning King and freezing his assets. Since Pong will arrive in Hong Kong in three days, Yu Hung-sing, Director of Crime and Security Bureau sets up an interdepartmental task force with Luk continuing on investigations while Lau is transferred to the G4 department to protect Pong's safety in Hong Kong. It turns out King works as a mercenary for the mastermind behind the international human trafficking syndicate, Siu Cheuk-ngah. Siu orders Chumook to kill every government official that they bribed, including Kwong.
Pong arrives in Hong Kong and Lau and his squad are assigned to protect her. On the way to the forum, they were ambushed by terrorists on the freeway leading to a chase and shootout where Pong's assistant, Alice, was wounded. Lau suggests Pong to leave Hong Kong for her safety but she refuses, revealing to him that Alice was a victim of human trafficking and she insists on battling human trafficking issues. Later, Luk discovers Siu is also on Interpol's wanted list under one of his many alias and confronts Siu in the latter's company, who poses as a secretary while Schumook is the boss. Luk taunts Siu, who plays them and signals Chumook to silence Luk after the latter leaves. Luk then gets a call from Lam-luk that his wife, Donut, is in danger and asks Luk to help him but he actually tricks him to a psychiatrist's officer and suggests Luk to take therapy. A suicide bomber suddenly comes out of the elevator and Lam-luk pushes the bomber back into the elevator and sacrifices himself as he dies in the explosion. Luk breaks down as it reminded him of his wife's death, who also died in an elevator six years ago.
Ching attempts to have Fei-hung confess his crimes but the latter refuses but Fei-hung is then chased by hitmen and Ching rescues Fei-hung and flee from the hitmen. Ching then puts Fei-hung in a safety house and the brothers reconcile and Fei-hung finally confesses he was paid by Kwong to move the container full of slaves, which he was unaware of, safely to the terminal. Luk, who has been suspecting Ching, arrives with his squad outside, but the brothers manage to evade them. However, a nearby car camera captures the brothers and Luk confronts Ching back in his office but Luk persuades Ching to tell his brother turn himself in to the ICAC and promises he would not suffer a severe penalty.
Pong and Lau's squad arrive at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre where the forum will be taking place. Pong then receives a taunting call from Siu and it's revealed that Pong had accepted bribed from Siu in the past to conduct schemes. Siu then arrives at the ICAC with his lawyer to report all his crimes which he blames on Chumook. Luk's subordinate Tammy, also discovers through investigation that Pong was involved in money laundering through an offshore company and accepting bribes from Siu, so Luk rushes to the forum to protect Pong, who is the only witness that can pin Siu. Are the forum, Pong confesses her father was a corrupt judge and after his death, she continued his corrupt dealings to protect his reputation until she found out his death was caused by those who bribed him. Luk arrives and discovers Fei-hung, who was kidnapped by the terrorists, strapped to a wheelchair with a bomb and a major shootout ensues with the ICAC and police against the terrorists while EOD officers disarm the bomb. The shootout moves to the Space Museum where King appears and manages to take Lau hostage, but Pong distracts King and Luk wrestles his gun away. Noticing that King is about the detonate explosives Luk wrestles King down to buy time for everyone to leave the Space Museum before King finally detonates them where he and Luk die in the explosion.
Three months later, Siu managed to scapegoat all his crimes on Chumook, who is sentenced to fifteen years of prison. As they're walking out the court, Chumook was stabbed by the Thai slave whose sister was killed. When Sit smirks at Chumook, she takes the knife thrusted in her body and stabs Siu multiple times, killing him as she also dies from her wound. Pong was convicted obstruction of justice, but due to her many years of service to the international society, she was sentenced to three years of prison while Fei-hung was convicted of accepting bribes but sentenced to two years of prison due to cooperation in solving the sex trafficking case.
Thom (Highmore) is a gifted engineering student at Cambridge University who is being courted by recruiters from several major oil companies, all promising him increasingly richer salaries and job perks if he agrees to work for them. Thom dismisses the offers, later explaining to his oil executive father over dinner that he does not want the life a career in the oil industry would bring him. During this conversation, he receives an anonymous text message from somebody observing him in the restaurant who tells him to meet at a club.
He goes to the location he is instructed and meets a woman named Lorraine (Bergès-Frisbey), who then introduces him to Walter (Cunningham), who runs a salvaging company that had recovered a large treasure known as "the treasure of Guadalupe" but it was seized by the Spanish government because Walter's company was not legally salvaging the site.
Walter has put together a team consisting members with various skillsets including Lorraine, a con artist, Simon (Tosar) a logistics expert, Klaus (Stein) a computer hacker, and James (Riley), Walter's longtime treasure-hunting partner. Walter needs Thom's engineering genius to help them breach the vault that holds the confiscated treasure inside the Bank of Spain. Thom agrees to help and joins them in Madrid during the 2010 World Cup as Spain is contending for the championship title. Using the crowd noise from the many fans gathered in the city to watch the matches as cover, they scout the bank and determine that the vault sits on a giant scale underneath a large water reservoir. If the weight on the scale fluctuates in the slightest, the vault floods, drowning any intruders who might be inside.
Needing to find a solution before the finals, after which the crowd will disperse, Thom soon determines that they can defeat the scale by freezing it with 500 liters of nitrogen, slowing the mechanics of the scale long enough that it would not register their presence and trigger a flood while they retrieve the treasure.
They move forward with their plan, with Simon successfully freezing the scale beneath the floor of the vault while Thom, Lorraine, and James perilously make their way inside. Thom's plan has worked but the scale begins thawing much quicker than expected, so the trio rush to find the item in the containers they are looking for: a collection of three coins from Sir Francis Drake that describe where to find his massive treasure hoard.
As they locate the coins, Gustavo (Coronado), the head of bank security, has regained control of his systems after they were unknowingly penetrated by Klaus days earlier. Having learned in the days prior that the team had already infiltrated the bank to scout it, he dispatches a strike team to arrest the intruders. Believing they are compromised, Walter tells the trio to surrender to the team. James then pulls a gun on Thom, refusing to surrender, and demands Thom hand over the coins, revealing that he’s working for the British government. The vault locks down trapping them inside, however, James' diving experience affords him the ability to swim to safety and he abandons the other two.
Running out of time, Thom suspects that the key to stopping the flow of water into the vault is tricking the scale by adding more weight and making it think the vault is full of water. He instructs Simon to stack the empty nitrogen canisters onto the scale for additional weight, but it is not enough to halt the flow of water. The team loses contact with Thom and Lorraine, believing they have drowned, until as a last resort Simon himself climbs onto the scale with a radio broadcasting the world cup commentary, with the last bit of weight ceasing the water flow.
The vault begins to drain, and Thom and Lorraine are able to evade the bank security and escape to the square where the fans watch Spain defeat the Netherlands for their first World Cup title.
At the British Embassy, James has reported to Margaret (Janssen), an associate of both his and Walter’s, and delivers the coins, only to find out that the coins are fakes and that Walter is still in possession of the originals. As the team relaxes in Saint Tropez, Walter finds that the treasure is buried under the Bank of England. A new heist begins two years later as the 2012 Olympics begin in London.
As described in 1909 trade publications, this short's plot centers around a vagabond or "tramp" who wanders about town desperately seeking places to sleep. Finding locations to nap is actually easy for him since he possesses the ability to doze anywhere, even in the most uncomfortable, unsettled, and loudest situations. Whenever the tramp falls asleep, which occurs often, night and day, "an earthquake or cyclone couldn't arouse him."[https://archive.org/details/moviwor04chal/page/n463/mode/2up?view=theater&q "Stories of the Films / Biograph Company / A SOUND SLEEPER"], ''The Moving Picture World'', 10 April 1909, p. 448. Internet Archive. Retrieved 8 March 2021. Overcome again one morning with the urge to doze, he lies down on a pile of lumber and uses a brick as a "pillow" for his head. He falls asleep, but soon a group of ruffians begin to argue nearby and start fighting. As their battle intensifies, some of the fighters "sprawl and tumble" all over the snoozing tramp; yet, he continues to sleep peacefully. Finally, the tramp awakes, gets up, and walks over to a large empty barrel labeled "'ashes'". He crawls inside the container and quickly lapses once more into a coma-like state. Almost immediately, as part of their daily routine, various housewives in the neighborhood approach the barrel and begin depositing into it bucketloads of ashes, the residue they have brought from their homes' stoves and fireplaces. The tramp is quickly and completely buried by the ashes, although he remains fast asleep. Next, a horse-drawn cart arrives and workmen pick up the full barrel and transport it with other trash to the town's dump. There they pour out the ashes and the sleeping tramp in a heap. He gradually awakes again, stands up, and casually brushes off his ash-covered clothing with a small broom he carries in his pocket. Then he calmly walks away from dump.
Tattoo artist Jimmy Jayne is interviewed by Detectives Bill Freeman and Freddy Vargas, who are investigating a mass murder of prostitutes, after a lighter inscribed with his studio's name is found at the crime scene. Eventually, Freeman is revealed to be part of human trafficking ring operating via a tunnel connecting San Diego to Tijuana. The film culminates in a shootout between Freeman and Jayne in a Mexican warehouse; with his expert marksman skills, Jayne incapacitates the rogue detective and his associate with a handful of bullets, and sets the place ablaze.
High school senior Bridger Jenkins (Lucky Blue Smith), and his mother Helen (Emily Proctor), flee an abusive step-father and husband in Missouri with $197 to their names, and end up in the small town of Greenville, Utah when their truck breaks down. Local mechanic Will Simms (Shawn Stevens) gives them temporary lodging. Will's daughter Clover (Christie Burke) is very shy, and secretly a cutter, haunted by a past incident that left a scar on her left cheek. Bridger also has a scar, on his chest, from a childhood heart transplant. They grow closer, but both face the torment of school bully Bo Chinsley (Austin R. Grant).
A troubled but dedicated social worker assisting a working and struggling single mother and her daughter intervenes when the father returns from prison and drags his family back to his habitual world of crime.
12-year-old New Jersey resident Andrew asks a party host out on a date; she rejects him due to their age difference. Ten years later, Andrew's girlfriend, Maya, moves to Barcelona to finish her Fulbright. Andrew is asked to take his 12-year-old brother David to a bat mitzvah, where Andrew encourages the kids to dance. He meets Domino and her autistic daughter, Lola. Andrew's peers have been spreading rumors about Domino. Andrew introduces himself and manages to take Lola to the dance floor, surprising Domino. The mothers at the party take notice of his charisma and agree to hire Andrew as a party starter at upcoming bar mitzvahs and bat mitzvahs. He dubs himself the Jig Conductor and plans to use the money to reunite with Maya in Barcelona.
Andrew is removed as DJ from his next party for confronting a child who bullied Lola. He finds Domino in the restroom, covered in blood. He and Lola find her a change of clothes; Andrew drives them home. Domino tells Andrew she has a fiancé, Joseph, working in Chicago. She reveals the blood was not from her period but caused by a recent miscarriage. Domino hires Andrew as Lola's sitter. They kiss. Andrew later has sex with his friend, Macy. Andrew spends the next day talking to David and interviewing for a job as an intern. Andrew meets Joseph at a party and later spends time with Domino and Lola. Andrew starts to think Maya is dating someone in Barcelona; his mother comforts him. Andrew helps Lola go to bed by scratching her back, an activity she had previously only allowed Domino to do. Andrew sees Domino and Joseph in a bad mood before he leaves.
Andrew gets the intern job. He and Domino talk about her engagement with Joseph and they kiss. Back home, Andrew and David argue for a bit. Joseph fires Andrew from his job as Lola's sitter. David almost experiences his first kiss but leaves to stop some kids bullying Lola. A fight between Andrew's family and the other guests at the bar mitzvah ensues. Andrew tells Domino he loves her. She rejects his advances, telling him that she is in love with Joseph, even when it does not appear she is. Joseph thanks Andrew for taking care of his family. Andrew decides he does not want to go to Barcelona. Instead, he plans to move out. Andrew and Domino say goodbye. She encourages him to live his life to the fullest before making any commitments. David tells Andrew he had his first kiss at school. Six months later, Domino and Joseph are married, while Andrew has fun dancing at a bar with his friends.
''Portal Reloaded'' is intended to take place in the same universe as the official ''Portal'' games; according to the developer, the narrative is designed to not interfere with that of the original series. The player assumes the role of test subject 4509 in the Aperture Science Enrichment Center, who is awoken from stasis to take part in a "Time Travel Testing Course".
Navigating various test chambers using the portal gun, they learn how to use time portals to navigate between a version of Aperture's laboratories in the past and a dilapidated and broken version twenty years in the future, which the facility's artificial intelligence overseer states has been damaged as a visual aid. As the game progresses, it is revealed that the main character was the only one who survived initial time travel, and that Aperture cannot get it to work in any way other than the twenty-year interval. Near the end, the overseer admits the Enrichment Center was in fact destroyed under mysterious circumstances involving a "rogue test subject". They reveal the actual purpose of the testing track – to train the player character to kill the rogue subject, preventing the destruction of Aperture's facility.
At the end of the game, the main character is sent back to a stasis chamber. The player can either obey this order, or escape through a time portal to the future. If the player does the former, the test subject successfully returns to stasis, with the AI commenting that they will now "change the course of history", possibly causing the events of ''Portal'' to never happen. Otherwise, the player escapes via an elevator, and their portal gun is deactivated. Once reaching the surface, they encounter three headcrab zombies at the exit (referencing ''Half-Life'').
In East New York, for unknown reasons, life has become dictated by improbability and superstition. The most unlikely events have become the most likely, from highly improbable dice throws to serious infrastructure failure. Some effects are deemed good: massive lottery wins, sports successes, and cancer remissions. Others are not. Multiracial Adele uses prayers for a Christian god as well as African orishas, a selection of herbs, a Saint Christopher medal, and a collection of lucky objects as part of her daily ritual. As she walks to work, she encounters a shuttle train that has jumped the tracks because of a wrench left there (an event with a million to one odds), causing horrible carnage, and stops to help.
The news claims New York is a den of iniquity, causing this semi-apocalypse, but Adele is skeptical. Large quantities of missionaries have swarmed the city, and one corners Adele to give her a flyer for a mass prayer throughout the city on August 8 - a lucky day for the Chinese. Princeton has proved that the power of positive thought now has real effect over reality. In a chain of unlikely events, Adele is almost pushed into oncoming traffic on her walk home, but is saved by finding a four-leaf clover, which she plants in her fire escape garden.
On her way to the famers' market to barter her vegetables for fruit and news about the mass prayer, Adele gives her neighbor an eggplant. She teaches him how to cook it, and they discuss the prayer event. He is uninterested in prayer, and more noncommittal about the changed state of things. They have sex with protection - crossing fingers while putting the condom on and touching a rabbit's foot.
As the multi-denominational prayer event approaches, Adele debates going and considers the significance of belief and accepting change. She takes another flyer, folds it into a paper airplane, puts her Saint Christopher medal in it, and lets it fly until it's out of sight.
Mary Morrison (Kristin Davis), a successful author of thriller novels, is happily married to Tom (Dermot Mulroney) with two young children. Her publisher, asking her to write another book, offers a two million dollar advance; she initially declines but has to accept after Tom says he lost half of their estate on a risky investment. Mary's friend Elaine suggests hiring a nanny to help with the kids as she writes and, after a few interviews, she employs Grace (Greer Grammer).
Mary has writer's block and uses her blossoming friendship with Grace to inspire her. Mary then starts having what appears to be sexual fantasies about Grace. She also seems to dream about Grace and Tom engaging in sexual activity in the kitchen, but cannot tell if it is real or her vivid imagination. Confronting them both at the dinner table in a tearful rage, she upsets the children and causes a divide between her and Grace.
The following morning, Mary apologizes to Grace, saying her outburst was the result of working too hard. She then calls the nanny agency to ask why they haven't cashed her check yet, and they tell her it's because she hasn't got back to them about her choice of nanny. Mary asks if they have a nanny called Grace in their service and they say no.
Mary goes to see Elaine and finds her dead with a pair of scissors in her neck. Contacting the police, to her surprise and horror, she learns she is the main suspect. The police reveal there is a great deal of incriminating evidence, including a video of what appears to be Mary arriving at Elaine's house, although her face is obscured with a headscarf and sunglasses, and her latest book has a murder with scissors.
Mary then travels to Grace's hometown, visiting her aunt, who reveals Grace had been abused by her parents as a child, and herself also exhibiting odd behaviour. Mary calls Tom to warn him about Grace but he does not answer. At home, he is in the shower when Grace walks in dressed in lingerie and brandishing a large knife. She continuously switches from her usual sweet, soft-toned self to a violent seducer with a deep voice. As she attacks Tom, Mary arrives home. Grace claims to not know what happened, repeatedly saying, "I couldn't stop her." Grace suffers from dissociative identity disorder, and her other identity "Margaret" is who attacked Tom. Mary eventually knocks Grace unconscious.
One year later, Mary and her family are together. Mary takes the finished manuscript of her new book to Elaine's grave and leaves it there, as it was Elaine who encouraged her to start writing again. She then goes to visit Grace in a mental hospital. The film ends with "Mary" leaving the hospital, her face obscured by a headscarf and sunglasses, as in the police video of Elaine's killer.
Heavy-drinking Philip Banter, an American working in Madrid, Spain, for his father-in-law's multinational corporation, finds himself awakening from blackouts. At his office, he finds typewritten manuscript pages, evidently written by him, that describe violent deeds. He and his wife, Elizabeth, have a strained relationship, one exacerbated by a visit from their Wall Street-broker friend Robert, who is attracted to Elizabeth, and Robert's female friend, whom Philip beds after driving her home. Elizabeth's father, Charles Foster, dislikes Philip intensely, countenancing him only for the sake of his daughter. With Charles' support, Elizabeth seeks to have the unstable Philip receive help from psychiatrist Dr. Monasterrio, but the doctor cannot have anyone committed to his psychiatric facility without their approval or indication they are a danger to themselves or others. At Elizabeth's request, Monasterrio attends a party at the Banters' home that night, in order to speak with Philip informally and try to convince him to check himself in voluntarily. At the party, Philip meets writer Brent, who strongly resembles the woman he had bedded but evidently is someone else. Unknown to him, Brent and Robert are part of the manipulative Charles' plan to gaslight Philip and have him committed, and to have Elizabeth turn to Robert, whom Charles considers a more suitable mate for her.
The unwary Elizabeth, unable to take the strained marriage any longer, meets Philip in a restaurant to tell him she is leaving him. An enraged Philip attempts to strangle her, and after another blackout finds himself at home, where Monasterrio and two aides tranquilize him and take him to the facility. Philip escapes, and after rushing to Robert's home to seek his friend's help, discovers Robert stalling him until the facility's aides can arrive to try to recapture him. Philip again escapes, and seeks help from Brent. Finding she, too, is part of the plot, he attacks her. Philip eventually obtains a recording of Charles describing his plot. Taunting Charles with the recording, Philip goes into a subway station, where Charles chases him as a concerned Elizabeth follows. On platforms separated by tracks, Philip plays the tape so that Elizabeth can hear. Charles falls into the tracks just as a train is coming and is killed.
A paroled convict after a long prison term attempts to give a dying childhood sweetheart a wonderful final year.
After the murder of a pawnbroker, Tokyo detectives Shimooka and Yuki are sent to Kyushu, home of murder suspect Ishii's former girlfriend Sadako, as the police expect Ishii to make contact with her. While observing her house, Yuki starts to sympathise with Sadako, who lives in an unhappy marriage with her loveless businessman husband. When Ishii finally meets with Sadako, Yuki's initial presumption, that he might want to kill her and subsequently commit suicide, is proven wrong. Sadako, regretting their once parting, asks Ishii to allow her to go with him, but Ishii, ill with tuberculosis, declines. The police arrest Ishii, leaving behind a grieving Sadako.
Kunyan is a 20 year old international student from China, who is smart, pretty, and athletic. However, due to her bad drinking habits (which are never mentioned or shown in the anime), she constantly finds herself in many crisis situations in her daily life.
Abeke the omniscient narrator introduces the residents of a close. Chief Olaoba is a wealthy politician who neglects the needs of the community he represents. He however shows up occasionally to distribute money to his constituents. Bob returns from dispora and goes to the close and gains the trust of the occupants and convinces them to invest in a get-rich-quick scheme named Richvest. This leads to a series of unexpected events.
Six months after half of all life returned from the Blip, the U.S. Air Force sends Sam Wilson to stop a plane hijacking over Tunisia by the terrorist group LAF, led by Georges Batroc. With ground support from first lieutenant Joaquin Torres, Wilson fights the terrorists and rescues Air Force Captain Vassant before they cross into Libyan airspace and cause an international incident. On the ground, Torres tells Wilson about another terrorist group, the Flag Smashers, who believe life was better during the Blip.
In Washington, D.C., Wilson gives Captain America's shield to the U.S. government to display in a museum exhibit about Steve Rogers. He later explains to James Rhodes that he feels like the shield still belongs to Rogers. In Delacroix, Louisiana, Wilson's sister Sarah struggles to keep the family fishing business going. He offers to use his status as a famous superhero to help them get a new loan, but they are turned down due to the business's poor profits and Wilson's lack of income during the five years he was gone.
Meanwhile, in New York City, Bucky Barnes attends government-mandated therapy after being pardoned for his actions as the brainwashed assassin known as the Winter Soldier. He discusses his attempts to make amends for his time as the Winter Soldier with his therapist, Dr. Raynor. Barnes later has lunch with an elderly man named Yori, who convinces him to go on a date with a waitress named Leah. Both Yori and Leah discuss how Yori's son RJ was killed with no explanation. Barnes recalls killing RJ as the Winter Soldier, which happened after RJ witnessed a Winter Soldier assassination in the hotel where he was staying. Barnes is unable to reveal this to Yori, and has also been ignoring text messages from Wilson.
Torres investigates the Flag Smashers and sees a bank robbery in Switzerland perpetrated by a group member with superhuman strength. Torres confronts him, but is knocked unconscious. He later informs Wilson of what he has learned. Wilson then sees the government announce a new Captain America, giving Rogers' shield to John Walker.
The film tells the story of an old American man who has a series of misadventures while touring Europe. After leaving New-York on a steamer, he is seasick during a storm before arriving in Europe. In Ireland he falls from a wall while attempting to kiss the Blarney stone, in Paris he is drawn to dance the can-can with two enterprising women, in the Alps, he falls into a crevasse, in Italy, while viewing antique ruins, he is relieved of his valuables by some bandits, in Egypt (regarded as part of Europe for the purposes of the film), he falls down while climbing a pyramid in Giza and he is finally submitted to an energetic massage in a mud bath in Germany. When he is back home he is so exhausted that he is no longer able to walk alone.
Cole Turner (Keegan Allen) is an image-obsessed internet celebrity with millions of followers on his channel called Escape From Reality. He often does live video and posts photos and videos on his Youtube channel.
To celebrate the tenth anniversary of his channel, Cole, his friends Dash, Samantha (Siya), and Thomas (Denzel Whitaker), and Cole's girlfriend Erin (Holland Roden), head to Moscow in order to partake in an escape room that Dash organised with the help of Alexei Koslov (Ronen Rubinstein), a wealthy Russian fan of Cole’s.
In Moscow, they meet Alexei and spend the evening at a dodgy club. However, after getting harassed and threatened by a pair of Russian mobsters, they return to Alexei’s mansion.
On the day of the escape room, Alexei takes Cole's phone and connects it to the surveillance system so it can be streamed to his fans live and millions of people can watch. Alexei warns the group the escape room is extreme and unpredictable. They are all blindfolded and led to their starting positions in the escape room. Cole is placed into a dark room with a dead Russian soldier and a table of surgical equipment. He cuts open the dead body and retrieves a key from the man’s stomach. He finds the other four connected to several realistic deadly traps. He completes a cog puzzle to free Thomas and Dash seconds before they are killed, and the three complete a maze puzzle to free Samantha. The four find Erin in a glass box slowly filling with water. Erin nearly drowns as Cole uses one of the cogs to smash open the lock and free her. After they realize the game is genuinely dangerous, they escape the room but are captured by Andrei, one of the mobsters from the club. He knocks Cole unconscious and kidnaps the others.
Cole wakes tied up in a small cell. On a screen, he witnesses Samantha get killed by Andrei. Whilst escaping through an air duct, he watches Dash get his limbs sawn off to 'entertain' Andrei's own online fanbase. Cole finds Thomas and they attempt to escape together, but Thomas is pushed down an old elevator shaft by one of the guards. Frantic, Cole finds Erin tied to a chair.
Andrei threatens to kill Erin. Cole tries to shoot him but misses, and Andrei shoots Erin in the head. Two guards drag Cole to another locked room. He finds a small duct and crawls through it into a large dark room. Cole sees Alexei and beats him to death out of anger for killing his friends.
It is revealed the entire experience was an elaborate prank organized by his friends to celebrate his tenth anniversary, with every aspect of the escape room being carefully planned to shock Cole. The lights turn on to reveal Erin and his friends still alive, looking in shock as Cole sits next to Alexei's corpse.
In the early morning of September 11, 2001, a Boeing 757 aircraft, belonging to the Uzbekistan Airways, took off over Uzbekistan. This is the final flight of the experienced pilot Zarif Saidazimov, before he goes on a free flight - retirement. ''101-Flight'' is in transit through London Birmingham International Airport to John F Kennedy International Airport in New York.
Approaching in the air to the John F Kennedy International Airport, Captain Zarif Saidazimov, suddenly receives a command from the dispatcher to land at another airport located in Boston. The captain announces this to the passengers and heads for Boston. There was not much left to Boston, when and from there their dispatcher informs that the plane needs to land at the airport of Gandern International Airport in the territory of Canada. Captain Saidazimov is left with nothing but to follow instructions. Warning the crew about the changes, he asks them to keep calm among the passengers.
When this news reaches the passengers, confusion and panic envelop the cabin of the plane. After all, they could only see this in Hollywood movies. All passengers and crew members find themselves in a suspended and uncertain situation. The film sheds light on these events.
The film opens in Mr. Figg’s barbershop in Stamford Hill, in which he discusses his family life with his customers. Upon his arrival home, however, it is revealed that he is a bachelor and his stories of family life are inventions he concocts because he believes they are what his customers want to hear. In fact, he lives on his own in a flat in Stepney and on Friday nights lights the Shabbat candles before his mute friend Dober comes to visit and they spend the evening eating and playing chess.
As he sits with Dober, Mr. Figg discusses his sadness at not having had a family and subsequently decides to propose to Mrs. Werner, a widowed neighbour with two children, so, leaving Dober in the flat, visits her in the hope of doing so. However, as he sits in her kitchen he is not only surprised by her admitting she does not follow Jewish tradition by lighting the candles but is unsure how to respond to domestic conflicts that take place between Mrs. Werner and her children, as her son noisily plays the drums in the front room and her daughter argues with her about being allowed to go out. Before he can get round to proposing, Mrs. Werner mentions that she recently received an offer of marriage from the local butcher only to laugh the idea off as preposterous, leading Mr. Figg to abandon his plan and return to his flat.
The film ends with Mr. Figg back in his barbershop, chatting to a customer and relating the story of Mrs Werner’s son playing the drums as if it is a story about his own, fictional, family.
The film opens with an informational prologue by Lincoln Maazel as he explains how the elderly are constantly overlooked and undervalued by society. He tells the viewer that they are about to watch a film that acts as a metaphorical description of how the elderly are mistreated.
An elderly man, played by Maazel, sits in a white room, bandaged, bloodied and with his once nice white suit dirtied. Another man, also played Maazel, enters looking clean and in good spirits. He attempts to communicate with the tired version of himself and tells him that he is going to the park despite him telling him that "there is nothing out there." The cleaner man walks through the door and is immediately in the park. On the outside the door is not connected to anything. The man walks about and happily examines his surroundings before coming across a ticket taker who swindles other septuagenarians out of their things with low pay. He buys some tickets from him which take the form of money in the park.
The man gets on a rollercoaster with strange signage, rides a train where one the older passengers supposedly dies and is ignored once in a coffin and witnesses a man's license get revoked due to poor eyesight. While playing in the bumper cars, an "accident" occurs complete with a police officer and lawyer arriving on the scene. The man tries to offer assistance, but it becomes apparent that he needs to wear glasses and therefore cannot be seen as a reliable alibi. He goes to eat at a food stand, lampooned as a restaurant, as he and several other elders are ignored by waiters for a wealthy individual. When the man finally gets his food, he sympathetically gives it to the other elders.
The man buys groceries, but cannot carry them all so he simply takes some crackers and a jar of peanut butter. As he sits to eat, he beckons some children to come and converse with him, but a younger man accuses him of being a "degenerate" and he leaves in shame. The man is beckoned into a building by younger people who tell him that he will have fun, but upon entering, it is a claustrophobic room where elders are forced to perform in uncomfortable exercise machines. He leaves, but breaks his glasses in the process. He comes upon a fortune teller and witnesses a young couple enter and ask what their future will be like. The fortune teller shows them that they will be living in a soon to be built over apartment building where they will have little support from their personal doctor and neighbors. Angry, the young man leaves and punches the older man who collapses.
When the man comes to his senses, the park is empty save for three bikers who beat him and then take his tickets. As people suddenly appear, they all ignore him. With very little money, he goes to get first aid. The medical center, set up like a store, is full of various elders equipment and the doctors and nurses hastily rush everyone through. The man finds himself simply getting a band aid on his head and a cane and is ushered out. He comes upon some men trying to sell retirement homes and ends up getting pick-pocketed. The pick-pocket is revealed to run a freak show, which simply consists of elders dressed in casual clothing. Everyone is upset and as the man gets up to leave, is suddenly chased by the patrons who accuse him of trying to escape the freak show. He finds "sanctuary", but it closes upon his arrival.
The man finally gets some solace when a little girl offers for him to read ''The Three Little Pigs'' to her and have some chicken. The mother apathetically takes her and the book away as he finally breaks down into tears. He leaves the piece of chicken behind and walks back to the white room; resigned and defeated. Moments later, a cleaner optimistic version of himself enters as the scene from the beginning repeats. The man sits tired and powerless over not being able to stop his younger self.
Maazel appears one last time to tell the viewer that they can help the elderly through already established programs. He signs off with "I'll see you in the park... someday."
Daniel Skipton is a paranoid novelist living in Bruges who attempts to supplement his measley income by preying on gullible English tourists, taking them to comically bad sex shows, giving them directions to brothels, and trying to sell them dubious Flemish paintings. Meanwhile, Skipton works obsessively on the manuscript for a new novel, which he has completed a year ago but continues to tinker with using different coloured pens to mark grammatical errors, stylistic changes and marginal comments. He tells himself that "it was not only a great book, it was the greatest novel in the English language, it would make his reputation all over the world and keep him in comfort, more than comfort, for the rest of his life."
Skipton ingratiates himself with a group of British tourists: Cosmo Hines, a London bookseller mostly concerned with visiting a brothel, his wife Dorothy Merlin, a pretentious writer of bad plays, Duncan Moss, a friendly drunk, and Matthew Pryar, a well dressed gentleman with upper class connections. Skipton attempts to con the group into paying for his meals while regaling them with his love of Bruges, a love which Hansford Johnson shared.
The film is about the war simulation in the fictional Iraqi town of Medina Wasl that the US Army built in the Mojave Desert, which is used to help train its army units before they deploy to Iraq.
In a flashback to Homer's adolescence, 14-year old Homer goes to work at his job at Razzle Dazzle's Pizza-Tainment Palace and helps fix a short-circuiting problem by having the animatronic band sing hip-hop and rap. The audience love it, but the FBI shuts the business down due to Homer's boss Gil Gunderson using the band for trafficking cocaine.
Back in the present day, Marge sees that something has changed in Homer since the flashback. Moe visits the house and agrees with Marge. Bart and Lisa decide to search for the animatronics, beginning by contacting Gil. Gil had tracked the animatronics down which were sold by the FBI at an auction: Marge takes Hippie Hippo from Professor Frink, Moe takes Foxy Lady from Sideshow Mel, Lisa takes Jive Turkey from Disco Stu, and both Bart and Lisa go to obtain Wakkety Yak from Herman's Military Antiques.
Herman reveals he just sold Yak to J. J. Abrams to create a new ''Mission: Impossible'' movie. Lisa and Bart arrive at one of Abrams' buildings and attempt to steal Yak but are caught. Homer arrives and is overcome with emotion upon seeing Yak. Abrams appears and understands Homer's situation, only for him to plan a nine-movie franchise involving the animatronics, giving Homer the same trauma as before.
Homer encounters Comic Book Guy, who advises Homer to take his complaints to the internet. Homer spends months complaining online, only to have Abrams announce a screening of the movie in Springfield. Homer enters the theater to stop Abrams, but Grampa arrives after being called by Marge. Grampa says that he ruined Homer's childhood by neglecting Homer's dreams. They reconcile and Abrams surprises Homer as he had reprogrammed the animatronics and brought them on stage now to dispense frozen yogurt at the after party.
The ending credits feature Comic Book Guy having formed the ''Troll Force Five'', Earth's spite-iest heroes.
U.S. Marine Corps Captain Brad Paxton is living with his wife Kate, an archeologist, and a daughter in New York City. He is still haunted by the nightmare of his service in Syria. After giving a speech in a conference, Kate travels to Morocco for an archaeological mission, where she meets French-Algerian archaeologist Jean Rashidi. When Kate and her team drive to find an ancient city hidden under the desert, they realize that they have inadvertently crossed the border of Algeria. The local insurgents arrive and kidnap Kate, Jean and Moroccan Amir Jadid. Jadid is released later.
Brad receives news about Kate and travels to Rabat, where he meets a Cabinet member of the Moroccan government, a liaison Younes Laalej, a former U.S. Army soldier, served together with Brad. U.S. Ambassador Williams reluctantly agrees to join Younes and Brad in the operation to gather intel, despite Tom Fitzgerald's objections. The embassy discloses that the terrorist leader Jaafar El Hadi is wanted by Interpol for and has been in hiding. Meanwhile, El Hadi and his comrades vote to kill Kate if the ten million dollar ransom is not paid after their evening prayer.
With the help of the counter-terrorism agency, they manage to track the whereabouts to El Hadi's compound in Abadla. Brad and Younes embark the hour-long drive there. After Younes sends the coordinates of the compound, Williams asks the U.S. President to send NAVY SEALs to assist them in the operation. At night, Brad and Younes manage to kill most of the men, and Brad finds and hides Kate. The terrorists kill Jean after the French government fails to pay the ransom. When the two are confronted by El Hadi, he forces Younes to order the government to transfer the $10 million ransom into El Hadi's offshore account. As El Hadi attempts to escape, the SEALs arrive and kill El Hadi and his remaining men. Before leaving, Brad and Younes blow up the compound but get incapacitated; presuming that they are dead, the SEALs rescue Kate and fly away.
The next day, Brad reunites with Kate at the Algeria–Morocco border. Later, Jadid meets Fitz, who compliments the former's bravery and grants him an American citizenship and a CIA asset. However, Jadid is killed on his way out, revealing that Fitz is a lobbyist for the oil company which also finances the terrorist networks. Fitz also presumes that Brad and Younes were killed in action. As he and his associates get out of the building, Younes spies on them and texts Brad of their corruption.
A female K-Pop group slays demons between gigs.
Raja's girlfriend asks him to help Shivani by pretending to be Shivani's boyfriend. But he realises that he will have to put more effort to Shivani's feuding family members.
Set in a world of anthropomorphic animals, ''Odd Taxi'' tells the story of Odokawa, a 41-year old walrus taxi driver whose parents abandoned him in elementary school, leaving him generally asocial. However, he usually has conversations with other animal inhabitants who ride in his taxi on their respective journeys around Tokyo, where the series is set. Odokawa's conversations with these people unravel into a series of mysteries and acts of violence, including that of a missing high school girl. Because of the case of the missing girl, the police have been tracking leads back to him, and now he is being followed by both the ''yakuza'' and the police.
Together with aspiring historian Lucie Fouble, 90-year-old Resistance fighter Colette Marin-Catherine travels to Nordhausen to visit Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp. Until then, she had avoided visiting the place where her brother, Jean-Pierre, died. The whole family was active in the resistance. She wrote down the registration numbers of passing trucks. Her brother had collected weapons for the resistance and was arrested in the process. He died in the concentration camp at the age of 19 as a result of forced labor combined with malnutrition. Because of her experiences, she avoided traveling to Germany. Fouble contacted her after researching her brother.
When they first meet, Fouble asks if they could take Jean Pierre's photo on the trip. Colette tells how her father had hid a camera under his shirt while visiting in order to take the photo. While on the train to Nordhausen, Colette talks about how she felt distant from her brother, and describes how she felt guilty when her mother wished that she had been taken in place of Jean-Pierre. At Nordhausen, the former mayor wants to say a few words to Colette, but she interrupts him, saying that she wasn't feeling well. The next day, they visit the concentration camp's memorial site. They see the prison block that her brother likely slept in, as well as the tunnels where prisoners were forced to build V-2 rockets. While looking over the ruins of the prison block, Colette bursts into tears as she had forgotten to bring flowers for her brother. After visiting the camp's crematorium, she presents Fouble with a ring Jean-Pierre had made for her mother.
The year is 8878, and the player is a member of an elite legion of planetary explorers known as The Pastfinders. His job is to collect artifacts from a mysterious, irradiated planet and deliver them to bases distributed across the lifeless area. Searing radiation and a deadly, mechanized landscape defense are the player's obstacles: the only remnants of an extinct civilization.
In New York City, a homeless teenager named Tereek is enjoying a late night with his friends. As they go their separate ways, Tereek notices a deaf and blind man named Artie holding a cane and a sign requesting assistance in crossing the street. Tereek hesitantly touches Artie to offer his help, and Artie writes the number of the bus he needs to catch. Tereek guides him to the bus stop and they gradually introduce themselves to one another. Although Tereek receives messages from his girlfriend, who is expecting him, he decides to stay with Artie and make sure he gets on the bus.
Artie tells Tereek that he is thirsty, so they head to a bodega where Tereek uses Artie's money to buy him a drink and himself a candy bar, pocketing $10 in the process. They return to the bus stop but just miss the bus. As they wait, Artie tells Tereek that he was on a date and that he needs to be tapped by the bus driver when he reaches his stop. The bus finally comes and they get on. Tereek tells the driver what Artie needs and the man brusquely agrees to help him. Artie and Tereek assure each other that they will be OK and embrace. When Tereek gets off the bus, he puts the $10 that he took from Artie's wallet into the cup of a sleeping homeless man.
Dr. Nate Samuels, a recently widowed husband returns to South Africa where he first met his wife, on a long-planned trip with his two young daughters Meredith and Norah to a game reserve managed by an old family friend and fellow wildlife biologist named Martin Battles. Soon, a ferocious wild lion that escaped from years of torture by poachers begins attacking them and killing anyone in its path as it starts stalking the Samuels family. Now Nate must work to keep his daughters safe from this rogue lion.
Three years after the New Orleans Saints won Super Bowl XLIV, head coach Sean Payton is suspended from the NFL for one year due to his involvement in the Bountygate scandal. He returns to his hometown and reconnects with his 12-year-old son by coaching his middle-school football team at Liberty Christian in Argyle, Texas.
Wako works as a manga editor at a publishing department, while her boyfriend, Meguru, is a model and a clerk at a clothing store with a large social media following. Meguru is part of the genderless fashion subculture and is knowledgeable about make-up and fashion, causing other people around the couple to tend to mistake the nature of their relationship, as well as Meguru's gender.
Two families from completely opposite ends of the financial spectrum and class divide swap homes, budgets and social status for seven days to discover how the other side lives.
Julia, an American, moves to Bucharest with her husband, Francis, who takes a marketing job there. Francis, whose mother is Romanian, is fluent in the language, but Julia is not. The couple move into an apartment building with a large picture window. Julia immediately notices a man looming in a window from the building across the street. While Francis works long hours, Julia attempts to familiarize herself with the city, and begins learning Romanian. However, she is continuously unnerved by the man in the window, whom she notices watching her on a daily basis.
Julia's fear heightens when she learns of a serial killer, dubbed "the Spider" by local media, who is decapitating young women. While walking through the city one day, Julia senses a man is following her. She enters a movie theater in an attempt to evade him, but the man follows her inside and sits directly behind her. In a panic, Julia exits the theater and walks to a nearby market, where the man also follows her. She manages to flee through a back exit. That night, Francis finds Julia rattled by the incident, and, at his suggestion, they visit the market to review the security footage. They find footage of the man and Julia in the store, but Francis is unconvinced that he was stalking Julia.
Julia finds some comfort in her neighbor, Irina. While the two have drinks together, Irina's ex-boyfriend Cristian knocks on her door, but she makes him leave. Irina shows Julia a pistol Cristian gave her that she keeps for protection in the drawer of her coffee table. Later that night, Julia returns to her apartment and confronts the man in the window by returning his stare. She waves at him, and he waves back. Convinced that the man in the window is the same man who followed her, Julia calls the police. Francis accompanies an officer to the adjacent building to speak with the man, whom they learn is named Daniel Weber.
One day, Julia follows Daniel through the city, eventually ending up at a strip club, where he works as a janitor. Irina, a dancer at the club, spots Julia and takes her aside. Julia questions Irina about Daniel, but Irina knows nothing about him. Later that night, Julia hears a commotion in Irina's apartment. She knocks on her door repeatedly, but receives no answer. The landlady unlocks the apartment, but they find no sign of Irina. Francis becomes impatient with Julia, believing that her fears are imagined, and points to the fact that "the Spider" has apparently been apprehended.
The next day, Cristian arrives searching for Irina. Julia tells him Irina never returned home, and asks him to accompany her to confront Daniel in his building. Cristian agrees, but no one answers the door. When Cristian leaves, Julia works up the nerve to knock on the door herself, but it is answered by an elderly man. Later that night, while Francis is home, a police officer arrives at their apartment accompanied by Daniel, who accuses Julia of stalking him. Julia reluctantly shakes Daniel's hand, as the officer chalks the incident up to a misunderstanding.
Julia accompanies Francis to a company party. During a conversation in Romanian, Julia gleans that Francis has made jokes about her fears to his coworkers. She angrily leaves the party and boards the subway, where she soon notices Daniel in the near-empty car. When he approaches her and attempts to explain the reasons for his voyeurism of her—that he lives an isolated, unexciting life caring for his father—Julia notices what appears to be the outline of a severed head in his shopping bag. Julia swiftly de-boards the subway, and returns to the apartment where she begins packing her belongings. She is interrupted by the sound of music playing in Irina's apartment. When she goes to investigate, she finds Irina's headless corpse, before Daniel smothers her with a plastic bag.
When Julia regains consciousness, Daniel recounts how he killed Irina, and that he hid with her body in a closet when Julia and the landlady entered the apartment. Julia hears Francis enter their apartment next-door, but when she attempts to scream, Daniel slashes the side of her throat. Julia attempts to crawl to Irina's coffee table to retrieve the pistol, but stops short of it. Daniel lies next to her, watching as she appears to lose consciousness. Francis calls Julia's cell phone, which he hears ringing inside Irina's apartment. He goes into the hallway, where he sees Daniel exiting. Francis begins to walk towards him, but before he reaches him, Julia—who feigned her death—shoots Daniel multiple times, killing him. Julia steps out of Irina's apartment, covered in blood, and stares at Francis.
1994: In a Swiss high-tech company, more than 1200 people are busy controlling the daily billions in Swiss monetary transactions in the form of endless data streams. Individual figures emerge from the mass of employees in the labyrinthine building. The camera follows the inconspicuous gestures, ways of speaking and glances of the PC supporter, the key account manager, the Goldcard clerk, the product manager, the department head, the director. A serial montage weaves the everyday life of the protagonists into a dense image-sound structure. The viewer is immersed in a world in which the subtle violence of electronic technologies shapes interpersonal communication and leaves traces even in private spaces.
While investigating the disappearance of three Gotham City Police officers, Batman raids the Mad Hatter's hideout and rescues a girl forced to dress as Alice. Two months later, he is informed by Lieutenant Harvey Bullock that The Joker is dying and wishes to see him.
Upon Batman's arrival at Arkham Asylum, the Joker tells him he is suffering from melanoma due to his chemical accident, and he wants Batman to kill him as a fitting end to his legacy. Batman walks away, but the Joker taunts him by reminding him of the death of Jason Todd and the crippling of Barbara Gordon. An enraged Batman wraps a chain around the Joker's neck and hangs him, telling him how irrelevant he has become as a criminal. With nothing left to say, the Joker confesses to murdering the three missing officers and leaving their bodies at O'Neil's Toyland. Batman lets go of the Joker, revealing that he made him confess by falsifying his toxicology report and poisoning his water supply for weeks to make him believe he had a terminal illness. In addition, Batman knew the Joker was responsible for the disappearance of the officers when he discovered a police baton with the Joker's fingerprints on it during his raid on the Mad Hatter's hideout.
As Gotham City Police recovers the corpses of the missing officers, Bullock confronts Batman over being manipulated during the Dark Knight's investigation. Before disappearing from Bullock's presence, Batman reveals that the officers were already dead from the beginning, but did not disclose that fact to take away hope so their families could heal and move on.
In the 50-minute film, small children are shown in a day nursery: As in Thomas Imbach's previous film ''Ghetto'', fragments of the children's everyday lives, captured in rich detail, alternate with a variety of (cold, forbidding) exterior views and artful sounds (the day nursery is part of a university and the building also houses the laboratories and offices of the parents, mostly high-tech scientists).
The Sign Painter is a tragicomedy about a young Latvian man, Ansis, with simple dreams: to marry Zisele, the free-spirited and beautiful daughter of a local Jewish merchant, and to pursue a career as an artist whilst supporting himself as a sign painter. But his dreams are repeatedly swept away in the tumultuous tides of serial totalitarian occupation of his home during World War II.
Set in modern day Lagos, Saro portrays the lives of four young men who are determined to become successful despite frustration and perennial lack of opportunities to explore their musical talents and realise their dreams. It tells a story of their journey from the comfort of their multi-ethnic villages seeking a better life in the city of Lagos, which is seen as a land of freedom and opportunities. On getting to Lagos, they find that not all that glitters is gold and ‘blowing’ will take more than just a stroke of luck. Having just arrived in Yaba, they are mugged by agberos and end up in prison alongside their attackers following an altercation. Their dreams of making it appear bleak until the smooth-talking and stylish Don Ceeto swaggers in. Don Ceeto takes the boys home and with some help from Derry Black, he cleans them up and sets them up on the road to stardom.
Azeez finds chemistry with Aunty Just Jane who is Don Ceeto’s assistant while Efe is persistently pursued by the Lagos babe, Ronke.
Laitan wished he could stay with Rume but she convinced him to go and find success so that he could come back to prove to her father that he was capable of marrying his daughter. Staying behind in the village, with her disapproving father and the threat of being married to the Chief’s son hanging over her is Rume.
The series revolves around the life of lawyer Helen Tudor-Fisk, who leaves Sydney after her career and marriage fall apart. She returns to Melbourne and takes a job at Gruber & Gruber, a small suburban firm specialising in wills and probate.
With the conclusion of World War II in 1945, the world is divided between two major superpowers: the Republic of Zirnitra (based on the Soviet Union) in the east and the United Kingdom of Arnak (based on the United States) in the west. With their borders set on earth, both superpowers look to space as the next frontier for expansion, sparking a space race. However, Zirnitra has a trump card in the form of Irina Luminesk, a vampire who they hope to use as a test subject to spearhead research into achieving the first human spaceflight. In order to ensure her training goes smoothly, the young cosmonaut candidate Lev Leps is assigned to be her handler. While he is instructed to treat Irina as nothing more than a test subject, Lev cannot help but be fascinated with the young vampire girl.
Zanthodon is envisioned as an immense circular cavern five hundred miles wide, one hundred miles beneath the Sahara Desert, a refugium preserving various prehistoric faunas and antique human cultures that have found their way into it throughout the ages.
The story's events occur at the same time as those of the previous book, but follows the adventures of series heroine Darya, who has been separated from the other main characters. Having been kidnapped again by the corsair Kairadine, Prince of El-Cazar, a fortified island on the Northern Seas. Darya is ultimately saved when her father King Garth of Sothar leads their people in an invasion of El Cazar. Returning to the mainland of Zanthodon, they link up with King Tharn's Thandarians in the wake of their defeat of the combined forces of the corsairs and the Minoans of Zaar. Darya and her lover, explorer Eric Carstairs, are reunited, while the disarmed pirates and Zaarians are dispatched back to their own realms. Kairadine, true to character, abducts the Zaarian empress Zarys on the way.
Zanthodon is envisioned as an immense circular cavern five hundred miles wide, one hundred miles beneath the Sahara Desert, a refugium preserving various prehistoric faunas and antique human cultures that have found their way into it throughout the ages.
The story follows the improving fortunes of surface world explorer Eric Carstairs and his Zanthonian love interest Darya. It ends with them leaders of their own tribe, augmented by such other exiles from the surface as Niema and Zuma of the African Aziru tribe and World War II survivors Von Kohler, Bog and Schmidt, and heirs apparent to the leadership of Thandar and Sothar. They are now married and blessed with a young son, Gar.
Jeff (Michael Wawuyo Jr.) has a crush on a girl (Martha Kay) that's way outside his social class but he won't let that stop him. He'll do whatever it takes, including breaking a few rules.
Teenager Rando Furukata is pulled into another side of reality and gets involved in a horrific and unnatural murder. He and his friends are chosen to be "Knocker Up" after they encounter a monster. Rando and his friends must investigate the strange incident with their teacher and defend the island from the monster in a dream world.
Ryuuhei Oda and Rena Mouri accidentally enter the other side of reality and encounter a grotesque creature. They are rescued by Trish, a creature with knowledge of the other side of reality. Trish grants Ryuuhei and Rena power and they are chosen as Knocker Ups to combat the creatures. Ryuuhei and Rena are joined by more experienced slayers, Aruto Fushibe and Jessica Clayborn, as they fight the creatures and learn more about the other side.
After losing her parents, 14-year-old Annabel Coleridge lives with her fisherman grandfather, Jonah Coleridge, on an island paradise. Having lost her parents at the age of 5, Annabel's best friend is the local town dolphin named Mitzy. Annabel helps her grandfather on his fishing boat and in his shop when she's not at school.
All that changes when Samuel and Sheryl Williams, Annabel's maternal grandparents, show up with their lawyer, Robert Carbunkle. They live in New York and want to take custody of Annabel, giving her the life she never had or could afford.
When Desaray Rolle, a social worker, moves to the island with her 13 year old son, Mateo, romance is soon in the air for both Jonah and Annabel. However, Desaray's initial report of Annabel's living conditions threatens to pull everyone apart when Carbunkle gets his hands on it.
Although Jonah tries hard to explain his care for Annabel, at a court hearing, the judge awards temporary custody to Samuel and Sheryl Williams.
But before Annabel is forced to leave, she runs away and steals a speed boat. The whole town is looking for Annabel, proving to the Williams how much they love her and provide Annabel a caring home. Unfortunately, the boat Annabel stole was in repair and caught in fire. It is up to Mitzy to get her help and bring Annabel to safety.
A badass cop, Bruce from Guará, loses a goat named Celestine. A drug trafficker takes Celestine to São Paulo and Bruce follows him. Assisted by a desk duty, violence-fearing cop, Trindade, Bruce not only finds the goat but also uncovers an underground drug lord named White Glove.
A group of vampire lords gather at a small rural farmhouse for a summit to discuss quotas. One of the group is executed for going over quota and for taking children. Vanessa arrives late and has brought Sebastian as her guest, and proposes him as a replacement, but Peter objects. Sebastian tries to escape, and is easily caught. Rather than kill him immediately they decide to keep him alive as food, and secure him in the basement along with Mr. and Mrs. Thatcher who own the farmhouse.
Meanwhile, soldiers gather nearby. Surprised to have found more than one "cold body" they delay their assault, but Larousse says they have enough to take down two and urges then to strike immediately. The strike team is overwhelmed, and only the Duke is killed. The vampires unpack machine guns and exchange fire with the remaining soldiers outside. A religious man, Larousse wants the vampires wiped out entirely, but motivated by profit Colonel Bingham wants to take one prisoner for scientific research. The vampires form a plan to head out directly, needing just one of them to break through and circle back around to kill the soldiers. The breakout is chaotic, several vampires are killed, Vanessa is captured, Boniface, Angel, and Henry regroup at the house. Sebastian suggests they have nothing to lose by trying to talk, and that maybe like the film Zulu they might agree to end the battle and leave. Larousse gets too close to Vanessa and she bites him. Henry goes with a hooded hostage to negotiate, but Bingham decides to press his advantage and shoots the hostage. Vanessa, Henry, and Larousse, are hung out on frames, waiting for the dawn sunlight to kill them and for the cosmetics company to come and take samples for their research.
Meanwhile Sebastien emerges from the farmhouse freezer, the hostage was Boniface disguised and covered with hot water bottles to make him seem like a warm body. Boniface begins picking-off the soldiers. Tired of it all Vanessa ends her own life. Sebastian and Private Bower pass each other in the forest, and Sebastian suggests they continue on and pretend it didn't happen. Bower encounters Mr. Thatcher, and suggests they move along. Thatcher warns there is something terrible in the forest, him, and then attacks with a knife. Angel see what has happened and kills Thatcher. Sebastian stumbles upon the army trucks and starts the engine but is interrupted by Angel. He wants to live, and she needs a driver (as dawn is approaching), and so they agree to work together.
Boniface attacks Bingham and agrees to free Henry only if he can have the Duke's quota. They all escape in the army truck, Boniface drops his earlier objection and Sebastian is invited to become a vampire, but he says he will have to think about it, as they drive off to anywhere else. As dawn breaks, three representatives from the cosmetics company find a vampire Bingham on the rack and take samples, before he burns up. They use the samples to make their next rejuvenating cosmetics product.
In New York City, Black graphic designer Carter James tries to get home to his dog, Jeter, the morning after a first date, only to find himself trapped in a time loop in which he is repeatedly confronted in the street by a white NYPD officer, Merk. Merk wonders whether Carter is smoking a joint and wants to search his bag. Each encounter ends with Carter being killed by the police, then waking up in the bed of his date, Perri. In one version of the loop, riot police burst into Perri's apartment, mistaking it for a different apartment because the door number is hanging upside down, and shoot him there.
After 99 deaths, Carter decides to discuss the situation with Officer Merk. Carter tells him about the time loop, offering Merk evidence by correctly predicting what people around them will do next. Carter asks Merk to drive him home. The journey ends without mishap; Merk and Carter get out of the patrol car and shake hands. But as Carter turns to enter his apartment building, Merk starts applauding what he calls Carter's "noble performance", revealing that Merk remembers the previous loops too. Merk then shoots him in the back, while a pool of blood starts forming in the shape of Africa, and says "See you tomorrow, kid". Carter wakes up once more in Perri's bed.
Undeterred, Carter leaves Perri's apartment to make yet another effort to get home. As the song "The Way It Is" plays, names of Black Americans who have died in encounters with police are listed.
Anne, married to a small-town Minister, feels her life has been shrinking over the past 30 years. Encountering "The Master" brings her a new sense of power and an appetite to live bolder. However, the change comes with a heavy body count.
Jahy, the feared and respected number-two ruler of the Dark Realm, suddenly finds herself powerless and shrunken in the human world after a magical girl destroys a powerful mana crystal, which also destroys her home realm. The manga follows Jahy and her daily life as she learns to live in her new surroundings while she works to restore her original form, the mana crystal, and the Dark Realm.
In a reversal of the generally expected roles it is Luke, who has Down syndrome, that is the careperson for his elderly mother. When she dies social services remove Luke to Blossom House, a care home, where Luke struggles to adapt to the restrictive environment. The film explores the development of relationships between Luke; Eve, a carer at the home; and Pete, a hunt saboteur doing community service. The film goes on to develops Luke's relationship with a feral animal personified as a girl, bringing the four main characters together at the conclusion of the film.
Sam Wilson intercepts a hijacked plane and defeats Georges Batroc before recovering one of his hostages. In Tunisia, Wilson works on recovering his damaged thruster and is informed of a group of people known as the Flag Smashers, who believe life was better during the Blip. In Washington, Wilson attends a conference meeting and decides to give up Steve Rogers' mantle. Meanwhile, Bucky Barnes attends therapy, where he reveals that he has begun making amends to help stop recurring nightmares about his times as brainwashed assassin the Winter Soldier. The Flag Smashers rob a bank in Switzerland and as Wilson gets a first look at the footage, the government announces a new Captain America: John Walker.
In ''Hunted'', the Eagle Bearer travels to the region of Macedonia and encounters the Persian rebel Darius. Macedonia has been overrun by the Order of the Ancients in their quest to kill Darius, his child, and the Eagle Bearer, whom they call the "Tainted Ones" because they are considered people with the power to destroy the world. The Eagle Bearer works with Darius to find and defeat the Huntsman, who is committing atrocities to draw out the Tainted Ones. Darius later admits that his real name is Artabanus, and that he worked with the Order in Persia to assassinate Xerxes I of Persia. When Darius attempted to assassinate Artaxerxes I of Persia, fearing that he would continue the tyrannical policies of his father and predecessor, he was stopped by his brother-in-arms Amorges, who believed it was unnecessary to assassinate the new king. Darius's, actions sees him branded a traitor, and he flees with his last surviving child. With the Huntsman dead, Darius and his child leave Macedonia after saying farewell to the Eagle Bearer.
In ''Shadow Heritage'', the Eagle Bearer heads to Achaea and meets Darius once again. The Order, led by the Tempest, has set up a naval blockade around the region, and is brutalizing Macedonian refugees in a bid to prevent Darius and his child from escaping the Greek world. The Eagle Bearer is able to weaken the Order's power in Achaea by sabotaging the development of a ship-mounted flamethrower and sinking the Tempest's fleet. Kleia, the Tempest's mother and an ally of the Eagle Bearer, reveals that the Order consider the Tempest a Tainted One, and that they have been using her. The Tempest dies in combat with the Eagle Bearer, who secures safe passage for the refugees. In the aftermath, Darius and his child decide to settle down with the Eagle Bearer in Achaea. Some time later, the Eagle Bearer has a son, Elpidios, with Darius' child.
In ''Bloodline'', the Eagle Bearer retires from life as a mercenary to spend time with Darius, his child, and Elpidios in Achaea. Amorges and the Order attack their village, killing Darius' child and abducting Elpidios. The Eagle Bearer and Darius make their way to Messenia, the Order's stronghold in Greece. They lure Amorges out of hiding, but he refuses to return Elpidios as he believes the Eagle Bearer's violent lifestyle will ultimately harm him. Amorges claims that the Order is an idea and not a group of people, meaning that the Eagle Bearer and Elpidios will always be targeted. However, Darius states that knowledge can fight this, and reconciles with Amorges, who reveals Elpidios's location before dying. Knowing that Elpidios will never be safe, the Eagle Bearer entrusts Darius to look after his grandson. Darius takes Elpidios to Egypt, when it is revealed that he would become the ancestor to Aya of Alexandria, the wife of Bayek of Siwa and co-founder of the Hidden Ones, a precursor organization to the Brotherhood of Assassins.
A drug lord becomes embroiled in a fierce fight to maintain his honor after a deadly gun attack in Manhattan's neighborhood of Harlem.
The series follows Jillian Lauren, as she lures and investigates Sam Little, the most prolific serial killer in American history.
David and Lisa are working around their house preparing for their long journey to the mountains of beyond because their time on Earth is almost over. Lisa is sad about it but David comforts her, suddenly they hear a knock on the door. It's an arctic mouse with a message from David's friend Casper who wishes to accompany them on the long journey because his time on Earth is almost over as well and doesn't want to go alone. David and Lisa begin to leave with Lisa wearing the pendant that David gave to her when they got engaged. They let out their mice and their cricket, blow out the candles, and leave their home for the last time.
Outside they are greeted by their forest animal friends who wish them luck. David and Lisa then hop on Swift the fox and head off to the blue mountains to pick up Casper. When they arrive at Casper's house he invites them all inside for a farewell dinner before they go. When they get inside and sit down for dinner they talk about how their time is nearly over and that things never last forever, not even gnomes. They then share toasts to the many things in their lives: friendship, themselves, the gnomes who will come after them, Casper's books, their families, their future generations, their ancestors, and the humans who have been friends to the gnomes.
David, Lisa, and Casper hop on Swift to leave for the mountains of beyond and Casper says farewell to his home as it's being buried in snow. Swift manages to run through the snow and the forest until they finally reach the mountain. David and Lisa say goodbye to Swift and head up the mountain with Casper. They tell Swift to head back home once they reach the top of the mountain, but as he is leaving Swift turns back and runs up to the top of the mountain. Because although he was told to leave Swift couldn't find it in his heart to go home without seeing David and Lisa one last time.
In the meadow, on the mountain, David and Lisa say their goodbyes to each other and pass on turning into two intertwined apple trees. Casper then passes on turning into an oak tree, this causing Swift to howl in sadness. On his way home Swift meets another gnome named Christopher and his fox Agnes. Both foxes become romantically interested in each other and walk together with Christopher who says goodbye to the viewers.
The scene then cuts to the spirits of David and Lisa who also say goodbye.
Scorpio Squad's Condor air transport crashes on the island of Pahanu while en route to a secret mission. Scorpio sends out a distress signal and are rescued from Swarm forces by a King Raven helicopter piloted by Jasi Tak, an associate of recurring series character Colonel Victor Hoffman. Upon departure, they witness the Swarm forces being annihilated by an unseen, acid-spitting creature.
Scorpio are flown to the island of Galangi where they convene with Hoffman and the scientist Hana Cole, daughter of Delta Squad member Augustus Cole. Hoffman explains that Pahanu contains a Swarm hive beneath an old abandoned bunker and that he wants them to deliver a chemical bomb made with toxic gas recovered from the New Hope Research Facility to the hive. Leveraging Keegan's clearance level as a member of the Onyx Guard, Scorpio infiltrates the bunker. Mac impulsively tosses the bomb down a deep shaft, which kills many of the Swarm forces but fails to completely destroy the hive as it proves to be ineffective against heavier Swarm forces.
Returning to Hoffman and Hana, Scorpio reports on the failure of the bomb. Remembering the creature from the beach, Mac suggests using its venom against the Swarm. Hana theorizes that combining it with the New Hope gas could create an effective weapon. Lahni recalls stories that her grandmother had told her of a legendary creature and suggests visiting her kin on the nearby island of Weilehi to learn more about it. Joined by Hana, Scorpio visits the island, only to discover that the village has been overrun and its people consumed by the Swarm. Lahni finds information on the creature identifying it as the Wakaatu, a massive bird-like beast that spits a powerful toxic venom which the Weilehan use in a rite of passage known as the Awakening. They later discover that the Swarm were able to reach the island from Pahanu using lava tubes just before Hana is captured by a Snatcher. Scorpio chases the Snatcher through the lava tubes and rescues Hana, who is then airlifted out by Tak. Inspired by Hana's ordeal, Mac proposes an idea where the squad would allow themselves to be captured by Snatchers in order to reach the heart of a hive and deploy their bomb. Tak's King Raven is later attacked by the Wakaatu, but successfully escapes the creature.
Deducing that they are actually part of a rogue operation, Scorpio returns to Hoffman's estate and confronts him, where he admits that he had been forced into retirement after clashing with First Minister Jinn over her decision to rely on the COG's robotic army dubbed "DeeBees" as their line of defense against the Swarm. Nevertheless, Scorpio place their hope to stop the Swarm and save humanity on Hana's proposal to weaponize the Wakaatu's venom. Returning to Pahanu, Scorpio follows the path of the Awakening and reaches the Wakaatu's nest. The squad battles the Wakaatu and wounds it enough to take a sample of its venom.
With the venom sample, Hana is able to synthesize a more lethal version of the bomb, and devises a way to protect the squad from the incapacitating effects of the Snatchers so that they can consciously free themselves once inside a Swarm hive and destroy it. Armed with their new venom bombs, Scorpio allow Snatchers to capture them, taking them to the Swarm hives on Pahanu island where they can be destroyed from within as depicted in the base game's "Escape" multiplayer mode and the ''Hivebusters'' comic series.
A class of graduating high school seniors, nearing the crossroads of their lives, celebrate their last night together at the annual school lock-in. They never could have guessed that they're about to encounter the harbinger of death, the legendary "Coast to Coast Killer."
A former hairdresser takes a long walk across town after being tasked to style his former client’s hair for her funeral.
A man called "The Guesser" is a Class Three member of a strict, hierarchical space-going society, that is fighting against another civilization they know only as "Misfits". The Guesser has a talent for knowing where an enemy ship will be before even the on-board computers, and aiming a weapon to destroy it. Class One Executives have many privileges but are called on to make hard decisions. Lower classes such as Five and Six do menial work. All Class members must show deference to members of a higher class, and expect it from lower classes. Punishment for transgressing takes the form of induced nerve pain in jolts over several minutes.
The Guesser is waylaid and left for dead during leave on a planet. Stripped of his uniform and insignia, he misses the departure of his ship. He is befriended by a low class woman who wants to escape to a Misfit planet. Because she is only a cleaner, she can do some things without being observed. She has stolen the uniform of an Executive and wants the Guesser to wear it and take a ship to bring them both to a Misfit planet. However the Guesser takes the uniform, abandons her, and uses it to catch up with his original ship. In the process he finds that the responsibilities of an Executive are far more than he wants to handle, or indeed is capable of handling.
Reunited with his ship, he is told that he was waylaid by his subordinate, who wanted his job, but has failed to perform properly and been stripped of all his ranks. For impersonating an Executive, the Guesser is sentenced to more pain punishment. However, he is glad to be back.
In 1967 San Francisco, Celina Guerrera (Lorenza Izzo) is a studious teenager who attends a Catholic high school and is from a conservative immigrant family. When the course of her life is altered by an unplanned pregnancy, Celina sets out to rise above poverty and invest in a future for herself.
Clark Kent recalls the events of how he came to Earth from the planet Krypton, his adoption by Jonathan, who passed away from cancer, and Martha and life in Smallville before moving to Metropolis City where he became the superhero "Superman" and met his wife and ''Daily Planet'' journalist Lois Lane. Together, the couple had 2 sons Jonathan, and Jordan, raising them in Metropolis. Jonathan was more athletic and active while Jordan was diagnosed with a social anxiety disorder.
In the present-day, Superman stops a nuclear facility explosion, caused by a mysterious figure trying to gain his attention. Clark returns home where he congratulates Jonathan on being a quarterback for Smallville High School's football team and apologizing to Jordan for missing his therapy session. Clark gets fired from the ''Daily Planet'' after businessman Morgan Edge bought the company and passes on editor-in-chief to Samuel Foswell. Clark then gets a call from Dr. Fry who informs him that Martha had passed away from a stroke. A funeral is held for Martha in Smallville. There, he reunites with High School friend and ex-girlfriend Lana Lang, who is now married to Smallville's fire chief Kyle Cushing and have 2 daughters Sarah and Sophie, whom Clark's children also have met before. While exploring the barn to fix the Wi-Fi router, Sarah invites Jordan to a bonfire. Suddenly, Jordan and Jonathan become buried beneath heavy pipes. Sarah calls for Clark to rescue them. As a result, they are left with only mild concussions.
General Sam Lane informs Clark about a mysterious stranger who knows Clark's Kryptonian identity of Kal-El while also threatening that Kal isn't a hero. Clark and Lois visit the bank where Lana informs them of a mortgage Martha placed on her farm 5 years ago, which they either have to pay off or sell. Clark and Lois agree to sell the house. Meanwhile, Jordan and Jonathan explore the barn again and discover Clark's spaceship he came in. When Clark and Lois return from the bank, Clark reveals to his sons that he is Superman which leads into an argument.
Superman confronts the mysterious Stranger at another nuclear facility. He deduces to the Stranger that he chooses nuclear facility due to the fact he can't use his abilities to sense the stranger. The two then confront each other and their fight is taken to space where the stranger stabs Superman with Kryptonite, wounding him. Meanwhile, Jordan and Jonathan attend the bonfire Lana invited Jordan to earlier. Jordan and Lana bond leading Jordan to kiss her prompting Lana's boyfriend Sean Smith to attack Jordan. Jonathan intervenes to save Jordan although is tackled down by Sean, which triggers Jordan's powers to activate and uses them to save Jonathan. Elsewhere, the stranger, identified as “Captain Luthor”, returns to his base where he is informed by an A.I. that he had use the last of his Kryptonite.
A sixteen year old D'arc was seemingly destined for academical and magical mastery in a secluded tower. But this might all change when tested to find three items: a lock of hair from a powerful Enchantress, the unspoiled shell of Griffon's egg and the three-pronged horn of the legendary Trinicorn. He therefore travels to a forest with goblins, a desert wasteland with bandits, a vast lake with evil beauty and hostile mountain peaks.
The film tells the story of a young hitman who falls for a girl who witnesses him commit a murder. Unable to bring himself to dispose of her, he takes her home and quickly learns that there is more to her than meets the eye.
In ''Episode Gladiolus'', Gladiolus tests his strength against recurring ''Final Fantasy'' character Gilgamesh. Following his initial confrontation with Ravus, Gladiolus leaves the party to seek guidance from the leader of the Kingsglaive, Cor Leonis, who leads him to challenge Gilgamesh and claim his legendary sword.
''Episode Prompto'' follows the titular character after Ardyn tricks Noctis into throwing him from the train to Tenebrae. Waking up inside an Imperial research facility, Prompto discovers his true origin as an experimental clone of the mad scientist Verstael Besithia, designed as one of Niflheim's Magitek soldiers. With help from the mercenary Aranea Highwind, Prompto defeats Verstael—who transfers his soul into the Magitek machine Immortalis to conquer the world of Eos—before heading for Gralea.
''Episode Ignis'' follows Ignis during the Imperial assault on Altissia and allies with a disillusioned Ravus in the wake of the Astral Leviathan's rampage to attempt a rescue of Noctis and Lunafreya Nox Fleuret. After finding Lunafreya dead and Noctis unconscious, they are ambushed by Ardyn; Ignis takes the Ring of the Lucii, borne exclusively by the Kings of Lucis, and uses it to fight off Ardyn, which costs him his eyesight. In an alternate ending, he surrenders to Ardyn and gains knowledge that allows Noctis to save Eos without sacrificing himself.
In ''Episode Ardyn'', a prequel to the base game, Ardyn is revealed to have been imprisoned on Angelgard for two millennia by his brother Somnus after the Astrals denounce him for absorbing the Starscourge from victims. Ardyn's beloved Aera, Lunafreya's ancestor, was killed during the confrontation before Ardyn was sealed away. When Ardyn led an assault on Insomnia sometime after his liberated by Niflheim, he discovers that he was chosen by the Astrals to become a sacrificial vessel for the Starscourge; he reluctantly submits to this fate in exchange for revenge against Somnus's bloodline.
The player assumes control of a survivor of the Kingsglaive, a former bodyguard of Regis who abandoned him during Niflheim's attack on Lucis. Despite the peoples' mistrust, the Kingsglaive help defend humanity's last stronghold of Lestallum while experiencing visions of Noctis's resting place on the island of Angelgard. Drawn to Angelgard, the Kingsglaive face Bahamut in combat and are absolved of their treachery, dedicating themselves to protecting Angelgard from Daemons during Noctis's slumber.
When an international business merger is assigned to a rude & condescending senior executive, a curse that affects his ability to speak properly is cast on him by an office cleaner. The movie follows the story of a senior executive whose arrogance and highhandedness earns him a curse that makes him lose his ability to speak proper English ahead of a crucial international business merger deal. He must either find a way to lift the curse and secure the deal or resign to his fate.
A detective falls for a mysterious widow after she becomes the prime suspect in his latest murder investigation.
Mr. Cliday is an old man who has saved $10,000 after 20 years of employment at a pickle factory. He decides to invest the money in young Clara Wilson's education if she agrees to marry a rich man who will ensure that Mr. Cliday has enough money to support himself for the rest of his life. However, this means that Clara Wilson has to leave her current lover, Billie Perkins. Clara does not like any of the men who Cliday wants her to marry, but she nonetheless agrees to marry an Italian count. By the time of the wedding, Billy is able to pay Mr. Cliday the money needed to insure his retirement. At the wedding, Billy wears a disguise to look like the count. Clara doesn't realize this until well into the ceremony. Mr. Cliday also relieves her of her obligation to marry a rich man, and the film ends.
After discovering something terrible in the nuclear power plant, Waylon Smithers bribes Carl to keep what he has found quiet by giving him tickets to a Bob Seger concert. He invites Homer to join him, and he leaves Marge to chaperone a field trip on a World War II battleship, to her dismay.
At the field trip, Marge pairs up with the seemingly-boring Sarah Wiggum. After the latter sneakily tricks the children into going to bed early, Marge realizes that Sarah is not who she seems and is hiding her boisterous personality from the other mothers. The two are soon kidnapped after spending all night together, and Marge and Sarah find themselves in the lair of two women that Sarah surprisingly used to thrive with.
The other burglars, Erin and Bette, explain how, while they and Sarah were heisting a museum where Chief Clancy Wiggum was on duty, the fourth member of their team - Lindsay Naegle - betrayed them and had them arrested. However, Sarah was spared the fate due to falling in love and having slept with Chief Wiggum. They plot to steal the Hourglass Diamond from their betrayer and Marge turns out to be useful in the planning, so they recruit her for the heist.
They execute the heist perfectly until Naegle realizes she has been robbed. Naegle calls the police, and when they arrive, Homer and Wiggum instead apologize to their wives. While attempting to stop Marge and Sarah herself, she ends up tumbling down the long amount of stairs, allowing Marge and Sarah to escape publicly with the jewel, much to the surprise of Patty and Selma and their friends back at the Simpson house.
In 1971, Head of the British Intelligence Agency, Terrance, is sent to America after a Russian spy named the grey fox. 50 years pass, and Terrance has finally found a clue of where the Grey fox is which is in Springfield retirement home. After posing as the residence's new resident, he meets Homer and his friends at Moe's bar and bonds with them by telling them about his past life, and how his father was an oafish fool who screwed up every mission he was on, making a laughing stock of his reputation.
Later on, Terrance begins to suspect that Homer's father Abe may be the grey fox and interrogates Homer. Homer realizes that Abe may be the grey fox after Terrance reveals that Homer somehow keeps his job even though he screws it up all the time, and that Abe hates America.
The two then spy on Abe, and see him take a package from two Russian-looking men. Terrance asks Homer to trick Abe into Terrance's company. However, Homer cannot bring himself to bring Abe in, so Terrance (having now gone insane) kidnaps both Homer and Abe at gunpoint and plans to execute them both in the desert. Meanwhile Marge, Bart, and Lisa go to the retirement home to find Abe and Homer. They meet Terrance's daughter, who tells them that Terrance has kidnapped them. The family head to the desert with Chief Wiggum and arrest Terrance.
Abe feels sorry for Terrance and his failure to accomplish anything in his entire life, and pretends to be the grey fox, making Terrance feel proud.
Later on, Homer and Lisa hear a Russian voice in Maggie's room and believe she may be in communication with the Russians. But they learn that the voice is coming from her Russian-made toy.
This is the first ''Treehouse of Horror'' episode that consists of five segments instead of the usual three.
The opening segment parodies ''Bambi'', with a deer version of Marge Simpson warning her son Barti (Bart Simpson) and Milhouse Van Houten about a hunter. Milhouse is shot and killed while Barti and Marge run away. After his escape, Barti initially cannot find his mother, but later finds her unharmed as Homer and Lenny Leonard have killed the hunter (Mr. Burns). The fairy (Maggie) then uses her magic wand to make the episode's title appear in the sky.
In a parody of ''Parasite'', the Simpson family are living in a flooded basement apartment when Bart tells them he's gotten a job as a tutor for Rainier Wolfcastle's wealthy family. After Rainier fires Kirk Van Houten from his household staff, Bart recommends hiring Marge, Homer, Lisa and Maggie as the family's new servants. The Wolfcastles go on vacation, leaving the Simpsons alone with their house. As they are enjoying the perks of living in a rich family's home, Kirk suddenly returns and asks to be let in. When Marge lets him in, Kirk abruptly runs to the kitchen and reveals a hidden passageway to a basement bunker, where his family has been living. A chaotic, class-driven fight breaks out between the Simpsons and Van Houtens, which soon breaks out among most of the other impoverished Springfielders. After the brawl, the Simpson family are the last ones standing in the badly damaged Wolfcastle house with a pile of corpses now in the living room.
Homer is tired of Bart telling scary stories on Halloween in his treehouse every year, so Homer chops it down. The tree trunk is struck by lighting and comes to life. After the tree finds out people chop down trees for Christmas, it brings other trees and plants to life and they ravage Springfield and kill most of its residents. The trees celebrate while the townspeople's corpses have been stacked like a Christmas tree.
In a parody of the artwork of Edward Gorey, Vincent Price reads a scary bedtime story to Maggie about how Bart is doing his usual pranks and mischief.
He begins with each month and how he creates trouble for everyone first starting off with January where he puts worms in Homer's waffles.
In February, he catfishes Edna Krabappel which he did back in season 3.
In March, he unscrewed the swings and caused several injuries.
In April, he prints his butt on a printer.
In May, he steals Skinners car and crashes it into the school pole.
In June, he takes his first sip of beer and crashes his bike.
In July, he cuts Lisa's doll heads off.
In August, he attempts to scorch a turtle, but instead he scorches his hair.
In September, he spends the whole month in detention.
In October, he eats all his Halloween candy until he gets sick.
Finally in November. he is allowed to cut the turkey during thanksgiving but instead he cuts the rest of the Simpson family's heads off!
Before Vincent can get to December, Maggie strangles him with her Phonics frog string and presses the buttons (R-I-P) and then goes to sleep.
In a parody of ''The Ring'', at Springfield Elementary, Sherri and Terri tell Lisa they had a party and didn't invite her, and all watched a TikTok that allegedly kills anyone who watches it after seven days. All of the children who watched it die shortly thereafter, and Lisa and Bart investigate its origin. They find out from Groundskeeper Willie that the TikTok is haunted by the ghost of Mopey Mary, a girl who didn't receive any valentines on Valentine's Day and died after falling down a well. Lisa watches the TikTok and summons the ghost of Mary, who attacks Lisa but stops when Lisa gives her a valentine. Lisa and Mary become friends, but Mary begins to feel smothered by Lisa and escapes by jumping back down the well. Kang and Kodos sing at the end of this "Treehouse of Horror" episode.
Grampa receives an urgent phone call telling him that Bart is in jail and that he needs to get $10,000 to the "authorities" or Bart will face a massive prison sentence. Because Grampa not-unreasonably finds the notion of Bart being in jail to be plausible and also because he wants to help his grandson, he does wire the money, only to realize that he was the victim of a scam. Everyone except Homer feels bad for Grampa and consoles him with their own stories of being scammed.
When Homer learns that Grampa lost his $10,000 and that the money was planned as an inheritance for himself, he gets so angry that he keeps mocking and yelling at Grampa at length. Marge, Lisa and Bart finally get him to stop treating Grampa so badly over an honest mistake after Homer gets scammed himself and they all go over to the retirement home so Homer can apologize—and they are all there when another scammer calls in to try the same "(Person) In Jail" scam by using Lisa's name.
Lisa then gets an idea that involves Grampa using his talent of having long aimless conversations to keep the scammers talking until Lisa can use advanced computer software to pinpoint their location to a building in Shelbyville. The family heads there and finds out the place is a boiler room operation whose callers are not criminal masterminds but people (including Moe) working for minimum-wage gift cards. Chief Wiggum and his fellow police officers break up the ring, but Marge wonders if they really did any good considering how corrupt the entire world is. She later decides she will not let herself become that cynical, and gives a woman claiming to have a faulty credit card $20 to buy gas and her address to send it back. Some time later, Marge does get the money back in the post, and her faith in humanity is restored—as it is revealed that Grampa actually sent her the letter and the money, not wanting to see Marge's spirit be ruined by the evil of scams around the world.
As the credits roll, Moe is shown using well-known scam methods, possibly as a guide to prevent being scammed.
Evergreen Terrace's street is overcome by a major traffic jam and everyone is miserable. Meanwhile, Moe Szyslak is sitting in his car waiting for the traffic to move when he sees a maroon car behind him and believes he remembers it from his past.
Later that night, the Simpson family call the entire neighborhood to discuss the traffic problem, and learn that the entire family is highly disliked due to their annoying antics. After realizing the neighborhood hates them, Homer promises to redeem themselves. Afterwards, he goes to Professor Frink and Frink digitally takes the street off the maps, thus getting rid of traffic on that street. The townspeople hail Homer as a hero, but he quickly gets annoyed by their praises.
Meanwhile, Moe finds the car behind him belongs to his former little person girlfriend Maya, from "Eeny Teeny Maya Moe". Maya quickly asks Moe to get back together and he gladly accepts her back. The two spend a large amount of time at the bar and begin singing, but Moe worries Maya might leave him again just like every other girl in his life.
A grief stricken Moe then heads to Bart's treehouse in very emotional pain. Homer then convinces Moe to leave the treehouse by telling him Maya loves him and she would never leave him. The two reconcile and kiss and Moe proposes to Maya, who happily accepts.
At an abandoned water park, Bart and Lisa contract a bizarre infection, requiring treatment from steroids that cause temporary weight gain. Before they go back to school, Marge calls Lisa "chunky" with affection, which causes her to be insecure about her weight. Marge takes Lisa to the mall, shopping for back-to-school clothes to make her feel better. She later says "flattering", making the word "chunky" grow bigger in Lisa's mind. Lisa gets cranky in front of the customers and workers, so Marge takes her home.
Homer asks Lisa what is wrong. He lets Patty and Selma take her to the park where they describe how they no longer care what people think of them. Later, Marge apologizes to Lisa about what she said to her, but says words like "Normal" and "Perfect" to Lisa, making "Chunky" grow bigger and causing her more frustration. In the piano store, Luann tells Marge about a hypnotherapist named Dr. Wendy Sage, who had a mastectomy and chose not to have breast reconstruction surgery.
Lisa and Marge visit Sage, who uses hypnotherapy on them, transferring them to Lisa's mind. They see the "Chunky" word which takes up the entire space of her mind. They then travel to Marge's mind, where they discover that Marge's mother had said a hurtful word to her as a child: "plain". The word has been in her head for years. Realizing each other's insecurities, Marge and Lisa profess their love to each other, thus making "chunky" and "plain" shrink.
Meanwhile, when Bart's sleeve rips while playing basketball, Jimbo, Dolph, Kearney, and Nelson take him to an underground basement in school where they teach him to get into shape and become a man. When Bart sees the guys hanging around with their girlfriends, he feels betrayed, runs away from the basement and plays basketball with the other children.
During the credits, it is shown that there are words in everyone else's heads. Homer is shown as a child sleeping in a hammock with the many words he heard as a child (Lazy, dumb, stupid, fat, greedy) scattered around him. The scene changes to him as an adult, sleeping in the hammock, and the words have been replaced with empty beer cans and jars of peanuts in his hands.
In Iceland, a herd of horses is spooked by an unknown, loudly-breathing entity that makes its way to a barn. Later, farmer María and her husband Ingvar are shocked when one of their pregnant sheep gives birth to a human/sheep hybrid with a mostly human body and a lamb's head and right arm.
María and Ingvar take the hybrid infant in as their own and grow to love her as their own child, naming her Ada after Maria's deceased daughter. Ada's biological mother becomes a nuisance, attempting to contact Ada constantly and loitering outside the couple's home. Shortly after an incident where Ada goes missing and is later found next to the mother, María shoots Ada's mother and buries her body in a shallow, unmarked grave. Unbeknownst to her, Ingvar's brother Pétur, who arrives at the farmhouse shortly before the killing, witnesses the incident before sleeping in the barn.
Pétur, who makes sexual advances towards María in an attempt to rekindle a past affair, is very disturbed by Ada and maintains the belief that "it's an animal, not a child". Ingvar claims the whole situation has given them happiness. Increasingly angered and disturbed by María and Ingvar's attachment to Ada, Pétur takes her on an early morning walk while everyone is asleep with the intention of shooting her. After having a tearful change of heart, however, he is later seen soundly sleeping with Ada and soon becomes an uncle to her.
One evening, while María, Pétur, and Ingvar are having a drunken party, Ada witnesses the unknown entity from before near the barn. The entity then proceeds to kill the family's dog before taking the family's gun. After the party, a drunk Ingvar goes to bed. Pétur makes sexual advances towards María once again. When she rejects his advances, Pétur reveals that he witnessed María killing Ada's sheep mother, trying to blackmail María into having sex with him by threatening to reveal this to Ada.
María pretends to be seduced by Pétur in order to lock him in a closet. María drives him to the bus stop the next morning and sends him away, insisting she is committed to a new start with her family. After waking up to find María and Pétur missing, Ingvar takes Ada to fix the broken tractor. On their way back home, the entity, revealed to be a ram/man hybrid and Ada's biological father, emerges and shoots Ingvar in the neck, before taking a tearful Ada with him and walking away into the wilderness.
María returns home and finds that Ingvar and Ada are missing. She searches for the two and discovers Ingvar before he dies, and despairs at the loss of her husband and new child. María searches the wilderness in vain, before closing her tear-filled eyes.
The film is set in German-occupied Zeeland in September 1944 following the Normandy landings. Teuntje Visser works in the office of the collaborationist mayor. While she and her father (a medical doctor) avoid choosing sides, her younger brother Dirk is a member of the Dutch Resistance. Dirk is arrested for attacking a passing German convoy, and is tortured into revealing the names of other Resistance members.
Meanwhile, Marinus van Staveren, a Dutch volunteer in the Waffen-SS Division Das Reich, is reassigned from battle in Narva, Estonia on the Eastern Front to serve as a secretary and translator for the German commandant in Zeeland, Oberst Berghof. Marinus grows increasingly disillusioned with the Nazis' heavy-handed tactics including the execution of civilian hostages. He sympathises with Teuntje and her father as they attempt to negotiate a lighter sentence for Dirk in Berghof's office. Despite initial assurances that Dirk will be treated leniently, Berghof ultimately orders that Dirk be executed along with the other Resistance members without exception. Marinus tries to pass the news secretly to Teuntje but is spotted by a German officer who reports him to Berghof. As punishment, he is selected to be part of the firing squad lineup for Dirk's execution and sent back to combat duty.
After Dirk's death, Teuntje is drawn into the Resistance. Teuntje learns that Dirk had been covertly photographing German artillery positions along the Scheldt river. Teuntje steals a tidal map of Sloe Channel from the mayor's office which shows a deep section of the channel that would allow Allied forces to safely cross. She and her best friend, a Resistance member named Janna, are tasked with smuggling Dirk's photographs and the map to the Allied forces advancing on Walcheren island.
Elsewhere, Glider Pilot Regiment Sergeant Will Sinclair, Captain Tony Turner, and Free Dutch Forces soldier Henk Sneijder crash-land in a flooded estuary in Zeeland after their Airspeed Horsa glider is hit by anti-aircraft fire during Operation Market Garden. Turner is wounded during the crash-landing. After wading through the marshes, they stop at a farmhouse where they meet a Dutch farmer who informs them that Operation Market Garden was a failure and that the Canadian Army have crossed the Belgian border and entered Holland. They decide to head for the Canadian lines. They take shelter in a house but are abandoned by the other members of their unit. They are then attacked by German soldiers, and Turner is killed. Henk, exhausted and unable to swim, is eventually left behind by Sinclair, who reaches the Allied line and joins Canadian Army forces advancing on Walcheren island.
Prior to the Battle of Walcheren Causeway, Teuntje is captured while helping Janna escape on a boat with the photographs and map. Janna is shot and mortally wounded, but makes it to the Allied lines before dying. Marinus takes part in the German defence of Walcheren island while Sinclair participates in the Allied assault. Both sides sustain heavy casualties but the Allied forces ultimately prevail. Marinus deserts the German forces. During the battle, Sinclair and Marinus cross paths but the two men decide to let each other go.
Near the end of the battle, Marinus kills a German soldier attempting to execute Teuntje. Marinus is shot during the struggle. A grateful Teuntje tends to him, but Marinus dies of his injuries. Sinclair and other Allied soldiers find Teuntje next to Marinus' body. Teuntje walks away as the town is liberated.
The film then mentions that the Allied victory at Walcheren Causeway opened to Allied forces a sea route to the port of Antwerp and helped contribute to the Allied liberation of the Netherlands on 5 May 1945.
While the world continues to grasp with the COVID-19 pandemic and much of the world is in lockdown, actor Larry Boyle enters an audition where casting director Joel forces him to pass a series of tests in order to keep those around him alive.
As events escalate and more people around the world are trapped in Joel's web Larry must confront his past, overcome his present, and answer the most pressing question about this game - Why?
The protagonist, a plain-looking college student, discovers that he is living in a world where scenarios seen in boys' love stories are common, culminating in his male acquaintances falling in love. However, the protagonist wants to be nothing more than a background character and avoids getting into one of these situations himself, all while commenting on the events unfolding.
A thousand years ago, the world was at war. Led by the Six Dark Lords, humanity as a whole was nearly led to the brink of extinction. However, humanity had hope in the form of the Six Heroes. With their power, the Six Dark Lords fell one by one until finally, only one remained. In the year 447 of the Holy Calendar, the Undead King, Leonis Death Magnus, also fell but before his capital, Necrozoa, was conquered, he sealed his own body with a powerful barrier and cast a resurrection spell on himself. He declared that he will concede victory only this once but he shall rise again in one thousand years to conquer humanity for that is the mission given to him by the Goddess of Rebellion.
In the present time, a young girl named Riselia Ray Crystalia stumbled upon the ancient ruins of Leonis's mausoleum. Accidentally undoing the seal, Leonis awakens after his thousand-year slumber in the body of a ten-year-old human child. Mistaken to be a refugee of the Voids, Riselia takes Leonis into her care and Leonis begins his mission to uncover what has happened to the world while he slept.
Stuart Long is an amateur boxer from Helena, Montana with a foul mouth and a troubled relationship with his mother and alcoholic father. His brother Stephen died at age six, leading to a rift in the family and causing his parents to be hostile towards religion. He moves to southern California to try to make it as an actor, and gets a job in a grocery store, reasoning that everyone shops for groceries and it will be easier to get connected in the entertainment industry. He is arrested for a DUI and attempts to steal his father's truck to make it to an audition.
While working in the store he meets a woman named Carmen, whom he tracks to a local Catholic parish, where she is a volunteer Sunday school teacher. Carmen resists his advances at first, but Stu is persistent. She tells him she would not even consider dating him unless he gets baptized. Stu agrees and begins RCIA at the parish. He is befriended by a fellow parishioner named Ham, but is looked down upon by another named Jacob. Both Ham and Jacob are headed for the seminary. Stu is baptized in the parish. He and Carmen begin dating and he later meets her parents.
Stu gets an apartment and tries to clean up his drinking, and lands an acting role on an infomercial. However, he faces discouragement and returns to the bar one night where a mysterious man gives him some advice and tells him not to drive home. Stu ignores the advice and drives drunk on a motorcycle, crashing in to a car and being thrown off the motorcycle and run over by another car. Severely injured, he drifts in and out of consciousness and has a vision of the Blessed Mother who tells him that he cannot die in vain. After EMTs arrive, Stu is transported to the hospital, where a doctor tells Stu's mother that he is going to die. Suddenly he begins to stir in the hospital and begins making a miraculous recovery. His father visits and re-establishes contact, though their relationship is still very strained.
Carmen visits Stu as he is recovering at home and the two have sex, which she had previously said she would not do before marriage, leading to intense regret for both of them. Stu confesses the sin and begins to transform himself to be the man that Mary asked him to be. He begins feeling a call to the priesthood, and after prayer and discernment decides to pursue the seminary. He asks Carmen to come with him to a restaurant where she thinks he is going to propose to her. When he tells her of his plan, she tries to convince him not to do it, as do his mother and father, to no avail. Stu applies to the seminary and is rejected at first, but visits in person to appeal to the rector and is accepted. By this point, Ham and Jacob are also in the seminary. Ham is a reliable friend, but Jacob is something of a rival.
One day while playing basketball with fellow seminarians, Stu falls and is unable to get up on his own. He is diagnosed with inclusion body myositis, a rare muscular disease similar to Lou Gehrig's disease which has no cure and typically does not strike people as young as he is, and the prognosis is grim. Stu is angry with God but comes to understand his suffering as a gift from God which draws him closer to the suffering of Christ, and with much difficulty continues in the seminary. Carmen, now engaged to another man, visits him at the seminary and supports his vocation. After some time passes, he begins losing use of his hands. The rector tells Stu that he cannot be ordained, citing his inability to celebrate the Sacraments of the Catholic Church. Stu moves back to Montana with his parents, who care for him as his muscles continue to decay, his weight increases, and he loses the ability to live independently. His father, meanwhile, attends Alcoholics Anonymous, where he admits in group therapy that he feels partly responsible for his son's condition by his neglect and absence.
The parishioners from Stu and Carmen's church in California petition the Diocese of Helena to ordain Stu, to which the bishop agrees, and Stu is ordained in Montana with Carmen, Ham, and his parents in attendance. Father Stu begins ministry and quickly develops relationships with people in Montana. He is later confined to a skilled nursing facility, where he continues to minister to the people of the diocese, who flock to see him every day. Jacob visits him there and during confession admits that he never felt capable of becoming a priest and only pursued it to please his father. Father Stu assures him that there are other ways to serve God and he does not need to feel pressured to do something he isn't called to do. After the confession, Jacob thanks Father Stu and wishes him goodbye, sensing it will be the last time. Father Stu dies at the age of 50. The closing credits show real images of Stu from his childhood and turbulent young adulthood to his time in the seminary and as a priest.