Jay Martin is a 13-year-old student at Columbus Hall competing for a scholarship to the prestigious Donald Peterson Academy with rival classmate and bully Ronny Van Dusen. The scholarship is the only one of its kind available, and if Jay doesn't obtain it, he will be sent to the all-boys Starkwell Military Academy his older brother, Mike, attends upstate, where their late father was a former student and teacher. Jay plans to study art at Peterson and he's prepared a presentation that he hopes will earn him the scholarship. The headmaster of Columbus and Ronny's father, Ward Van Dusen, confiscates Jay's presentation notecards because they contained drawings depicting him as a wolf in disguise. After Ward leaves the notecards lying around his office, Ronny copies the presentation and wins the scholarship by using it in the contest. When Jay brings this up with Ward, he expresses intentions to look into it, only for Jay to later overhear Ward instructing his son to get rid of any evidence he plagiarized the speech.

Jay breaks into Ronny's pool house while the Van Dusen family is at the award ceremony in order to take his presentation back and prove to the judges it was stolen. However, Ward's wife, Eliza's show dog, Camille, discovers Jay and follows him home after she nearly gets him caught by their maid. When the Van Dusens return home, they find their maid shaken up and Camille missing, and based on the maid's recount of seeing a disguised Jay leave the pool house, they believe she has been dognapped. Camille goes crazy and wrecks the Martin's home when she goes too long without her anti-anxiety medication. After Jay spends hours trying to comfort the dog, Camille withstands no more and explodes.

Mike comes home from school while the boys' mother is away taking care of their injured aunt and finds the house a mess and Camille with a nervous breakdown. After Jay confesses what happened with the speech and the dog, the two try to buy time to get her back home. After Ward disavows any knowledge of Ronny's theft and plagiarism to Mike during a phone call, Mike reveals to Jay that Ward has had a long history of nepotism ever since he was named headmaster; during Mike's time at Columbus, Ward cut him from the baseball team to make room for his nephew, who had never even played the sport in his life. Knowing how hard Jay worked to try to obtain the Peterson scholarship, the two brothers seek to avenge their family's honor. Ward is then visited by his father-in-law, the former headmaster of Columbus Hall, Armand Columbus, who orders him to get his daughter's dog back or Ward will lose his job. Ward is hesitant, at first, having hated Camille to begin with due to his allergies, but agrees to numerous bizarre acts requested by Jay and Mike just to get Camille home and Armand off his back. Over time, Camille calms down and accepts Jay as a friend.

Reaching his limit, Ward finally calls the police to tap into the calls he usually received from the two boys (who used a voice disguiser). Jay and Mike come up with a plan and frame Ronny for the dog's absence. The plan works thanks to a strategy where the Van Dusens and the police find Camille in Ronny's pool house, as well as the voice changer they used for further incrimination. When Ward confronts Ronny over Camille's kidnapping, assuming that he did it because Ward refused to buy him a brand-new BMX bike and Ronny planned to use the ransom money to get it himself, Armand sees through the whole story, prompting him to say "the apple doesn't fall very far from the tree" in realization of Ward's nepotism during his tenure as headmaster and that he has passed his corrupt behavior on to Ronny as a result.

In the end, after investigating further and uncovering the full truth about Ronny and Ward's misdeeds, Armand comes out of retirement and retakes his old position as headmaster of the school while demoting Ward to secretary. The scholarship competition is reopened and Jay is rightfully awarded the Peterson scholarship, while Ronny is sent to Starkwell as punishment for plagiarizing his speech and "kidnapping" Camille, and Camille is revealed to be expecting puppies, with Eliza offering Jay one of them. Because Eliza plans to keep most of the puppies, Ward is forced to move into the pool house due to his allergies while Ronny is away at school. While Ronny is doing drills at Starkwell, he is surprised to find his instructor is Mike, who plans to discipline him harder than the other cadets.

Video games

''Tsuyokiss''

''Tsuyokiss'' is about the lives of a group of fictional high school students and the often comedic events that occur in their lives. The main protagonist is an average boy named Leo Tsushima who is secretly in love with the eldest daughter of the Kiriya Corporation and who is the student council president - Erika Kiriya.

Later, a senior female student, Otome Kurogane, knocks out several of the main characters one day when they are trying to sneak into school after being late. Surprisingly, it turns out that she is Leo's beloved cousin that he had not seen for years. Suddenly, Otome decides to move into the same house as Leo, whose mediocre life is changing into something a bit more exciting. In the PlayStation 2 version, Leo begins to form relations with Sunao Konoe who is an old acquaintance.

''Tsuyokiss Nigakki''

''Tsuyokiss Nigakki'' is the sequel to ''Tsuyokiss'' where Leo was not in love to anyone in the first term. At the beginning of the second term, Leo has been worried about what to do after graduation because he does not know what his dream is. Then, Serebu Tachibana transfers to his class and she sits down next to him.

''Tsuyokiss Sangakki''

''Tsuyokiss Sangakki'' is the sequel to ''Tsuyokiss Nigakki'' where Leo was not in love with anyone during the first or second term.

Anime

The anime version's plot of ''Tsuyokiss'' differs from that of the video game's in that Sunao Konoe is the main protagonist of the story. Sunao, who finds out the school she transfers to does not have a drama club, becomes determined to form a drama club. Her main obstacle is having to prove to the student council president, Erika Kiriya, that forming a drama club would be worth her time which causes Erika to constantly offer challenges to Sunao for which she must pass in order for the club to be formed.

Characters from the ''Tsuyokiss'' visual novel appear in the anime. Leo Tsushima, the protagonist of the visual novel, is also the main male protagonist of the anime.

The game shares the same fictional universe with ''Earnest Evans'', and happens several years later. It also features many references to H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. The game takes place in New York City during the late 1920s, when cult leader Henry, the gangster Al Capone (Vincente DeMarcoto in the American localization), and a sorceress named Restiana plot to awaken the ancient and malevolent god Hastur. There are some people that have descended from Hastur's ancient bloodline, one of which is the young Peruvian sorceress, Annet Myer. With some assistance from Earnest Evans, Annet attempts to stop the cult from resurrecting Hastur using the very spells of this bloodline.

The narrative of ''Stone Butch Blues'' follows the life of Jess Goldberg, who grows up in a working-class area of upstate New York in the 1940s. Her parents, frustrated with Jess's gender nonconformity, eventually institutionalize Jess in a psychiatric ward for three weeks. When she reaches puberty and feels the weight of gendered difference, Jess learns of a gay bar from a coworker. There, she meets drag queens, butches, and femmes. Butch Al and Jacqueline take Jess in and teach her about lesbian roles and culture. After a police raid, the bar closes and Jess loses touch with Butch Al and Jacqueline. At school, football players harass Jess, tackling and gang-raping her. Traumatized, she drops out of school the next day, packing her bags and running away from home to a lesbian bar, where a butch, Toni, offers to let Jess sleep on her couch.

Jess finds her place in the lesbian community of Buffalo while the cops continue to raid gay bars. Jess is arrested, beaten, and raped by them. In a traumatized state, Jess and Toni fight, and Jess is left houseless again. She is taken in by Angie, a femme sex worker. The two have an intimate conversation and then sex. When Angie attempts to touch her, Jess cringes. Angie identifies Jess as a stone butch, assuring Jess that there is nothing wrong with being stone.

Jess gets a factory job and gets involved in union organization, but is alienated by male coworkers. One man intentionally jams Jess's machine, severely injuring Jess and leaving her unemployed. At her next job, Jess meets Theresa. Theresa is fired after opposing her boss for sexually harassing her, and Jess begins to date her. With Theresa, Jess matures, learns to take responsibility in relationships, and softens her stony exterior. Jess proposes, and they are unofficially wedded at the bar, a drag queen leading the procession.

Cops continue raids and retaliation increases, the crowd inspired by the Stonewall riots. Jess and the others are arrested, beaten, and raped by the police. Theresa, who takes care of Jess after raids, attends feminist meetings, where others treat her love of butches as a betrayal of the feminist cause. Meanwhile, Jess talks at length about her gender confusion, feeling like neither man nor woman. Theresa is confused and encourages Jess to forget about it, but the two later argue over Jess's gender. Jess learns about, and decides to pursue, medical transition. Theresa disapproves, and they break up.

Jess starts taking testosterone, gets chest reconstruction surgery, and begins to pass as a male. While relieved to be safer in public, Jess has complex feelings about her loss of visibility as a lesbian. She asks out Annie, a barista, and they have a date at Annie's house. Before they have sex, Jess slips into her strap-on without Annie noticing, effectively passing as male through their encounter. The next day, Jess accompanies Annie to a wedding, where Annie makes several homophobic comments. Horrified by Annie's use of slurs and insinuation that gay people are sex offenders, Jess leaves.

After years of passing as a man, Jess stops taking testosterone. She no longer passes as male and feels continually more comfortable in her gender nonconforming body. After encountering Theresa and her new partner at a grocery store, Jess decides she needs to leave Buffalo and moves to New York City. She moves in next to Ruth, a drag queen and trans woman. They develop a loving friendship and eventually move in together. Jess begins doing activist work in the city, giving speeches to large audiences on queer and trans rights.

As the novel closes, the two embarking on a road trip to visit Ruth's parents, and Jess returns to Buffalo and reconnects with friends from her past. Jess feels her life coming full circle, and she is filled with wary hope for her future with Ruth.

Nearly all reviewers of the book mention the byzantine nature of the plot. Louis Menand in ''The New Yorker'' gives a simple description: [https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/11/27/do-the-math ''The New Yorker''] Menand, Louis, "Do the Math: Thomas Pynchon's latest novel", ''The New Yorker'', November 27, 2006 edition, posted November 20, accessed November 28, 2006

: "[T]his is the plot: An anarchist named Webb Traverse, who employs dynamite as a weapon against the mining and railroad interests out West, is killed by two gunmen, [...] who were hired by the wicked arch-plutocrat Scarsdale Vibe. Traverse's sons [...] set out to avenge their father’s murder. [...] Of course, there are a zillion other things going on in ''Against the Day'', but the Traverse-family revenge drama is the only one that resembles a plot [...] that is, in Aristotle’s helpful definition, an action that has a beginning, a middle, and an end. The rest of the novel is shapeless [...]"

As to the multitude of plot dead-ends, pauses and confusing episodes that return to continue much later in the narrative, Menand writes:

: "[T]he text exceeds our ability to keep everything in our heads, to take it all in at once. There is too much going on among too many characters in too many places. [...] This [including tone shifts in which Pynchon spoofs various styles of popular literature] was all surely part of the intention, a simulation of the disorienting overload of modern culture."

Holly (Norman Lovett) tracks an unidentified object near to ''Red Dwarf'' and brings it aboard. When Arnold Rimmer (Chris Barrie) sees it, he quickly believes it to be a stasis capsule carrying a dormant member of an alien race that can give him a new body. However, when he leaves it in the observation room and awaits it being cleared of quarantine, Dave Lister (Craig Charles) makes a closer inspection and finds it to be one of the ships' jettisoned garbage pods. When Holly admits to him that he didn't say anything about this to Rimmer as a joke, Lister decides to keep quiet as well.Howarth & Lyons (1993) p. 48. While leaving Rimmer to carry out fruitless examinations of the pod, Lister becomes curious about Cat (Danny John-Jules) and his sudden disappearances for "investigating", and decides to learn more about his people.

Lister learns the Cat race lived their lives according to five sacred religious laws (four of which Lister himself would have broken because of his lifestyle), and that Cat's race destroyed itself in holy wars over minor details of their heaven "Fuchal" (based on a misunderstanding of Lister's future plans on Fiji). When Cat disappears again, Lister follows him to the ship's cargo hold, whereupon he discovers Cat has been attending to one other survivor – an elderly and blind cat priest. Learning that he is dying, Lister overhears him questioning his faith to his race's god "Cloister", and asks Cat to burn his priest's hat. Lister opts to prevent this and convinces the priest he lived an admirable life and will soon reach "Fuchal", causing the priest to be joyous on his final day before he dies.Howarth & Lyons (1993) p. 49. Returning to the upper decks, Lister joins Rimmer to examine the pod's contents after its quarantine period is over. When Rimmer begins to see garbage and doubts what he originally thought, he finally deduces angrily what he was investigating over the episode's closing credits.

While snooping through Kristine Kochanski's quarters for her hologram disc, despite the fact they were not decontaminated, Dave Lister (Craig Charles) contracts a mutated strain of pneumonia. The condition causes Lister to become delirious and experience hallucinations, all of which become physical in presence, including fish raining in his sleeping quarters (which Cat (Danny John-Jules) later eats), and the Mayor of Warsaw from 1546 appearing and then spontaneously combusting. Arnold Rimmer (Chris Barrie) later reveals this to Lister, before stating that he also caused two men to appear in the Drive Room. Lister discovers that the men each symbolise a part of his personality: Confidence (Craig Ferguson), who appears as a tall, tanned, flashily-dressed game show host-type man; and Paranoia (Lee Cornes), who appears as a stooped, pallid, black suit-clad little man.Howarth & Lyons (1993) p. 49.

Despite Rimmer's warning that they are symptoms of his condition and thus dangerous, Lister spends time with Confidence and quickly figures out through him that Rimmer hid Kochanski's hologram disc in the solar panels outside their sleeping quarters and that a second hologram could be projected if all unnecessary power is switched off. Rimmer soon learns that someone smashed the Medical Unit's computer to prevent Lister receiving treatment, and warns Lister that he is in mortal danger. Rimmer assumes that Paranoia is the culprit, since he has disappeared. While on a spacewalk to recover the hologram disc, Lister questions Paranoia's actions, only to learn that Confidence was the culprit and had murdered the other to spend more time with him. Confidence soon pressures Lister into suicidal acts, and dies from the vacuum of space when he removes his helmet. After recovering, Lister prepares to use the disc after retrieving it, but discovers when he uses it that Rimmer planned for this by having it contain a second hologram of himself.Howarth & Lyons (1993) p. 50.

The film is based on Zane Grey's 1923 novel of two brothers, one an honest cowpoke, the other a gambler. When Adam Larey (Jack Holt) confronts his younger brother Guerd (James Mason) about his gambling addiction, the latter is accidentally shot. A distraught Adam, believing he has killed his own brother, flees into the desert. He later learns that Guerd was merely wounded and returns to the loving arms of beautiful Ruth Virey (Billie Dove).

''Moromeţii - volume 1'' (1955)

''Moromeţii I'' is the first novel in the series, written at the time when Preda was known to the public and critics for his short stories.

Ilie Moromete, his wife Catrina, their children Ilinca, Tita and Niculae, and Ilie's older sons from a previous marriage, Paraschiv, Nilă and Achim, seem to live, although not excepted from difficulties, a regular life. Their story, covering a couple of years in the late 1930s, is in some way the negation of the opening phrase of the novel: "In the Danube fields, a few years before World War II, it seemed that time was very patient with people; life was going on here without major conflicts".

Starting several pages later, time itself seems to have accelerated, with the rhythm of peasant life replacing that of nature. The Morometes, like many other peasant families who received small plots of land in the reform, have to pay land taxes - which accumulate with each passing year. The debt, worsened by the low crop prices following the Great Depression in Romania is only the starting point of Ilie's turmoil: he, a respected figure in the village community, has to face not only the shame of fighting the tax collector but, in what is the actual drama, the incomprehension of his family. Indeed, the three older sons do not stand their stepmother and her children, and want their father to sell a particular plot of land and split the sum with them - the brothers are also planning to start new lives in the capital Bucharest. Braving Ilie's refusal, they run away from home with the family horses, stealing their stepsisters' dowry. Moromete ends up selling a part of the land, paying back the tax debt, and ceding to his wife's request to pay tuition for their youngest boy Niculae.

''Moromeţii - volume 2'' (1967)

Published twelve years later (the author wrote two more novels in the meanwhile) and surprising censorship and socialist-obedient literary critics, the second volume is mainly a distinct novel from the first one : except for the action place, the village of Siliştea-Gumeşti in Teleorman, the structure, the narrative technique and the style itself are different from ''Moromeţii I''.

''Moromeţii II'' focuses on a collective character - the village. Following World War II, a new, communist-regime world is being constructed, with its specific social ties and concerns. The moral conflict that constituted the theme of the first volume evolves into a social one, the land collective property, englobing the first. During forced collectivisation, a process that dramatically changed rural landscape, an aged Ilie Moromete, abandoned by his sons and his wife, left by his old friends, no longer seems to be able to fit.

Relevant pages describing Moromete make points against the "new society" credo of his youngest son Niculae, by now a young man sent to his own village by the Romanian Communist Party to carry out propaganda in favour of new collective farms. Denying merit to communism and its goal to eliminate private land ownership and transform peasants into farm workers, Moromete dies proud of "having lived like an independent man".

Set during the Japanese occupation of China, ''The Fortune Code'' tells the story of the occupants of a POW camp. When Wah Ying-hung (Andy Lau) manages to escape from the camp to meet up with his sweetheart, he learns that she is a spy. After being enrolled in the secret service he is sent back into the camp on a secret mission.

His mission is to get the code to a Swiss bank account which will release funds to save China; the only person who knows the code is known as the God of Fortune and is held captive in the camp.

Inspector Sam Lam (Lo Lieh) leads a drug raid and arrests the wife of Hoi Lung Triad leader Woody (Bill Lung) and the latter pleads with Hung Hing Triad leader Koo Sau-chung (Pau Fong), an ally of Sam, to negotiate with Sam to release his wife. Sau-chung meets up with Sam in a restaurant where the former was abducted by thugs and let off in the middle of the highway while the latter was shot dead by killers. Inspector Leung Chun-pong (Roy Cheung) of the Kowloon Regional Anti Triad Unit suspects Sau-chung being behind the murder of Sam and leads his squad to search the Koo mansion but leaves after failing to find any evidence. Sau-chung's third son, York (Andy Lau) arranges his father to flee to Taiwan to avoid arrest and clear connections with Sam in order to preserve the latter's reputation as an officer. Sau-chung appoints his eldest son, Mark (Jason Pai), as leader of Hung Hung before leaving but personally entrusts York to look over the triad and their businesses.

Later, after Sau-chung's second son, Michael (Tommy Wong) injures Woody's head believing the latter set his father up, Woody's close ally, Keung Wan Triad leader Fred (Lung Fong) sabotages him claiming Sau-chung was behind the drug raid and framed Woody for Sam's murder and prompts Woody to send his underlings to kill a number of Hung Hing's gangsters. While the Hung Hing Triad is coming up with a strategy to Hoi Lung, York sets up a negotiation with Sam, buy York was ambushed by Fred's thugs on the way and fights them off. Afterwards, Leung finds out York and Mark were going to Macau he leads his squad at the ferry port, but they were ambushed at the parking lot by Fred's hitmen, where Mark recognizes one of them as Sam's murderer. A firefight ensues where Mark was mortally wounded.

After Mark's death, York was elected as the new leader of Hung Hing and he orders a mass killing of Hung Lung and Keung Wan's gangsters in major gang fights and York, Fred and Woody were arrested by Leung and detained by 48 hours. After the three were released, Leung orders his subordinates to closely tail them. York reunites with his girlfriend, Jenny (Yu Li), before leading his underlings to kill Fred's hitmen after finding their hideout. Leung steps in to stop York, but joins forces with York after the latter saves him from being shot and kill the hitmen. Instead of arresting York, Leung lets him off while informing him that the police has found out his father is innocent for Sam's murder. Sau-chung returns to Hong Kong and Woody wants to negotiate a settlement with him, but Michael suspects Woody to have something dirty up his sleeve so he leads his underlings and attack Woody at his office where Woody stabs Michael during a scuffle. When Woody runs to hide in the restroom, Fred shoots him dead. Leung attempts to persuade York to cooperate with the police but York is determined on seeking revenge on Fred to avenge his brothers and delays his wedding with Jenny.

While Sau-chung and York hold a Taosist ritual memorial for Mark and Sam, Fred arrives with his entire gang armed with machetes while York also leads out his armed gang. A group of riot police officers led by Leung warns them to drop their weapons but Fred disregards it and charges in with his gang, leading to a major gangfight. During the chaos, York confronts Fred in a scuffle before the latter runs off to a nearby construction site. York gives chase and eventually disables Fred while Leung follows and draws his pistol at York to prevent him killing Fred, but York kills Fred by cutting the ropes of suspending cement tube which falls on Fred, and is arrested.

Despite being responsible for catching Sam's murderer and smashing the Hung Hing, Hoi Lung and Keung Wan Triads, crime rate has also risen up by 80% since Leung joined the Kowloon division and as a result, he was transferred to be an instructor of the police academy. Leung then visits York in prison, stating they would be an unbeatable crime fighting duo if York was an officer, while York also states they would be invincible if Leung was his triad partner.

The setting is Vienna, 1900. Professor Bernhardi is a Jewish physician, director of the Elisabethinum, a clinic named in honor of Empress Elisabeth of Austria. A young woman in his care is dying of sepsis following an abortion. Unaware that she is on the brink of death, she is happy and believes herself to be recovering. Father Reder, a priest summoned by a nurse arrives to give the patient the last rites but Bernhardi refuses him admission. He wants to spare her the anguish she would suffer were she to realize that she is about to die. The priest argues that she must be absolved of sin before she dies, especially since she has undergone an abortion. While Bernhardi and Father Reder are arguing, the girl dies, having been told by the nurse that the priest arrived. Her death was hastened by having realized that her condition was terminal and she died in a state of fear.

A press campaign causes public outcry. False testimony and fabrications about Bernhardi striking the priest inflame the endemic antisemitism. Bernhardi faces trial. Professor Ebenwald, a man with influence among corrupt judicial officers offers to pay a bribe so that Bernhardi can avoid trial. He will do this on condition that Bernhardi agrees to instate a Christian physician rather than Dr. Wenger, a Jewish physician Bernhardi had wanted to appoint based on merit. Bernhardi refuses Ebenwald's suggestion.

Bernhardi is visited by Father Reder. Reder admits that Bernhardi acted properly and in accordance with his duty as the patient's physician. Bernhardi asks why Reder did not say as much during the legal proceedings. He answers that he could not because that would have been to acknowledge that Bernhardi had more right to send him away than he had right to administer the last rites. He claims that he stayed silent because of divine inspiration which compelled him to protect the church. When Bernhardi questions him about this, he accuses Bernhardi of refusing admission to the patient because of hostility towards the Catholic Church. The verdict of the trial is given. Bernhardi loses his post in the clinic he helped to found, is sentenced to two months in prison and loses his license to practice medicine. He refuses to appeal the decision.

The play ends with a philosophical discussion of the case between Bernhardi and a friend, Winkler, following Bernhardi's release.

After spending 13 years in jail for killing one of his opponents Chat Chai in the dressing room after breaking up the fight because of a quarrel with his girlfriend Pim, Mong Fu (Andy Lau), a washed up Muay Thai kickboxer returns to Thailand to look for his old love. Upon arrival in Bangkok, he finds out that she died and that he has a 14-year-old daughter. He finds the orphanage and meets his daughter and starts a relationship with sister Mioko who runs the orphanage. To clean his past, he challenges the current and more than 15 years younger champion, who wants to avenge Chai.

Bounty hunter Charlie Chan (Andy Lau) is entrusted by his godfather, Boss Ng (Cheng Gwan-min), to protect a priceless copy of the Koran while transporting it for display in an exhibit to save his godfather's insurance company when the latter agreed to protect it for unscrupulous businessman, Sung Kam-wing (Wong Chi-keung), who is actually scheming to consume Ng's insurance company by hiring master thief Cheuk Fei-fan (Teddy Robin) to steal the Koran. On the other hand, Charlie's friendly rival, sharp shooter Ma Wan-lung (Norman Chui) also wants to steal the Koran for his girlfriend (Charlene Tse), whose grandfather had died stealing it, and her father have also gone mad for it. Charlie, Cheuk and Ma cross paths in a party hosted by Sung in his mansion and make their intentions clear before engaging in a game of show hand to determine who will have the Koran, which Cheuk wins using trickery but dissatisfies Ma, who challenge him to a Mexican stand off and hands him his revolver. Cheuk backs off and declares the match a draw, but Charlie wants to gamble with Cheuk in game of Russian roulette with Ma's revolver and fools Cheuk when Charlie shoots himself twice safely since he have emptied the revolver, knowing Ma's habit of loading only five bullets, and Cheuk leaves after Sung steps in.

The next day, Charlie splits the guards of Ng's Insurance Company into five groups to go five different directions to transport the Koran from Sung's mansion to the exhibit, with each group carrying a metal case, while Charlie keeps the Koran on himself, accompanied by a rookie guard, Siu-ming (Chin Ka-lok). Charlie stops to bathe in a bathhouse during the way and was attacked by a pair of thugs named Double Trouble (Shing Fui-On, Chiu Chi-ling) hired by Sung, but Charlie easily dispatches and kills them before arriving at the exhibit revealing he actually put the Koran in one of the cases which have all safely arrived. On the day of the exhibition show, Ma and his girlfriend arrived disguised respectively as a doctor and pregnant woman and attempts to steal the Koran when the latter pretends to be ready to give birth and the exhibit being evacuated, but was foiled when a real doctor and nurse arrive. Charlie then tells Siu-ming to follow Cheuk and his younger daughter (Sandy Lam), but does a terrible job and takes a beating but the father and daughter intentionally allow him to continue following them and he informs Charlie that Cheuk has hired gold counterfeiter Ka Yik-chan (Wu Ma) to make a fake Koran. The same night, Charlie re-encounters a beautiful woman (Rosamund Kwan) in bar (who he has previously encountered in a train) who gets drunk and stumbles into his car and he drives her back to her hotel and leaves after she sobers up and falls asleep.

Charlie then visits Ka and pays him to make another fake Koran for him, which he uses to swap to real one at exhibit while also revising the security system which allows the Koran to descend and be hidden after closing at the end of the day. That night, Ma manges to break in to exhibit and steals the fake Koran on display and Cheuk and his daughter hold Ng hostage to demanding Charlie to hand out the real Koran, which causes Ng to distrust Charlie and forces him to hand out the real Koran. Ng is later visited by the beautiful woman who claims to the Koran to return to Charlie but decides to throw it away instead as Charlie is not present. Thinking that is the real Koran, Ng swaps his with hers before she leaves and meets up with Cheuk, who turns out to be her father, which Charlie witnesses.

Right after Cheuk receives his payment from Sung in his mansion and leaves, Ma sneaks in to steal the Koran but Cheuk's elder daughter stops him and they fight for the Koran, which Charlie joins in shortly after. Sung's henchmen then appear to stop them and Charlie, Ma and Fan's daughter fight them off before continuing their fight for their Koran where the latter gets hold of it with the help of her sister while Charlie and Ma were dueling. Charlie and Ma confront Cheuk at a hotel where he was preparing to leave with his daughters and Cheuk suggests a three way Mexican duel, each using only one bullet (with Cheuk using a dagger instead of a pistol) and Cheuk pretends to get shot in order to fool Charlie and Ma into shooting each other, which was unsuccessful as the latter two figured it and Cheuk challenges them to fistfights instead. Much to Charlie and Ma's surprise, Cheuk turns out to be a highly competent fighter and unable to defeat him alone, so Charlie and Ma join forces to fight Cheuk and dispatches him. Cheuk admits defeat and leaves the Koran behind and exits with his daughters before Charlie and Ma fight against one another until Ma's girlfriend stops them informing them the Koran Cheuk left behind was fake and they attempt to chase Cheuk but is too late as he and his daughters have boarded on a train. Later, Charlie is approached by a candy selling street vendor who was entrusted by Cheuk's elder daughter to give Charlie the Koran.

Luther Sledge (Garner), a wanted outlaw, is visiting his prostitute girlfriend, Ria (Antonelli), when one of his gang is shot over a poker game. Sledge kills the murderers, and is recognized by an old man (Marley), who follows him. Sledge waylays the old man, who then relates a tale of a periodic gold shipment that is heavily guarded by forty riders, but stops at a prison where the old man was incarcerated for years.

Sledge assembles his regular gang (including Joyce, Bice, Gutherie, Beetle, Kehoe and Hooker), they investigate the story, and equip themselves for the endeavor. The local sheriff (Preston) recognizes the old man from the prison, causing a shootout, and Sledge and his gang flee.

The gang begins observing the gold guards and testing their defenses. Seeing how difficult it is to approach, the gang decides to get into the prison, turn the prisoners loose, and steal the gold in the ensuing havoc. Sledge is taken to the prison by Ward (Weaver), who poses as a US Marshal needing to lock up his prisoner for the night. The warden (Garrone) is reluctant to incarcerate Sledge because he thinks it is the sheriff's business, but the sheriff arrives and attacks Sledge for killing a deputy earlier, convincing the warden to allow them to stay in a cell for the night. Later, Sledge, Ward, and nearby prisoners overpower the warden, killing him in the process. Taking his keys, they free the remaining prisoners, who begin to take over the rest of the prison. Sledge's gang dynamites the prison gate, creating enough noise to be heard in town, and the gold guards head to the prison.

The gold is held in a safe in a cell, but only the warden knew the combination. Sledge locks the old man up in his former cell, adjoining the cell with the safe, which he heard being opened for years. By sound, the old man guides Bice (Corazzari) through opening the safe. The gold guards arrive and encounter armed, rioting prisoners and Sledge's gang. Ward is killed in the battle with the gold guards. The sheriff arrives again, and is killed in a running, horseback rifle-fight with Sledge.

The gang escapes and later stop to split the gold, with Sledge taking a double share, which the old man notes aloud. A musical montage shows a myriad of poker hands in which it appears the old man wins a substantial amount of the other outlaws' gold. Playing against Joyce, the old man finds that he has been cheated with sand substituted for gold dust and kills him. Guthrie (Piani) objects to this, and angrily leaves after Sledge defends the old man's actions. Sledge then proceeds to win the old man's gold at poker, and most of everyone else's as well.

Sledge leaves with his winnings despite the gang's protestations, and the old man proposes they kidnap Ria. With her, they follow Sledge to a Spanish Mission town, deserted for a local festival. Now leading the gang, the old man attempts negotiating with Sledge, while one of the others tries to ambush him. Sledge is wounded while killing the bushwhacker, Kehoe, but still refuses to bargain, so the old man reveals their kidnapping of Ria, who is then badly hurt by Bice throwing her from a high wall. A horrified Hooker vows to kill Bice when they get the gold.

Hearing her screams, Sledge abandons the gold while fighting his way to Ria, who says they did not need the gold to be happy, and uses her dying breath to warn that Bice is behind him with a rifle. Sledge kills Bice, then Hooker (Akins), and wounds the escaping old man, who threatens that he has hidden the gold where it can never be found without him. Remembering Ria's words, Sledge kills the old man and rides away empty-handed as the town refills with locals.

A man (James Garner) wakes up on a New York park bench to find that his mind is a total blank. He has no identification on him, just a slip of paper in his pocket with a phone number on it.

The number leads to Gloria (Angela Lansbury), who doesn't recognize him but gives him money out of pity. For the purpose of identifying himself to people he meets, he invents a name, spotting a Budweiser beer truck go by just as a jet plane wings by overhead.

Now calling himself Buddwing, he spots a woman on the street he thinks he knows and calls out "Grace!" Turns out her name is Janet (Katharine Ross), but a flashback of a romance with her from college days goes through Buddwing's mind. He experiences similar flashbacks after meeting Fiddle Corwin (Suzanne Pleshette), who is an actress. They share a romantic fling, but images of her contemplating suicide flash through his mind.

The Blonde, a socialite, is on a scavenger hunt, just for kicks. Buddwing accompanies her to Harlem, where her goal is to get into a dice game. While there, a passing remark jogs Buddwing's memory. He recovers from the shock of an incident involving his wife and a pregnancy, ultimately remembering who and where he was before his blackout.

Flash used to be a talented baseball player, but now he's a homeless recovering alcoholic who sells stolen watches on the streets of San Francisco, California. Elsewhere, Emily Laedecker, better known as Chu Chu, is a one-woman Latin band that wears a Carmen Miranda-inspired outfit who performs on the waterfront to make money, but she is angered when Flash arrives to sell watches in her public performance space. Luck seems to smile at them when they find a briefcase with stolen government documents in it. So they scheme to return it to its rightful owner but only if they can get $50 for their trouble, maybe even more. Instead of the expected reward money, all they get is a load of trouble with a variety of agents coming after them to get the briefcase and the documents back.

An American fashion photographer, Ben Morris (James Garner), goes to Guadagil, a remote village in South America, to take pictures of model Alison Duquesne (Eva Renzi) for a lipstick ad. One of the lipsticks is called "Pink Jungle".

She arrives soon after Ben does, escorted by Raul Ortega (Michael Ansara) from the tourist board. Within minutes of being landed the helicopter in which they arrived is stolen, leaving Ben and Alison stranded in the village.

Ben is hassled by Colonel Celaya (Fabrizio Mioni), a security officer anxious to get a promotion to the capital, who is convinced Ben must be a spy for the American government. But a search of Ben's baggage finds only camera equipment and lipstick. Ben and Alison go to the town bar, where they are joined by Ortega. Meanwhile, two thugs assault and kill the helicopter driver, wanting information on how it had come to be stolen. The thugs are joined by Ortega, who is revealed to be their leader.

To relieve their boredom Ben and Alison rent a car to drive to the nearest town. On their way the car is stopped at gunpoint by the same man who stole the helicopter. He forces them to take him with them. The hijacker is a boisterous South African adventurer, Sammy Ryderbeit (George Kennedy). He tells them he and his partner have a map to a fabulous diamond mine, but they need $2,000 to equip an expedition to get there.

In a bar in town Ben and Alison meet with Sammy’s partner, an English ex-army man Captain Stopes. Also in the bar are Ortega and his men. Ben and Alison believe the entire tale of the diamond mine is a swindle. However, when Stopes is murdered in his hotel room, with Ben and Alison and Sammy suspected and pursued by the police, Ben is compelled to finance the diamond mine expedition as a way for he and Alison to sneak out of town. They are watched doing so by Ortega and his men.

Along the trail Ben, Alison and Sammy encounter McCune (Nigel Green), a devious Australian who claims to be Stopes's former partner and says he has the only actual map to the mine. He surreptitiously substitutes Sammy’s map for his own, which he pretends is the one he has always had. McCune demands to take over the leadership of the expedition, in return he will give the others a small share in the mine. Although they distrust him, the three reluctantly agree. While resting up for the next day all the men posture about, demonstrating excellent marksmanship with pistols.

Almost immediately after they resume their search the men start fighting with each other. That night McCune demands that the men allow him to bed Alison. Sammy says nothing, but Ben will not allow it and he and McCune fight. Ben and Alison have a private conversation in which they admit to having fallen in love with each other. Later that night McCune sneaks out of camp to leave a message, along with the map he tricked out of Sammy, along the trail.

During the next day the expedition pauses to rest out the sun’s hottest hours. While the others are asleep McCune takes off with the supplies and mules, leaving them to die of thirst. But he is pursued by them, and when he takes a wrong turn it allows them to catch up with him. He hears them coming and takes up a position to shoot Ben, but just as he is about to fire he is shot dead by Sammy.

They search McCune’s body for the map, and not finding it realize he must have left it for others. Just then a helicopter is heard and seen flying overhead. The three proceed to where the helicopter had landed, and see Ortega sitting in front of a tent counting diamonds. The helicopter arrives again, bringing in more diamonds, but this time the men flying in have seen the three. The members of the helicopter party spread out to attack them, but in the shootout that follows the three prevail and Ortega is captured.

Sammy flies Ben and Alison (and Ortega, their prisoner) back to Guadagil, saying he knows someone there who will buy the diamonds and pay in American dollars. But as soon as the others exit the helicopter he takes off, with all the diamonds. Ortega turns out to be an underground leader long wanted by local law officials. They are so pleased in at last having him in custody that they don’t care about anything Ben and Sammy may have done.

Ben and Alison are desperate to leave. Ben talks to the jubilant Colonel Celaya, who has taken the credit for having captured Ortega, hoping the officer will arrange to have them flown out. The colonel will not help with that, but does say he is sorry for having initially mistaken such a bungler as Ben for a CIA agent.

Ben walks to a private spot, converts his camera into a two-way radio, and sends a message to his contact person. Ben is not just a photographer, he is a U.S. government agent sent to quell a revolution led by Ortega. Because of Sammy's assistance in accomplishing the mission, Ben tells his contact to allow Sammy to get away.

The Moondreamers are a group of celestial people who create and deliver pleasant dreams to Earth children. Their main enemy is the evil Queen Scowlene who attempts to keep everyone awake at night with her nightmare crystals.

A search is on for stolen diamonds and a government agent has been killed trying to recover them. When an unsuspecting William Beddoes arrives in Lisbon on behalf of an American bank, he is mistaken for the dead agent's replacement.

Hatton-Jones of the British embassy comes to Beddoes' aid. Also taking an interest is Aurora Celeste, the dead man's lover, as well as Steve Antonio, a smuggler, who is being pursued by Amy Franklin (a woman who, as a young girl, had a crush on him).

All of the above end up aboard a yacht belonging to Dr. Mathieson, who appears to be the mastermind of the crime and knows where the hidden diamonds are. Beddoes ends up engineering an escape for all and the gems wind up safely in the hands of Hatton-Jones, the dead agent's actual successor.

Beddoes books a flight for home, assuming he will never see any of these people again, but Aurora steals his passport so that he cannot leave.

USAF Major Lincoln Bond (William Holden) was captured during the Korean War and subjected to torture, finally cracking after 14 months and signing a confession used for propaganda. Upon his release, he took a year to recover from the ordeal before showing up at the Flight Test Center at Edwards Air Force Base, hoping to return to work as a test pilot. His old buddy, Colonel McKee (Charles McGraw), tries his best for him, but the base commander, Brigadier General Banner (Lloyd Nolan), turns him down because he cannot trust him to be stable. A complication is that the general's secretary and love interest, Connie Mitchell (Virginia Leith), is an old flame. Bond presses for a job and accepts the general's offer of routine flying in support. Banner is a hands-on leader, taking the most dangerous assignments himself.

When Bond flies the new Gilbert XF-120 fighter, he finds dangerous structural problems that threaten its imminent acceptance by the Air Force. He claims he did not press the aircraft beyond its design specifications, but no one believes him, especially H. G. Gilbert (Ralph Moody), the head of the company that built the fighter. When the general tries to replicate Bond's maneuvers, nothing untoward happens. Afterward, Bond sees Banner nearly collapse in the locker room, but Banner shrugs off the incident.

The two begin to trust each other, especially when Banner is endangered in a test flight and Bond calmly and expertly comes to the rescue. Then Major Joe Craven (James Garner), another close friend of Bond's, is killed when a wing of his XF-120 tears away, confirming Bond's warning. Bond's rehabilitation is endangered when a drunk Major "Bromo" Lee (Murray Hamilton), Banner's top test pilot, tries to pick a fight with him at the officers club. Bond reacts badly to being held by a bystander, invoking memories of his Korean War imprisonment, and punches Bromo twice.

With an appreciation that both men were to blame for the altercation, Banner gives Bond the assignment he craves: the rocket-powered X-2, which is designed to fly to the edge of outer space. The general insists, however, on piloting the first test flight at full power, despite strong pressure from his superior, Lieutenant General Bryan Shelby (Paul Fix), to let a younger man take on the dangerous job. When Bond is assigned to fly the last half-power test before the main flight, he goes to full power without authorization and barely survives a high-altitude bailout when the aircraft goes out of control. The base flight surgeon tells Banner that only a young, fit person could have survived, leading the general to accept a promotion and transfer. He recommends Colonel McKee as his successor. Although Banner offers to take Connie with him to his new assignment, she decides to stay with Bond.

The story opens with Superman struggling with the fact that he could not save all the people that were caught in The Vanishing. He visits Father Leone, a priest suffering from cancer, in his church. Superman tells him how he was in outer space saving Green Lantern Kyle Rayner when The Vanishing occurred, outlining his feelings of guilt as he feels he abandoned Earth when it needed him most.

This is a first of several 'confessionals' between Superman and Father Leone. At their next encounter, Superman explains how he traced the source of The Vanishing to an unnamed foreign country in the Middle East. In the midst of a war, Superman removes from one side all of their weapons; on the other he faces General Nox, a military leader intent on taking over the country. Nox refuses to stand down and, along with his super-powered minion Equus, fights against Superman's interference. Equus is injured and, in a last-ditch attempt to escape, activates the Vanishing Device, creating a second "Vanishing", which vanishes himself, General Nox and 300,000 more inhabitants of Earth. This leads to Superman having to face the anger of the public and the JLA.

Taking control of the Vanishing Device, Superman and Father Leone travel to the Fortress of Solitude, where they try to perfect the device so that Superman can vanish himself to discover where the other people were taken. Before he gets a chance to do so, he is confronted by Wonder Woman, who attempts to stop Superman from carrying out his plan. She believes Superman's efforts are likely to result in his death, amounting to a suicide mission. The Fortress of Solitude is also visited by Mr. Orr, who tracked Father Leone via a painkilling injection Orr administered earlier. Orr is a mercenary who is working for a mysterious group of powerful individuals described by Orr himself as having "80% of the world population working for them in one way or another." Superman fights Wonder Woman and then tells her that the Fortress is set to self-destruct. He also asks her to save Mr. Orr and Father Leone. Moments before the Fortress explodes, he vanishes himself, transporting him to Metropia, the paradise world he had created in the Phantom Zone.

In Metropia, Superman is reunited with Lois Lane. He also learns of General Zod's existence in Metropia. It turns out that it was this Zod who was behind The Vanishing, as he was trying to build an empire in Metropia. The robots that Superman built attack Zod, Equus, who is now working for Zod, and Zod's other followers. The robots are destroyed, which prompts Superman to attack, defeating Equus and Zod. He transports everyone back to Earth and destroys Metropia. During the last moments of the alternate world, Superman tries to help Zod by saving his life, which the latter refuses to allow.

As this is occurring, it is shown that Mr. Orr has talked to Father Leone about Superman. Mr. Orr has learned of Father Leone's cancer and says that he can cure him. The "cure" actually turns out to be a horrific biological experiment that transforms him into an enhanced version of Equus, called Pilate. Upon his return to Earth, Superman has to confront the Father Leone version of Equus. Disgusted at what he has become, he asks Superman to kill him. Horrified at this request, Superman refuses to do so. As Leone continues to argue with him, a recovered Equus attacks, probably thinking that Father Leone, a construct like himself will help him in fighting Superman. Father Leone, however, in a last act of desperation, lunges at Equus, driving them both into a fiery nova in the background, which transports them to an island where they continue to fight. Lois and all the others that disappeared in The Vanishing return to Earth.

Having restored the victims of The Vanishing, Superman has saved the day again. He proceeds to construct a new Fortress of Solitude in the midst of a 'jungle'. Reminiscing about the events, he asks himself, while he has saved countless millions of lives over the years, who will save him when the end comes. With these threads tied, the story ends, however, the issues of Mr. Orr and the mysterious organization are left unresolved.

Andy Schaeffer is a spoiled mama's boy who usually gets his way. He breezes through college, while girlfriend Susan Daniels works hard at a job to pay for her education. She isn't sure where their relationship is going. Andy's grades begin to worsen, and he's being drafted by the army. Andy reports for basic training at Fort Ord, making it clear to everybody there that he'd rather be anyplace else.

Captain Buck Devlin, and cavalry troopers Sergeant John Maitland and Private Wilbur Clegg, recently mustered out of the army, head to Devlin's brother's homestead to settle down. They arrived just in time to drive off an Indian attack, but are too late to save his brother. Faulty ammunition cost him his life. The three men set out for Medicine Bend to find out who sold the ammunition. The community also gives them all their funds to buy badly needed supplies.

On the way however, they are robbed of everything – the money, their horses, even their uniforms. Fortunately, they happen upon a Brethren (in Christ) congregation (who have also been robbed), and are given spare clothing. Devlin decides it would be a good idea to pretend to be Brethren while in town. They quickly connect the robbers, and later the defective ammunition, to Ep Clark. Clark controls the mayor and the sheriff, and has his gang waylay pioneers heading west and force other local traders out of business.

Devlin has Maitland and Clegg infiltrate Clark’s shady business by taking jobs at his store. Meanwhile, he goes to work for defiant competing merchant Elam King and his niece Priscilla. After gaining their trust, Devlin learns that King has a secret wagon train of goods, including weapons, coming in from St. Louis. Devlin starts stealing back Clark's ill-gotten gains at night, including his mother's brooch from saloon girl Nell Garrison, Clark's reluctant girlfriend.

Clark, now suspicious of the three strangers in town, tries to lure Devlin into a trap, but barely fails. He does, however, have the sheriff arrest Maitland and Clegg. They are swiftly sentenced to hang, but Nell has taken a great liking to Maitland and persuades Sheriff Massey to do one right thing in his life and free the prisoners; unfortunately, he is shot in the back by one of Clark's men. Nell then gets Brother Abraham, leader of the local Brethren congregation, to help foil the hanging and rescue the two men.

Devlin finally comes for Clark. They brawl (ironic, given the film's title), and Devlin is briefly knocked unconscious; his life is saved when Clark tries to shoot him with bad ammunition. Clark then grabs a scythe, but is fatally impaled when Devlin knocks him down.

Devlin and Maitland prepare to ride into the sunset with Priscilla and Nell respectively. Clegg surprises them by deciding to stay and serve a "hitch" with the Brethren.

Donna (Felissa Rose) and Frank (Salvatore Paul Piro) Bruno have decided to take a trip into the Pine Barrens with their autistic son Sean (Danny Lopes), new mother Paula (Ellen Sandweiss), and her baby Anthony (Marco Rose). When their car breaks down in the middle of the forest Frank goes off to find help and comes across the house of Mrs. Leeds (Irma St. Paule), a palm reader that lives there with her mute daughter Judy (Christie Sanford) and her son. Mrs. Leeds rushes him into the house, insisting that the Jersey Devil lives in the forest. However, despite her concern, it soon becomes apparent that her family is just as dangerous when Judy murders Frank.

One by one the people remaining in the car go out to search for their lost family members. Donna goes off in search of Frank and is assaulted and captured by the Leeds. Sean wanders off and gets lost in the woods. Paula initially tries to stay in the car and keep her baby safe, but inevitably leaves the car to investigate a police cruiser. However rather than containing help, it contains the corpse of an officer killed by the Jersey Devil. When she returns to the car she finds that Anthony has been taken and she goes off in search of him, which takes her to the Leeds house, where she's killed by the Leeds. Sean eventually makes it to the Leeds house where he is given a palm reading and then sent back into the night, where he gets sucked underground by what appears to be quicksand. This leaves only Donna alive, who manages to escape by bribing the Leeds son with diazepam. She eventually makes it to safety and wakes up in a hospital bed, where she is told that the Leeds house has been abandoned for years. Donna manages to persuade the police to check out the Leeds house in the hopes of finding Anthony, only for the Leeds to murder the police officer accompanying her. Terrified, Donna flees the house and tries to once again make it to safety, but is then killed by the Jersey Devil.

Douglas Breen, a deranged young New York City record store clerk, writes a rambling letter to stage and film star Sally Ross:

''Dear Miss Ross, I am your greatest fan, because unlike the others, I want nothing from you. The only thing that matters to me is your happiness.''

Sally's secretary, Belle Goldman, has been intercepting Douglas's numerous disturbed letters, responding herself and asking him to stop. Douglas feels ignored, and becomes determined to meet with Sally and consummate his "love" for her. Sally, meanwhile, is rehearsing for a major stage musical while also reconnecting with her ex-husband and fellow actor Jake Berman. After Belle receives another explicit letter from Douglas, she brings it to Sally's attention; Sally scolds her for being rude to her fans, and brushes it off, reasoning that she has dealt with similar types of fans before.

After Douglas is fired from his record store job, he begins stalking Sally, sitting outside of her apartment building and following her to rehearsals. He decides to hand-deliver a letter to her while she is rehearsing for the musical, but watches the man at the studio give the letter to Belle, whom he realizes has been responding to his letters. Douglas follows Belle into the subway, and slashes her face with a razor. She survives the attack, but is hospitalized. When police press her for information, Belle cannot recall the return addresses written on the obsessive letters to Sally, and Sally informs them that she does not keep the fan mail she receives.

Increasingly enraged by his lack of contact with Sally, Douglas breaks into her apartment and murders her maid, Elsa, in the bathroom, then trashes the apartment in a fit of rage. When Sally returns home accompanied by a private investigator and discovers what has happened, she also finds a threatening letter left behind by Douglas:

''Dearest bitch, see how accessible you are? How would you like to be fucked with a meat cleaver?''

Sally, distraught, flees New York and retreats to a secluded house in the country, where she is visited by Jake. Meanwhile, at a bar, Douglas meets a man who cruises him for sex. The two go to the roof of Douglas's apartment, where the man begins to perform oral sex on him, but Douglas murders the man and sets his body on fire, leaving a fake suicide letter nearby to confuse the police.

The opening night of the musical arrives, and Sally, having received word of Douglas's supposed suicide, returns to the city to perform. Douglas sits in the audience, watching her. After the show, Sally sits in her dressing room with the costume designer, Hilda. Douglas kills both Hilda and a nightwatchman while Sally removes her makeup. He confronts Sally in her dressing room, covered in blood, and chases her through the now-empty theatre. She tries to fend him off with a riding crop, but he overpowers her and beats her with the crop while denigrating her for ignoring him. When he tries to kiss her, Sally angrily rebukes Douglas for being a psychopath and a murderer; his rage subsides and he breaks down in tears, begging for Sally to love him, but she uses the lapse in his guard to stab him in the neck with his own knife, killing him. Sally exits the theatre, leaving Douglas's dead body in one of the seats, as a voiceover of his first letter to Sally is heard:

''Dear Miss Ross, I have finally worked up enough courage to write you. You do not know me, but who I am does not matter. If there is such a thing as a soul, which is the basis of all life, then you are my soul and your life is my life. This is the first letter of what I hope will be an everlasting correspondence. Your greatest fan, Douglas Breen.''

A newly ordained minister accepts a summer job with a dynamic TV evangelist only to find deep conflicts between the latter's conventional activities servicing his community's spiritual needs and his power wielded as a TV celebrity.

Stan and Ollie are musicians who are traveling by train to their next gig in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, a popular vaudeville performance location at the time. They manage to board, but Ollie is annoyed that Stan has left the music behind. They then antagonize a short gentleman (Sammy Brooks) by sitting on him. While looking for their berth they enter a private car and frighten a woman who is dressing for bed. Her angry husband comes out and rips the coat of a man who had nothing to do with the intrusion. The man, seeing another innocent man, proceeds to tear up his coat. This leads to a tit-for-tat of clothes tearing.

Stan and Ollie spend most of the trip trying to change into pajamas and get comfortable in a cramped upper berth. By the time the duo manage to sort themselves out, the train has reached their stop. In their haste to deboard, they leave their instrument behind. The clothes-tearing battle has, by now, involved the whole train, and the conductor gets stripped to his underwear and some rags trying to get through.

Thrilled to finally move into a full-sized house in Lucifer Falls, New England, Carlton and Eloise Davis along with their children Jennifer, Corwin, and R.E. arrive at their new home on a dark, gloomy night. As they enter and search for a light switch, they are spooked by an old man named Neil Witherspoon who warns them about the house's tragic history telling them to beware of the Boogedy Man.

After Mr. Witherspoon leaves, the family checks out their new home. While Corwin and R.E. inspect the ground floor, Jennifer looks around upstairs. She hears someone sneezing and sees a blue light emanating from behind the door at the end of the hallway, but when she opens the door the room is empty. Meanwhile, the boys have made their way to the house's eerie basement, where R.E. finds a toy rocking chair that fits his teddy bear perfectly. Just when it seems that they might find something supernatural, Carlton flips on the lights, which show nothing but old furniture and other clutter. The boys grudgingly return upstairs, but on his way up, R.E. notices that his teddy bear has disappeared.

The next morning, the family gathers for a breakfast filled with gags: funny glasses and rubber eggs that squirt water. Jennifer complains about the strange sneezing, but Carlton reassures her that ghosts aren't real. That night, Jennifer walks down the hallway, drawn by the sneezing and the strange glow (now green) from the door at the end of the hallway. She opens the door, only to be blasted with bright lights and a strange wind. She faints as maniacal laughter is heard. Later that night, her family wakes her, and she informs them that she saw the Boogedy Man, describing him as having a yucky, grilled cheese sandwich like face. Opening the door, Carlton discovers green footprints running up the wall of the room. He peels a few off the wall, and is able to stick them to himself, prompting him to quip "Honey, look, the Boogedy Man walked all over me!" He assumes that it's all part of a gag set up by Mr. Witherspoon.

After Corwin and R.E. witness the kitchen cabinets and appliances move on their own, they go into town with Jennifer to look for answers. They find the Lucifer Falls Historical Society, which is run by Mr. Witherspoon. Amused by the children's curiosity, he produces an old pop-up book and tells them the tale of William Hanover, a grouchy old pilgrim man who fell in love with the lovely widow Marion 300 years ago. Marion did not reciprocate his feelings, so Hanover struck a deal with the Devil selling his soul for a magic cloak which granted him mystical powers. He kidnapped Marion's son Jonathan and, casting his first spell, accidentally destroyed his own house (located on the same spot as the Davises' current home), killing himself, Jonathan, and Marion. All three remained as ghosts; Boogedy (how William came to be known as) and Jonathan (who had a cold when he died) are trapped inside the house, and Marion is unable to enter and get her child back.

The children return home and tell their parents about the situation, but Carlton and Eloise are more interested in showing off their new gags, such as a lifesize mummy. As Carlton begins to assure the children that the house isn't haunted, paranormal activity peaks: the harpsichord plays on its own, the lights flicker, and the mummy appears to come to life, dancing wildly, prompting Eloise to exclaim "That's it! Time to call a realtor!" Eloise and the children are scared enough to leave, but Carlton convinces them to stay for the night, camped out together in the living room. Eloise wakes up for a midnight snack, and encounters the ghost of the Widow Marion, who relates her story from outside the back door.

Eloise wakes the rest of the family, and explains to them that Marion told her the only way to get rid of Boogedy is to take away his magic cloak. The Davises arm themselves with household items and head upstairs to search for Boogedy. R.E. hears a noise, and goes off on his own, towards the basement; Corwin notices his absence and follows. Carlton, Eloise, and Jennifer approach the door at the end of the hallway, but discover that the glowing green light is this time nothing more than a green light bulb—Boogedy tricked them. In the basement, Corwin finds R.E struggling to recover his teddy bear from the thief, who turns out to be young Jonathan's ghost, who still has a cold after all these years. He explains that he borrowed it only because he was lonely. Feeling sorry for him, R.E. lets him borrow the teddy bear, and Jonathan tells them stories about the previous families that Boogedy chased away. They're interrupted by heavy breathing; Mr. Boogedy is coming.

The boys run upstairs, reuniting with the rest of their family in the living room as Mr. Boogedy appears with a bright flash of green light. The Davises run for cover behind boxes of gag items, with Boogedy shocking anyone who nears him with bolts of electricity from his fingers. Corwin attempts to attack Boogedy, but he uses his magic to turn his assault against him. Boogedy likewise uses magic to disable Carlton, Jennifer, and Eloise.

R.E grabs the vacuum cleaner and sneaks behind Mr. Boogedy, shooting the plastic balls at him. Boogedy, not deterred, takes control of the vacuum, making it chase R.E. around the room. R.E. hides behind Boogedy, and the vacuum takes hold of Boogedy's cloak, sucking it right off of his back. Without his cloak, Mr. Boogedy seems powerless, and disappears. The cloak itself pops out of the vacuum cleaner, and Corwin tosses it into the air, saying "Boogedy boogedy boo!" makes it disappear in a flash of green light. Widow Marion and Jonathan appear, and the Davises look on as the ghosts embrace and then disappear in a dance of light. The house is supposedly no longer haunted, but the Davises hear Boogedy's voice grimly intoning "Wanna bet?", leaving open the possibility of his return.

In the final year of World War II, units of the United States Army are in the foothills of the Alps between France and Italy, trying to dislodge a unit of German soldiers from a supply post in the middle of a small village. 1st Lt. Sam Loggins is in charge of an artillery observation unit that has just lost its radioman. A truckload of fresh young soldiers arrives, one of whom, Corporal Britt Harris admits to radio training and experience—Harris is immediately appointed the unit's radioman by Loggins.

Harris is a lady's man and a schemer, acquiring girlfriends, food, and other luxury items. Harris is the son of a wealthy textile mill owner in New Jersey; in order to avoid criminal charges of trying to bribe a member of the local Draft Board, Harris has "volunteered" for combat duty in Europe. Harris does show bravery while rescuing a group of men trapped in a minefield and while attacking a German bunker single-handed, but Loggins still has his reservations about the man.

The Colonel grants Loggins and his unit leave in the seaside town of Nice. While walking by himself on a quay, Loggins is attracted to Monique Blair (Natalie Wood). They go to dinner, and she explains she was born in America, but has lived in France since she was a small child. Loggins asks her to meet him in the same cafe the next week. He waits, but Monique doesn't show, and he walks out despondent, only to be asked to have a drink by an older American woman who has apparently been waiting for him. It is Monique's mother, who was checking him out. She takes him to her palatisl homr to join Monique. The two spend a great deal of time together aftr that. One night he tells her he loves her, and Monique finally reveals to him that she is afraid to get involved with a US soldier because her now-dead father was a Negro, and she has seen the general bigotry all American soldiers seem to have. Loggins is confused and leaves, not sure about his feelings.

After a week of anguished consideration, Loggins decides to put aside the former prejudices he would have had about Monique's parentage, and goes to see her. She and her mother are delighted to see Loggins. Loggins invites Monique to go out on a date with him. They end up going to a smokey jazz cafe, where they are surprised to see Harris play a fantastic jazz solo on a trumpet, to the acclaim of the entire French crowd. Harris joins Loggins and Monique at their table, and Loggins is left on the sidelines as Harris and Monique are immediately drawn to each other. Harris and Monique dance closely late into the night. After Loggins takes Monique home, she asks Loggins to tell Harris about her Negro father.

Back on surveillance duty of a town where the Germans have set up, Loggins does so, and it doesn't seem to bother Harris. Then the Germans begin shelling their observation position. After three days of shelling, Loggins suggests to Harris that they should infiltrate the village on a covert mission to observe from a church tower in the middle of town; Loggins goes in to see the Colonel who says he'll pass the idea on up to Headquarters.

The next weekend, Loggins and Harris return to Nice to visit Monique. Once again, Loggins is forced to the sidelines as the handsome and smooth-talking Harris takes over. Loggins returns to his hotel room alone. Harris and Monique stay out most of the night. When Harris returns to the hotel, he tells Loggins he's asked Monique to marry him, and she has said yes. Loggins is shattered, but he puts on a brave face. He tells Harris about the paperwork he will need to fill out to get the army's permission to marry. When they return to their unit, Harris immediately asks for the marriage permission form. Two months pass, and Harris still hasn't received an answer from the army on his request to marry. On his way to report to the Colonel, while talking to Corporal Lindsay, Loggins finds out that Harris had indeed picked up the completed paperwork three weeks earlier. In fact, Harris had told the corporal that the whole thing was a gag. Loggins is furious when he hears this.

Thereafter, the Colonel tells Loggins that Headquarters has approved the covert operation of Loggins with Harris as his radioman. Loggins asks for a few hours leave for both of them to take care of some personal matters in Nice, to which the Colonel agrees.

Loggins and Harris go to the Blair mansion, and Loggins forces Harris to admit to Monique that Harris is not going to marry her. Monique runs away in tears. Harris tries to explain himself to Loggins ("it was a kick"), and Loggins punches him. Loggins then goes out to find Monique. It turns out she had tried to drown herself, but she is saved by a fisherman.

Back at the US Army base, Loggins and Harris prepare for their mission. Soon after leaving, Loggins tells Harris he is going to kill him. Harris responds that reaction "works both ways".

On the mission, they encounter and kill a German soldier together. The duo establishes themselves at 2 a.m. in the church tower, calls in, and reports their observations, especially that a hidden section of the village contains an enormous German artillery/ammo dump. Loggins sends an order back to the base to begin a bombardment that will certainly destroy most of the village. They leave the tower, and are soon discovered by a German patrol. Harris is shot by the Germans and dies after Loggins drags him out of the line of fire, but Loggins is pinned down. The German officers, panicking at the thought of American soldiers in the village, order an immediate evacuation. Hearing this, Loggins grabs the radio and tells the US artillery to begin firing. Shells fall on the village and the ammo dump, and everything blows up.

The movie ends with Loggins relating how he was found under the rubble still alive by US troops, and brought to a hospital, where his right arm was amputated. He had gotten two letters from Monique. In one of them she says that she has learned that Harris was killed. She also tells Loggins that her mother has died. When Loggins is finally released from the hospital after many months, he decides to go to Nice to visit Monique one last time before returning to the States. He finds that she is now heading up a school for war orphans. She invites Loggins to come into one of the classrooms. As a tribute to Loggins and all the American soldiers who fought to free France, the children sing a song of appreciation. During the singing, Monique and Loggins look earnestly at each other.

Ann Wilson catches her strait-laced husband, Columbia University Assistant Professor of Chemistry David Wilson, kissing another woman. From David's perspective, he was the one being kissed innocently, the woman in question being a grateful transfer student. However, Ann wants a divorce. On the advice of David's friend, TV writer Michael Haney, David tries to convince Ann that he is really an FBI agent, and that the kiss was all in the name of national security.

Ann falls for it, but is so impressed with what her husband does for a living that she can't keep quiet about it. Michael is so impressed with Ann's gullibility and patriotic urging of her husband Dave to do more "secret missions" that Michael sets up a date with two blondes with the promise of spending a weekend together with them.

The indiscretions cause a number of complications, including some with the real FBI, the CIA and hostile foreign secret agents.

David and Michael end in the basement of the Empire State Building as it floods. As Ann stands behind David unseen he confesses why he loves her and all is good again.

On the trail, Ben Kane, a former Dodge City lawman, comes across Billy Young, who has no horse and was abandoned by partner Jesse Boone soon after the killing of a Mexican general.

Kane lets young Billy accompany him to a town in New Mexico where he has a job waiting for him as deputy sheriff. Kane's real aim is to find the man who murdered his son.

In town, Kane learns from dance-hall girl Lily Beloit that two men who run the town, John Behan and Frank Boone, secretly intend to gun down Kane first chance they get. Frank Boone may be the one Kane is looking for, but Jesse, who is Frank's son, lands in jail first, accused of shooting Doc Cushman.

Kane and Lily become lovers. Billy, meanwhile, springs Jesse from jail, but feels guilty once Lily reveals to him what happened to Kane's son. After he deals with Behan and the older Boone, the deputy turns in his badge, but recommends Billy for the job.

On a Northeastern United States college campus, Derrick Webb, Cathy Jones (referred to as simply "Jones") and Travis are students, as well as roommates. Derrick and Jones share an attraction but have not acted on it. Travis is devoted to Derrick as the wealthy Derrick lets the penniless Travis live rent free in the spacious apartment and focus on his art.

They all take a Communications class with Professor Goodwin, in which the subject of gossip is brought up. As they enjoy telling lies, the three decide to start a rumor for their final paper and track the results.

One night, while at a party, they run into Naomi Preston and her boyfriend, Beau Edson. It is common knowledge through the campus that Naomi doesn't sleep around. Jones, in particular, has a problem with Naomi's wealth and sense of entitlement. Furthermore, Naomi seems to have started a rumor about Jones having sex with Goodwin.

While at the party, Derrick meets a girl and brings her upstairs. At this point, the girl becomes ill; from the bathroom, Derrick witnesses Beau and Naomi in the adjacent room kissing. Beau attempts to have sex with Naomi but is rejected. Beau leaves and Naomi passes out. Derrick, Jones and Travis decide to begin a rumor that Naomi and Beau did have sex. The rumor spreads across campus, changing quickly. Jones writes her paper while Travis turns the rumor into an art installation full of warped photos of Naomi.

Eventually Naomi discovers the rumor. Beau denies it but witnesses remember him seemingly celebrating with his friends. Since Naomi doesn't remember anything, she becomes convinced she was raped by Beau; under the encouragement of her friends, she reports it to the police. As a result, Beau is arrested. Jones feels remorse at the turns of events, but Derrick and Travis convince her to stay quiet.

Jones goes to speak to Naomi and realizes she and Derrick went to the same high school, Danbury. However when she mentions Derrick by name, Naomi freaks and throws her out of her dorm. When Jones confronts Derrick, he claims not to know Naomi.

Jones travels to Danbury and finds yearbook photos that show Derrick and Naomi were a couple during their time at school. She speaks to a staff member who reveals what happened. Much like Beau, Naomi refused Derrick but Derrick did rape Naomi. When Jones confronts Derrick, he claims the sex was consensual but Naomi made it up so her father would not be upset with her. His reputation at Danbury plummeted and his family turned their backs on him. After seeing Naomi at the party, he admits he wanted to spread a rumor about Naomi as revenge. Jones is horrified but Travis believes Derrick's story.

Jones tries to confess to the police but Derrick manipulates events to make it look like Jones is in love with Beau and they do not believe her. Even Travis refuses to help her, reminding her of everything Derrick has done for them.

Beau learns of Derrick's assault of Naomi, and the two fight. Derrick manages to manipulate Beau into thinking they are both victims of Naomi's lies before knocking him unconscious.

Derrick goes to Naomi's dorm. He taunts her with the truth of the night of the party and reveals he did this in revenge for her ruining his life. He even admits to raping her. Naomi attacks him and he leaves.

The next day, Naomi is pronounced dead from suicide. However due to Derrick and Naomi's past (plus the new marks on Derrick's face), police come to accuse Derrick of killing her. This rumor spreads around campus and everyone turns on Derrick. Investigators come to his apartment to search for clues. Travis overhears Derrick trying to blame Travis, using Travis' art as proof. Heartbroken, Travis flees the apartment and Jones also leaves in disgust. However, the detective seems convinced Derrick is guilty and leaves to get a warrant.

Feeling his life is falling apart, Derrick packs a bag while Jones witnesses Travis buying a gun on the street. She goes back to the apartment to warn Derrick but Travis has got there first. In a struggle for the gun, Derrick seems to fatally shoot Jones. In a panic, Derrick tries to convince Travis to take the blame. Travis refuses and resolves to get the police back and confess everything. Desperately, Derrick confesses to raping Naomi.

Derrick's confession replays on the recording equipment Travis keeps around the apartment. At this point, Jones stands up, Professor Goodwin enters and Naomi appears from the other room with Beau. The police are revealed to be Naomi's driver and a student from Jones' Calculus class. The investigation was a setup to trick Derrick into confessing on camera. As everyone abandons Derrick, Goodwin insinuates that he too has heard the rumor of him and Jones having an affair.

Ten actresses screen test for the title role of a remake of ''Queen Christina''.

Suzanne, a 15-year-old Parisian girl, lives with her volatile, abusive family: her furrier parents and older brother Robert, a writer. She's dating a boy named Luc, who complains about not seeing her as much as he would like. At a cafe, Suzanne mingles with sailors and an American visitor. She and the American head outdoors and have sex, though the experience leaves her miserable. She tells a friend she regrets her unfaithfulness to Luc, but she breaks up with him and becomes increasingly promiscuous. Her father is close to Suzanne but reacts with suspicion and violence when Suzanne goes on a double date with her cousin Solange. When Suzanne returns, her father expresses concern with her changing demeanor, saying she smiles less and seems increasingly bored. He also discloses he has found another woman and is planning to leave the family.

Several days later, Robert tells Suzanne their father has left, and Robert assumes management of the household. Suzanne continues her affairs, though she admits she is unable to feel love. Her mother is desperately unhappy and grows increasingly frustrated with Suzanne's skimpy clothes, her letters from boys, and her attitude at home. Her brother and mother both beat Suzanne during family arguments. Luc returns to Suzanne and asks her to resume their relationship; she refuses. Miserable, Suzanne asks Robert to send her to boarding school, saying she can no longer tolerate home life and has contemplated suicide. She says she is only happy when she is with a man; Robert professes an inability to understand this.

Back in Paris, Suzanne begins a more serious relationship with a young man named Jean-Pierre. While she still says she is unable to feel love, she becomes engaged. Luc reappears and begs her to cancel the wedding. Though she confesses she has considered doing that, she tells him that Jean-Pierre provides her with inner peace for the first time. At a celebratory dinner party, the father unexpectedly shows up, questioning the happiness of the family and revealing Suzanne has been visiting him. He later shows up to see Suzanne leave for her honeymoon, but with another man, leaving Jean-Pierre behind.

Clyde is an unintelligent character who willingly signs up for genetic experiments to be carried out on him for $20. Due to a malfunction in a cloning machine, Clyde is cloned hundreds of times. The facility goes into lock-down in order to prevent him from escaping. Clyde must gather together his clones and work with them to fight their way out of the laboratory.

Prologue

Rumail Deslucido, a bitter, corrupt and defeated laranzu, tells his twisted story to his only son, Eduin MacEarn (see ''The Fall of Neskaya''). He has sent each of his sons to kill the Hasturs, and each has died in the attempt. Now it is Eduin's turn. He charges Eduin with the duty to enter Arilinn Tower and befriend all, but to secretly kill any Hasturs he can.

Book One

Varzil Ridenow presents himself for admission to Arilinn Tower, but is turned away because he does not have his father's permission. Though his father, Dom Felix, is initially furious, events work in Varzil's favor and his father eventually relents.

At Arilinn, Varzil meets and befriends Carolin (Carolin) Hastur, heir to the Hastur throne, and Eduin MacEarn, a prickly but talented individual.

At midwinter, Carolin returns to court. Eduin and Varzil accompany him, meeting many of Carolin's extended family. Varzil becomes aware of the Byzantine nature of court politics.

Carolin, Varzil, and Orain ride to Lake Hali. When Varzil attempts to wade in the cloud-lake, he perceives a matrix circle working with a large artificial matrix alive with non-human energy. He realizes that he is seeing a circle operating in the distant past and concludes that he is seeing the destruction of Hail Tower by Aldaran. Carolin drags his friend out of Hali Lake and takes him to the current Hali Tower for medical treatment.

Varzil and Eduin accompany Carolin to Comyn Castle for the Midwinter Ball. Carolin experiences a seizure, which Varzil believes (but cannot prove) was caused by Eduin.

On a ride to Blue Lake, Carolin and Varzil discuss the idea of a pact among all of the Hundred Kingdoms and the Towers, banning ''laran'' weapons. Varzil averts an attack on Carolin with a trap matrix weapon.

Varzil and Eduin return to the Tower, while Carolin marries the timid woman whom his relatives have selected for him.

Book Two

Felicia Leynier of Nevarsin Tower arrives at Arilinn Tower. Varzil learns that she is the only surviving child of Coryn Leynier and Queen Taniquel Hastur-Acosta (see ''The Fall of Neskaya''), but is sworn to secrecy.

Eduin receives word that his father is ill and travels into the back country of the Hellers. While attempting to heal his father's lung ailment, Eduin is overshadowed by his father's vengeful personality.

Back at Arilinn, Varzil joins a circle charged with making clingfire. When Austur, the keeper has a stroke, Felicia Leynier prevents a toxic chemical spill by acting as a temporary keeper. Her actions dispel the old myth that women cannot be keepers. With Varzil's encouragement, Felicia requests to be trained as a keeper. Ultimately, Hestral Tower asks for Felicia, offering to train her as a keeper. That evening, Austur has another stroke. On the point of death, he names Varzil as his replacement and swears him to independence from the Comyn aristocracy.

At Arilinn, the tower workers undertake the Year's End ritual (see ''The Forbidden Tower'' for the full significance of this event), in order to clear the ''laran'' channels. Varzil and Felicia make love. The next days, she gives him a ring, formerly belonging to her mother, set with an unkeyed matrix stone.

While studying in the archives of Hali Tower, Eduin accidentally learns of Felicia Leynier's true identity. He requests to transfer to Hestral Tower.

Book Three

Carolin, carrying out a promise he has made on his wife's deathbed, takes his two young sons to St. Valentine of the Snows monastery for education. He receives word from Hali Tower that his uncle, King Felix, has died. Carolin is now king, and vows that his first action will be enacting a ban on laran-based weapons. On his journey back to Thendara, Carolin learns from Orain that his ruthless uncle Rakhal has seized the throne. Orain swears fealty to Carolin, and they gather forces for a fight with Rakhal and his general, Lyondri.

Eduin, now in Hestral Tower, sets a trap matrix for Felicia Leynier. In Arilinn, Varzil perceives that something has happened to her, and arranges for Arilinn Tower to teleport him through the matrix screens to Hestral. He finds Felicia barely alive. She dies a month later.

Loryn Ardais, the Keeper of Hestral, asks for Varzil's assistance in destroying a supply of ''laran'' weapons to keep them out of the hands of Rakhal and Lyondri. They hear through the relays Carolin has pledged to abjure the use of laran weapons, especially clingfire, and that Tramontana Tower has signed on to the pact.

Varzil studies the matrix lattice responsible for Felicia's injuries and discovers a trap matrix, similar to the one that had almost killed Carolin. He demands truthspell be set to uncover the individual responsible for causing her death. Eduin, who has inherited his father's ability to foil truthspell, is able to pass Varzil's questioning.

King Rakhal's men arrive demanding clingfire. Keeper Loryn tells them that Hestur Tower will, like Tramontana, make no laran weapons. Rakhal's army returns to attack the tower. Eduin, in frustration, admits that he wants to fight the Hasturs, not merely hold off their attack. The army sets fire to the surrounding village, but the tower produces three days of rain. Eduin constitutes his own circle which repels the army, but nearly kills him in the process. He recovers sufficiently to escape the tower.

Hali Tower attacks Hestral Tower. Telepathically, Felicia urges Varzil to pass through the Overworld and end Hali's attack. Varzil attempts to persuade Hali's Keeper, Dougal diAsturian. When words fail, he shows diAsturian his vision from Hali Lake – The Cataclysm. The experience causes diAsturian joins the pact.

Book Four

Carolin and his forces confront Rakhal's army, and have several victories. Rakhal and Lyondri's men increasingly desert to Carolin's side. Eventually they are defeated. Rakhal, saying that if he cannot be king, neither can Carolin, tries to kill Carolin in a sword fight, but is killed. A different viewpoint of this same battle appears in the book "Hawkmistress!" where it is told from a different viewpoint - that of Romilly MacAran who looks after the sentry birds and who is also responsible for Orain's rescue from Lyondri.

Epilogue

At Thendara, Carolin and Varzil meet and determine to carry the Compact to every kingdom in Darkover.

In the many conflicts between England and Scotland the property of the Church had hitherto always been respected; but her temporal possessions, as well as her spiritual influence, were now in serious danger from the spread of the doctrines of the Reformation, and the occupants of the monasteries were dependent on the military services of their tenants and vassals for protection against the forays of Protestant barons and other heretical marauders. Dame Elspeth's husband Simon had fallen in the battle of Pinkie (1547), and the hospitality of her lonely tower had been sought by the widow of the Baron of Avenel and her daughter Mary, whose mansion had been seized and plundered by invaders, and subsequently taken possession of by her brother-in-law Julian. While confessing the baroness on her death-bed, Father Philip discovered that she possessed a Bible, and as he was carrying it to the Lord Abbot, it was, he declared, taken from him by a spectral White Lady, a character resembling the Undine, which Scott borrowed from Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué's ''Undine''. Disbelieving the sacristan's tale, the sub-prior visited the tower, where he met Christie of the Clinthill, a freebooter, charged with an insolent message from Julian Avenel, and learnt that the Bible had been mysteriously returned to its owner. Having exchanged it for a missal, he was unhorsed on his return by the apparition; and, on reaching the monastery, the book had disappeared from his bosom, and he found the freebooter detained in custody on suspicion of having killed him. The White Lady was next seen by Elspeth's son Halbert, who was conducted by her to a fairy grotto, where he was allowed to snatch the Bible from a flaming altar.

Melrose Abbey in 1800

During his absence from the tower, Happer the miller and his daughter Mysie arrived on a visit, and soon afterwards came Sir Piercie Shafton, as a refugee from the English Court. The next day the abbot came to dine with them, and offered Halbert, who had quarrelled with the knight for his attentions to Mary, the office of ranger of the Church forests. He, however, refused it, and startled his rival with a token he had obtained from the mysterious spectre. The following morning they fought in a glen, and Halbert fled to the Baron of Avenel, leaving Sir Piercie apparently mortally wounded. His companion thither was Henry Warden, who offended the laird, and assisted Halbert in his determination to escape from the castle, rather than serve under his host's standard. The knight, however, had miraculously recovered, and on making his way back to the tower, was accused by Edward of having murdered his missing brother, in spite of his assurance that the youth was alive and uninjured. With the sub-prior's approval he was treated as a prisoner; but during the night Mysie assisted him to escape, and accompanied him northwards, dressed as his page. Mary Avenel, meanwhile, in the midst of her grief at the supposed death of her lover, was visited by the White Lady, who comforted her by disclosing the place where he had hidden the Bible, which she had secretly read with her mother.

The rest of the family were astounded by the arrival of Christie, who confirmed Sir Piercie's assertion, and announced that he had brought Henry Warden to be dealt with as a heretic by the lord abbot. But the preacher and Father Eustace had been intimate friends at college, and the sub-prior was urging him to save his life by returning to the bosom of the Church, when Edward interrupted them to confess his jealousy of his brother, and his resolution to become a monk, in obedience to the White Lady who had appeared to him. Father Eustace then decided to leave his prisoner at the tower, under promise to surrender when summoned to the monastery; and, having learnt from the freebooter that Julian Avenel would fight for the Church, despatched him in search of Sir Piercie and the miller's daughter. That same night the lord abbot, alarmed by intelligence that English and Scottish soldiers were advancing with hostile intentions against the monastery, resigned his office to the sub-prior. Having taken the road to Edinburgh, Halbert had joined a squadron commanded by the Earl of Murray, who sent him forward to prevent an engagement between the English, under Sir John Forster, and the supporters of the Church, under the Baron of Avenel. He arrived too late, but the earl induced Sir John, who had won the battle, to withdraw, and marched his troops to St Mary's. Here the new abbot had assembled his brotherhood in the village, in anticipation of the destruction of their home. The regent and his followers formed up facing them, and the first matter settled was the marriage of Halbert with the heiress of Avenel. Father Eustace was then summoned to produce Sir Piercie, who surrendered voluntarily, and a flaw in his pedigree having been proved, Mysie was declared a fitting wife for him, and they were shipped off to Flanders. The monks, at the intercession of Henry Warden, were allowed to retain their monastery and lands on condition of being laid under contribution; while Edward, who had sought another interview with the White Spirit, was told that the knot of fate was tied, and impressed with the belief that the marriage of his brother with Mary Avenel might prove fatal to both of them.

Three sisters; Teresa, Mary and Catherine, come together before their mother's funeral, each haunted by their own demons. The play focuses on how each sister deals with the death and how it directly affects them. The three each have different memories of the same events, causing constant bickering about whose memories are true. As the three women get together after years of separation, all their hidden lies and self-betrayals are about to reach the surface.

A theme of the play is, eponymously, memory. The sisters' memories interact with each other, and show that despite synchronicities of time and place they cannot agree upon one unifying experience. This is echoed in Vi's final speech, which portrays Alzheimer's disease as being adrift among a series of islands of your own identity. The sisters drift around their own islands of memory, unable to agree on one particular point, and yet are unified by their familial bond (Vi comments that "some things stay in your bones").

The play exhibits the unity of time, place and character present in a tragedy, as the play seems to take place at one time, in one space and without change in the characters' outlooks. However, because the comedy here is so often interspersed with the tragic it may be said to be a tragi-comedy.

Thousands of years into the future, mankind has colonized other planets across the galaxy and completely forgotten about Earth. On one part of the galaxy, the female space pirates and their colossal starship Sol Bianca get a surprise when a young girl named May stows away on board the ship. The crew then embarks on a journey to Earth to find the whereabouts of May's parents and discover the secrets of the lost planet.

Lupita Gómez is a young teacher who recently left her people to go to work in Mexico City at the "Patria Unida" school, as recommended by her godfather Don Joaquín. There, she becomes a 2nd grade teacher. Lupita meets a group of children in her class whom she begins to adore. Her relationship with the children sends the cast on a series of comedic adventures.

Janet feels that her parents don't love her anymore, as her sister, Aurelia, is always being doted upon. When her parents made her sister the definite center of attention (her sister sang a song and their father played the guitar) during her aunt's visit, it was the last straw. Filled with anger and despair, Janet decides to run away from home. The gang volunteers to help Janet become "adapted" by another couple and choose Mr. and Mrs. Jones as potential candidates.

However, the Joneses immediately discover that Janet is a runaway and decide to teach her and the gang a lesson. They agree to adopt her, but make her life twice as miserable by making her scrub the floors (Janet bawls, "Why did I ever leave home?"). When Mrs. Jones begins to call Janet's family to return her home, Janet and the gang run away again to live in their hideout (which is a nearby cave). They soon discover that living in the cave is no easier, so they bring Janet back home.

Janet's family now realize how fortunate they are to have her. Her mother apologizes for being neglectful and unfeeling towards her and assures that it will never happen again. With everything happy, Froggy says "'All's well that ends well,' I always say." Janet's father corrects him, saying that his phrase was originally made by Shakespeare. "He did? Shucks!" answers a disappointed Froggy.

The House of Gohda, where the Azuma Ninja Clan reside under the service of Lord Gohda, is on the brink of war with the neighboring country of Ogawara. As a new recruit in the Azuma Ninja Clan, the protagonist is sent to assassinate those who are assisting the country of Ogawara, including army generals and spies who have infiltrated the House of Gohda, as well as recover stolen items and rescue prisoners. In between thwarting the country of Ogawara's plans, the protagonist also receives missions in which he eliminates evil people such as abusive monks and greedy merchants.

There is no connection between ''Tenchu Z'''s plot and those in the previous games, nor are there any returning characters with the exceptions of Rikimaru and Lord Gohda.

Tokyo, A.D. 2063: the Yakuza warlord Hideaki has seized total control of Honshū's underworld while ruthlessly crushing all opposition. But his true dream is the overthrow of the government itself. Japan's hard-line military junta will do anything to stop him and they have found the ultimate pawn to set their plan in motion: Renjiro, the chief advisor to the notorious gangster. Caught between a lifetime of honor and loyalty to his Yakuza clan and the iron-fisted might of the military elite, Renjiro will find that the only way to stop a civil war and avoid total annihilation is to play both sides against the middle.

A TV game show writer, waking up after an alcoholic blackout, discovers that someone is out to destroy his life.

Anton Mordrid (Combs) is a wizard sent to Earth by a being called the Monitor, to stop the evil wizard Kabal from opening the gate to Hell. Kabal needs the Philosopher's Stone and several alchemical elements to complete the spell and open the gate, unleashing his minions from the Fourth Dimension upon the Earth. Mordrid watches for signs of Kabal's presence for 150 years; as the time of their epic battle approaches, Mordrid assumes the role of a criminal psychologist, and becomes the mysterious landlord to Samantha Hunt, a research consultant to the police.

Dr. Mordrid detects a series of thefts of the elements that Kabal is seeking, and Mordrid begins to search for his nemesis. Samantha is persistent in her attempts to penetrate Mordrid's secretive life. The battle for Earth spills over into the Magic Dimension where the gate is closely guarded by other good wizards. They are no match for Kabal, who defeats all but one of them. This survivor confirms Kabal's plans for Mordrid, and Mordrid returns to Earth to prepare his defenses. When Mordrid is arrested for murder, Samantha attempts to help prove his innocence. Mordrid reveals his true nature and his mission to her, and she agrees to help him escape.

In the final showdown, Kabal and Mordrid do battle within the Cosmopolitan Museum with Kabal animating the Tyrannosaurus skeleton on display to threaten several police officers while he opens the portals to his demonic realm. Mordrid animates a nearby American Mastodon skeleton to battle the dinosaur while he deals with Kabal. Using his wits and his magical power, Mordrid narrowly manages to kill Kabal by having the mastodon impale him on its tusk while he's distracted, preventing the destruction of reality as we know it. His mission accomplished, Mordrid is called by The Monitor to cross over once again into the Magic Dimension and leave the Earth behind. Later that year on Christmas, he returns to Earth and spends time with Samantha, inviting her to come with him should he be called away again.

In the summer of 1939, Jean, a butcher in Paris, takes his family to a small town near Avignon for a stay with his widowed mother. Accompanying him is his Dutch wife Eva, and the couple's only child, twelve-year-old Marie. During the family's stay, Marie takes a liking to Alexandre, the thirty-year-old local doctor. Alexandre enjoys Marie's lively and intelligent company until one night Marie comes to the house where he lives alone and offers himself to him. Alexandre rejects Marie.

Shortly after Marie undergoes her first period and is taught by her grandmother to be more careful with men. Her place in Alexandre's life is taken by her mother, who begins a full-blown affair with him while Jean is away helping to bring in the harvest. The grandmother teaches Marie that this is something which can happen, but one must not talk about it and must seek to reconcile the married couple. When Jean returns, Alexandre keeps his distance until the village festival where he asks Eva for a dance. Jean punches Alexandre and a brawl develops. Everything ends with the outbreak of war.

Ken Tani (Shō Kosugi), a martial artist and special operative for the American government codenamed "Black Eagle", is summoned by his superiors after an F-111 carrying an experimental black ops laser tracking device was shot down over Malta by Russian forces. A group of elite KGB agents led by Colonel Vladimir Klimenko and his brutal and enigmatic right-hand man Andrei (Jean-Claude van Damme) have been dispatched to Malta to retrieve the device for their own ends. Tani, alongside CIA agent Patricia Parker (Doran Clark) and his sons Brian (Kane Kosugi) and Denny (Shane Kosugi) travel to Malta to find the device before Andrei does, leading to an eventual face-to-face encounter.

''The Living and the Dead'' opens in London's Victoria Station. Elyot Standish bids farewell to his younger sister Eden in a manner that is not particularly emotional or final. Elyot returns to an empty house, somberly observing the memories that remain amongst its silent possessions.

Chapter 2 takes the reader several decades earlier, where a young Kitty Goose begins to find her way through England's upper classes. Catherine marries Willy Standish and bears him two children, but separates some years afterwards due to Willy's infidelity. Catherine's children, Elyot and Eden, are raised by her maid Julia and, during World War I, by surrogate guardians.

Following the war, Catherine, living on the dwindling remnants of pre-war affluence, struggles to relate to her children. Elyot, a Cambridge graduate and professional writer, isolates himself in intellectual pursuits. Eden, a bookshop attendant, is influenced by left-wing politics.

As the Spanish Civil War rises in the conscience of British society, the Standishes are forced to face their inner dissatisfactions. This is brought into focus by the failures of their sexual relationships. Catherine, who finds herself irrelevant in a much-changed world, pursues a romance with the younger Wally Collins, an American musician. The relationship is severed when Wally loses interest in Catherine, who spills her emotions whilst drunk at a fashionable party. Elyot, whether with family or with women, never allows himself a relationship of any depth. He distances himself from both Muriel Raphael, an artistic socialite, and Connie Tiarks, an unattractive but devoted childhood friend. The two are complete opposites, yet neither satisfies the purposeless Elyot.

It is Eden who suffers the most tragedy, yet, paradoxically, offers the best hope of a meaningful existence. Her first lover, a married man, discards her to pursue an overseas position. The secrecy surrounding her abortion isolates her further from her family. Her second romance with the leftist Joe Barnett gives her a long-sought happiness, but this is taken away in cruel circumstances. Joe, facing his own conscience, disappears to Spain and is killed in action. It is Joe Barnett's firm direction that all others fail to achieve.

With the death of Catherine to cancer, Eden decides that her rightful place is in Spain, even without her deceased lover. At the station, Elyot does not expect to ever see her again, and thus the reader understands the full significance of the opening chapter's sterility. ''The Living and the Dead'' raises deep questions about life, death and those in between.

In the year 2007, a woman is preparing for a party, while her husband is tinkering with a communication device for their new baby. A sudden lightning bolt affects the television, causing the baby to levitate and vanish.

In the year 1992, a 4th grader named Natsumi Mizuki is separated from her parents for a day, because her father's company only bought 2 tickets for their move to England, so they had to buy her a ticket for the following day. She is upset because her parents gave away her pet dog. Her aunt Izumi (her mother's younger sister), an aspiring manga writer who hates dogs and babies, comes to live with Natsumi. They do not get along very well, with Natsumi calling her 'Oba-san' (Auntie) instead of 'Onee-san' (Big sis) as she would prefer.

While watching a movie, the baby appears in front of Natsumi. She becomes determined to raise the baby, not wanting to trust her with the clumsy policeman.

Through the strange heart-shaped device, Natsumi and Izumi learn that the baby's mother is Natsumi Mizuki from the year 2007! She is a married 24-year-old, and pleads with her past self to take care of the baby until they can determine how to return her. The device is also linked with a clasp around the baby's neck that notifies Izumi when the baby needs her, through transmitting her emotional state. Natsumi and Izumi continue to quarrel over how to raise the baby, and worry about time paradoxes that could occur.

Natsumi must now try to raise her future daughter, attend school, and foil her aunt's attempts to foist the baby onto other caregivers. Izumi is pressured into watching the baby while Natsumi is at school, in exchange for free board, since she lost her apartment. During this time, she tries to focus on creating her manga without distractions.

The story is that of a conniving countess (played by Lili Bech) coming between a gay sculptor, Claude Zoret (Egil Eide), and his bisexual model and lover, Mikaël (Lars Hanson), ultimately leading to Zoret's death in a raging storm at the base of a statue of Mikaël as the mythological Icarus.

Chambers plays the rich, happy and assertive fashion model Sandra Chase, whose sexual appetite is – per the title – insatiable. The film begins as it ends, with her masturbating. She has an old-fashioned aunt who appears in a series of flashbacks. The movie has little plot or storyline, and "only the barest minimum of real-world narrative conflict." It consists mainly of one sex scene after another with some filler sequences added to pad the runtime to feature-length movie standards. While one scene has Chambers' character overhearing her friend having sex, all the other "action" scenes features Chambers as an active participant.

In the first scene, Chambers and Serena perform cunnilingus on each other. Next she performs fellatio on a young man (played by Richard Pacheco) making deliveries who has run out of gas whom she encounters while driving her Ferrari Dino.

In the third scene, presented as a flashback, Sandra is ravished on a snooker table by the gardener of her father's estate (played by David Morris). The incident is revealed to be Chambers' character's first sexual experience, and may be meant to explain her later sexual behaviour. The scene has been called "uncommonly brutal". Although Chambers says, "No, please stop," the movie makes it clear she is a willing participant, as she tells her friend, "I just loved being held down and made love to by him".

The fourth scene features Jessie St. James paired with John Leslie. In the fifth scene of the movie, Chambers has sex with two men (Morris and Mike Ranger) and a woman (Jessie St. James), followed immediately by anal sex with a semi-erect John Holmes. As soon as Holmes is finished, Chambers utters her last line of the movie whilst masturbating: "More, more, more." Her final moans before the final dialogue were sampled by Anthrax in their song "Starting up a Posse".

Pyrrhus lives in the city with his housemate Leucon. He works as a waiter, then as a hustler. One day he hears his father Achilles has left him some inheritance in Troy, and he decides to claim it. On the ship, he sleeps with Corythus, a sailor. He soon learns he needs to seduce Philoctetes and get his bow for a prophecy to come true. He grows attached to the old man, though the latter also has an affair with Paris. Finally, Philoctetes breaks the bow. Pyrrhus meets Leucon again in a hospital where Pyrrhus is waiting to see his lover Philoctetes, who is very sick; the latter realizes he no longer has feelings for Pyrrhus. Pyrrhus understands that he has grown and accepted his sexuality and is able to live openly, something Leucon cannot do. (The novel hints that he probably never will.)

In 2003 Italy, Attilio de Giovanni, a comical and impassioned poetry professor and the divorced father of two teenage girls, is hopelessly in love with Vittoria, a coworker and writer. Vittoria is the subject of Attilio's many dreams that center around a wedding between him and Vittoria. Attilio's strenuous courtship is unsuccessful, yet he does not lose hope, despite the fact that Vittoria obviously does not share the same feelings. She tells him that she will agree to marry him only when she sees a tiger walking on the snow.

Vittoria goes to Iraq to write the biography of the poet Fuad, Attilio's close friend, who is returning to his country after 18 years living in France. In Baghdad, she is wounded as collateral damage during the invasion of Iraq. By impersonating a Red Cross surgeon, and Attilio sneaks onto a flight to Baghdad in a desperate attempt to save her life. He finds Vittoria in an Iraqi hospites. Fuad directs Attilio to an old Iraqi pharmacist, who suggests ancient treatments that manage to keep her alive, temporarily. Attilio locates scuba gear to provide Vittoria with oxygen and a flyswatter, which he jokingly calls the "weapon of mass destruction" the US is looking for in Iraq.

Still needing more medicinal supplies to revive Vittoria, Attilio journeys to an Italian Red Cross encampment and returns with more comprehensive supplies that will nurse Vittoria back to health.

Attilio then goes to Fuad's house to report his success, but finds that Fuad has hanged himself. Attilio had not picked up on Fuad's behavior and speech earlier in the film indicating his suicidal plans, for he had been too preoccupied with trying to save Vittoria. Just before Vittoria emerges from her coma, Attilio is mistaken for an enemy combatant and is captured by the US Army, but is soon freed and allowed to return to Italy.

In the final scenes it is revealed that Vittoria is actually Attilio's ex-wife. They were likely separated because of Attilio's excitability and insane diversions, along with his earlier involvements with another woman. Attilio awkwardly visits Vittoria and their children several times, clearly showing his infatuation in her. On the same day Attilio returns to his country, there is an animal breakout due to a fire at the circus. Vittoria, driving her car, stops to see an escaped tiger in the middle of the road under falling ashes from the fire on the vicinity that resembles snowfall.

Though Attilio refuses to admit he is the "wonderful stranger who saved her," Vittoria suddenly recognizes his familiar way of kissing her forehead in the same manner that the stranger had kissed her when she was comatose in the hospital, as well as how Vittoria's missing necklace (which Attilio took to safeguard earlier) is seen hanging from his neck.

The novel is a first-person account narrated by Kenneth Watson, who lives in Flint, Michigan with his parents, Daniel and Wilona Watson; his older brother, Byron; and younger sister, Joetta. Kenny is a bright and shy fourth grader at Clark Elementary School who is bullied for his intelligence and his lazy eye. He struggles to make true friends until Rufus Fry arrives in town from Arkansas. Rufus is also bullied by the other students for his "country" clothes and accent, which initially makes Kenny reluctant to befriend him, but they are soon inseparable. The boys are both bullied and protected by Kenny's 13-year-old brother, Byron, and his friend, Buphead. Byron has been retained twice because he often skips school and is, therefore, still in sixth grade. He invents a series of "fantastic adventures" that constantly get him into trouble, such as playing with matches in the house and setting things on fire, abusing his parents' credit at the grocery store to buy himself treats, and getting a conk hairstyle against his parents' orders.

Daniel and Wilona eventually become so frustrated with their inability to straighten out Byron that they decide to send him to Birmingham, Alabama to live with Wilona's mother, Grandma Gloria Sands, for at least the summer and possibly an entire year. As soon as the school year concludes, the Watsons ready their car ("the Brown Bomber") and embark on a road trip from Flint to Birmingham to deliver Byron to his grandma. Kenny, who had been looking forward to the "battle royal" between his grandmother and Byron, is disappointed when just a few sharp words from Grandma Sands have Byron speaking respectfully and generally behaving himself, causing Kenny to seek out his own "adventures." Grandma Sands warns the children to avoid a particular local swimming hole because of a dangerous whirlpool, which Kenny mishears as "Wool Pooh" due to her thick Alabama accent. Kenny wants to swim there anyway, and he is frustrated when Byron and Joetta refuse to go along. Ignoring the warnings of both Grandma Sands and Byron, Kenny jumps into the seemingly tranquil pool and edges deeper and deeper into the water until the whirlpool catches him and almost pulls him down, but Byron saves him. Remembering his grandmother's words, Kenny imagines that a strange monster he believes to be the mysterious Wool Pooh swam up from below to grab his ankle and pull him under the water. Byron later insists that nothing else was in the water, but Kenny is convinced the Wool Pooh actually exists.

Shortly afterwards, a bomb explodes at a nearby church where Joetta is attending Sunday school. Kenny wanders into the still-smoking church in the immediate aftermath of the explosion to look for his sister, but he instead sees the Wool Pooh in the smoke clinging to a girl's torn shoe that looks similar to Joetta's. In shock, he walks back to Grandma Sands' house without anyone noticing that he had been at the church. He is again shocked and confused, however, to find Joetta already there. She claims that Kenny had called her away from the church and led her home, and she does not even know that a bombing had taken place right after she left Sunday school.

As soon as they realize that Joetta is safe, the Watsons decide to immediately return home to Flint, trying to avoid explaining the full implications of the bombing to the children. Kenny is unable to process the events in Birmingham and avoids his family and friends over the ensuing weeks, instead spending many hours hiding behind the sofa. Byron eventually coaxes him out and gets Kenny to talk about what happened, which finally brings a flood of tears from Kenny. Encouraging his younger brother to "keep on stepping," Byron explains that although the world is not perfect, he has to keep moving on.

Fred is treating the Mystery Inc. gang to share in his birthday present: a mystery cruise, compliments of his parents Skip and Peggy. While preparing for the ship launch, Scooby and Shaggy have a creepy encounter with a sinister-looking cloaked man, whom the duo are sure is up to no good. The gang meet the hyper Cruise Director, Sunny St. Cloud, and the captain, Captain Crothers. The Captain says they are bound for the Bermuda Triangle, and St. Cloud promises some creepy intrigue. A montage of sloppy "mysteries" that are staged by St. Cloud and Captain Crothers follow, which the gang solves with ease. This peeves the other guests, who have no mysteries to solve now. Soon they rescue Rupert Garcia, a man lost at sea, who tells of an encounter with ghost pirates. The gang naturally assumes that this is a setup to another mystery. He is taken below deck as a man in a jet-pack appears from the sky and lands on deck. He turns out to be Biff Wellington, an English billionaire who is known to be fun-loving yet eccentric. He plans to stay on the ship as well.

That night, the gang attends a costume party dinner. The creepy cloaked man appears on stage, who turns out to be Mister Mysterio, a famous hypnotist. Shaggy and Scooby are picked from the audience to demonstrate his powers, but they prove immune to his hypnotism: yet the audience falls under the trance. Mysterio dispels the hypnotism and disappears in a puff of smoke. The creepy fog then engulfs the cruise ship. The ghost pirates led by Captain Skunkbeard and his first mate Wally, wreak havoc, chasing the cruise guests, whom all mysteriously disappear. Skip and Peggy are kidnapped, and the pirates retreat back to the galleon and leave (after sinking the cruise ship). At this time, the gang realizes it is a real mystery, and they and Rupert are the only ones left aboard the damaged ship.

With his help, they follow the glowing trail left behind by the galleon and arrive in a secret harbor. There, they find Rupert's old ship, and then are captured by the ghost pirates, who take them aboard their galleon. The pirates are looking to find a meteor of mystic power, said to be the source of the Triangle's power, which fell into the triangle 200 years ago and could be pinpointed using Rupert's antique painting and his skills as an astrophotographer. The gang is tied to the mast along with Skip, but there are no other cruise guests around.

The galleon enters the heart of the triangle, and begins to see past ghosts from the triangle: The Flight 19, USS ''Cyclops'', even a sea serpent. Amidst this, the gang manages to escape and explore below deck. They find a lot of modern equipment that was used to project the ghostly images just witnessed. The ship enters an odd ring of rocks, and pulls up the meteor, which glows golden yellow.

The gang then engineer a trap, which fails. The pirates then attempt to re-capture the gang, leading to a trademark Scooby-Doo chase sequence, in which the entire pirate crew are captured by Scooby and Shaggy. Captain Skunkbeard is revealed to be Wellington, and Wally is revealed to be Mysterio. The rest of the pirates turn out to be the cruise guests, Rupert's shipmates, and past conquests of the pirates. Wellington explains that Mysterio convinced him that he was the reincarnation of a pirate years ago, and could use the meteor to teleport back in time. Mysterio used this ruse to get Wellington to finance the search for the meteor. The crew were just hypnosis victims under Mysterio's power. Mysterio's true motive was that the meteor itself is pure gold and he was going to steal it to make himself rich, but then he is stopped by Scooby.

At this time, a volcanic reaction hits, and the gang deduces the forces of the triangle want the meteor back, so they drop it back in the water, and some steering by Fred narrowly gets the galleon out of the ring as it crumbles into the sea. The cruise guests use the galleon as a large party boat as they sail back to Miami to drop off the villains to the authorities.

The player plays as either two of the Counter Terrorist Special Forces (CTSF) elite agents; 'Stealth' Owl or 'Immortal' Raptor. They are both at best in stealth and frontal assault tactics respectively to complete their mission.

The game begins with a speech by the World Council President speaking to senators in regard to the CTSF and their work. It appears that the CTSF has an artificial intelligence unit and it has contributed to the many successes of the CTSF in fighting terrorism. Thanks to the Proteus Project that the council had voted for an artificial intelligence unit, Thesis, the CTSF's AI has been baptised to serve the CTSF with its fight against terrorism, with 90% accuracy and no news of terrorist attacks in the last six months. General Banner, the former general now serving the CTSF, gives thanks. It is then seen that due to the geopolitical climate no longer steady, the council has voted that Thesis be reassigned to military research, which exasperates Banner. He is told to relax and is told of the plans, which he does not seem happy on.

Back in Antarctica, the CTSF base has training carried out. Owl is handling his recruits when then he and Raptor are called in by Tracy, the head in communications, for officer's evaluation. The player is then taught, in two missions on how to use the interfaces with Raptor or Owl.

Soon after Banner returns, three simultaneous attacks are alerted. A tanker is hijacked and a train is bombarded, both by terrorists. Raptor handles the tanker while Owl handles the train. However the terrorists succeed in the third attack where they blew a dam and flooded the city of Kiev. Raptor is first sent in to clear the numerous patrol boats with terrorists and then save a civilian. Owl then parachutes down, going to handle the terrorists and their plan to destroy the city. Owl finishes most of them off, until a chopper comes in and attacks. Owl heads to a stadium where Raptor is waiting and Raptor takes care of the chopper with his Hoverspeed.

The terrorist threat isn't over yet, as Tracy, back in headquarters points out that the terrorists have escaped to Russia, with a heavy transportation of arms carried out. Raptor heads to an unused dock where the terrorists are located and finishes the choppers escaping, with a heavy frontal assault attack using the element of surprise. However, upon clearing the place, it is then found out that the mission was to be aborted as the terrorists have suddenly gained an upper hand, where they succeeded taking control of a missile launch base, threatening to fire a nuclear missile. Raptor is then extracted while Owl continues in stealth. Somehow, when Owl arrives in the control room, the missile has been triggered to fire, and he is told to look for the scientists who can stop the bomb. They arrive swiftly, stopping the launch sequence.

The terrorists escape to the Middle East where they have fortified a base. Owl is sent in by a stealth drop while Raptor is sent in for a ground intervention. Owl first locates a terminal and allows the CTSF access to the base. Owl then plants charges on gun posts and rigs them to explode just as Raptor then arrives to pick him up.

The terrorists then secure an unused bunker and the CTSF retaliates. Raptor first handles anti-aircraft guns where owl then is dropped in stealth. However, the terrorists somehow manage to block Thesis from overseeing the base of operations so Owl goes in blind. He ends up, wounded from an explosion, hearing the leader of the terrorists just before he was injured from.

Owl recuperates, while Banner is angry at what the terrorists are doing. Just as well, the terrorists are found in a jungle, where Raptor is sent in to take them down. Securing the jungle, Raptor finds a bunker, where he estimates that there are too many enemies for him to hold. He requests for help, which Banner, ironically sends Owl, though still in need of recuperation. He arrives at the spot, to Raptor's shock and takes over. It is then found out of the bunker; it is the base of the Nemesis Organisation (NO), where the ex-CTSF scientist Gregory Statszeck is found. Owl then tries to get him back, and they also succeed extracting data from the NO's AI, Nemesis. Raptor then arrives to pick them up.

Banner informs Raptor, Owl and Tracy of his latest find; NO has set a task for the CTSF, where they have held hostage of the CTSF's senators and will publicly execute them in 3 hours, doing so would result in the end of the CTSF. The three of them are shocked, but are determined to finish things off. Owl goes down in stealth, though on the ground Thesis is blocked off again, where Owl later enables contact via morse and saves the senators.

While back in Antarctica, the NO has begun attack on the CTSF base. Everyone is panicked. Owl receives a call while returning, which he is informed by Tracy to extract all of Thesis' data. A huge bomb is also fired down towards the base. Owl parachutes down and disarms the bomb, where on the ground he carries out his orders.

Unfortunately Banner enters and suspects Owl for betraying the CTSF. When the others find out, Raptor was shocked. Owl tries to prove his innocence, which was partly supported by the terrorists' action which the communications were disrupted. Owl is sent into detainment while Raptor goes out to secure the base and reprogram the communications. He later finds the leader and tells Tracy to release Owl and group with him.

The leader turns out to be none other than Owl's previous partner, Anton Call. Call wants revenge on the CTSF, which he almost succeeds. Owl seemed reluctant on shooting his former partner, until he and Raptor go on a chase to stop Call. They succeed, and Banner apologises to Owl for doubting him. Banner also recalls his late soldiers whose bravery he will not forget, and senses pride he has with the CTSF.

Prior to the publication of ''Civil War: X-Men'', the events of House of M reduced the mutant population to only 198 known mutants, and the US government has turned the Xavier Institute into a relocation camp patrolled by Sentinel Squad ONE*. In ''Civil War'' #3, the X-Men declare official neutrality in the superhero civil war.

In ''X-Men: Civil War'' #1, X-Force members Domino, Shatterstar and Caliban break the 198 out of the Xavier Institute. Cyclops declines to assist the ONE, but Bishop wants mutants to police their own. Bishop is given permission by the government to take Sabra and Micromax to find the escapees. The surviving original X-Men decide to sneak off the grounds to find the escapees before Bishop can arrest them.

In issue #2, General Lazer, head of the ONE, discovers Johnny Dee's power to control anyone whose DNA he can digest. Cyclops contacts Captain America, who reveals the Nevada bunker Domino has taken the escaped mutants to. Bishop learns that the President of the United States is considering full amnesty for the 198 and just as Cyclops' team is about to enter the bunker, Bishop and several Sentinels arrive and tell everyone to await the President's decision. Just then, Lazer has Johnny Dee force Cyclops into releasing the full power of his optic blasts on Bishop, but Bishop redirects the energy upwards towards the sky.

In issue #3, Val Cooper stumbles onto Lazer and Johnny Dee's machinations, and she becomes head of the ONE and calls a cease fire. However, Lazer has already initiated a self-destruct sequence in the bunker the 198 are in.

In issue #4, the X-Men team up with Bishop, Iron Man, and Ms. Marvel to save the 198 from the exploding bunker. Johnny Dee kills Lazer while Val Cooper is interrogating him and Johnny Dee is locked away in prison. The 198 walk away intact and separate while Bishop leaves the X-Men. He is later seen talking to Val who tells him the ONE were given too much discretionary power at the expense of mutant civil rights and that the President has appointed an oversight committee to make changes. The first being that the Xavier Institute becomes a community for mutants, with residency being voluntary and open to all who wish to reside there, and that the ONE would no longer be authorized to restrict their comings and goings. The second change is that the Sentinels would remain on the grounds, but for protection only and that mutants would be free to come and go as they pleased. Val then offers Bishop a job with the ONE, which he accepts.

Malik Solanka, a Cambridge-educated millionaire from Bombay, is looking for an escape from himself. At first he escapes from his academic life by immersing himself into a world of miniatures (after becoming enamored with the miniature houses on display at the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam), eventually creating a puppet called "Little Brain" and leaving the academy for television.

However, dissatisfaction with the rising popularity of "Little Brain" serves to ignite deeper demons within Solanka's life, resulting in the narrowly avoided murder of his wife and child. To further escape, Solanka travels to New York, hopeful he can lose himself and his demons in America, only to find that he is forced to confront himself.

Mikey and his stepmother Rose are contract killers and lovers. The two continue with their line of work despite the fact that Rose is suffering from cancer.

Organized crime kingpin Clayton suspects that his pregnant wife Vicki may have been unfaithful, so he hires Mikey and Rose to kill her. Upon entering Clayton's mansion, Rose heads for Vicki's bedroom while Vicki is on the phone with her best friend Neisha. But as Rose enters Vicki's bedroom, Vicki's water breaks and she goes into labor. Taking pity on Vicki, Rose uses her prior medical training to deliver Vicki's baby, a boy she later names Anthony. Afterward, Mikey and Rose drive Vicki and her infant son to a local motel.

At Rose's request, Mikey calls Dr. Don, Clayton's private doctor. Dr. Don arrives with his drug-addicted nurse/lover, Precious. Dr. Don provides medical assistance to Vicki and her baby before leaving. Over Mikey's objections, Rose insists that they take Vicki and her infant son to a safe place. The four end up in Philadelphia.

Meanwhile, Neisha arrives at Clayton's mansion, demanding to know where Vicki is. Clayton becomes nervous that Neisha knows too much and pays Mikey to kill her, which he does by poisoning. Mikey and Rose then move Vicki and her son to a house in upstate Pennsylvania. Mikey carries on with the contract killings alone as Rose has become too ill to accompany him.

At the baby's first birthday party, Rose decides she would rather die than suffer from cancer. She and Mikey have sex in the woods, and she has Mikey shoot her as she reaches orgasm. Before she dies, Rose makes Mikey promise to protect Vicki and her baby. Mikey, Vicki, and Anthony live safely for seven years.

Sometime later, Precious discovers Dr. Don performing oral sex on a patient. Hurt and betrayed, Precious leaves his office while threatening to get her revenge.

Vicki becomes concerned about Anthony when she sees him watching Mikey assemble a gun. She later asks Mikey to leave, saying that he does not have to protect them anymore. Mikey realizes that he has grown attached to Anthony and tells Vicki that he wants to stay.

Clayton finds out from Precious that Vicki and Anthony are alive. Clayton then kills Precious in front of Dr. Don, then shoots him in the leg. Mikey, deciding that he no longer wants to kill, determines that his next contract kill will be his final one. When Mikey checks into a hotel he opens the file on his contract, only to find a picture of himself and Vicki leaving their house. Mikey then calls Vicki. Clayton's bodyguard instead answers the phone, causing Mikey to rush home and right into Clayton's trap.

Clayton tortures Mikey in the basement, in part by snipping off one of his fingers with a pair of hedge clippers. Vicki and Anthony are forced to watch. Clayton then turns around to taunt Vicki. At that moment, Mikey disarms the thug who held him down during the finger snipping. During the ensuing struggle, Mikey manages to overpower Clayton and the remaining thug. Clayton recovers and is about to shoot Mikey when Anthony shoots Clayton in the back. After sending Vicki and Anthony outside, Mikey kills Clayton's two unconscious thugs. Mikey then does the same to Clayton after commenting to him just how proud of Anthony Clayton probably is.

Mikey, Vicki, and Anthony escape. Anthony ask Mikey if he is his son, and Mikey replies that he is. Mikey also cautions Anthony to watch out for people like Clayton and his men; the boy responds, "We'll kill 'em."

An earthquake releases a bunch of mutant cockroaches that can create fire by rubbing their cerci together. Eventually, most of the bugs die because they cannot survive in the low air pressure on the Earth's surface, but a scientist, Professor James Parmiter (Dillman), keeps one alive in a pressure chamber. He successfully breeds the mutant cockroach with a modern cockroach, creating a breed of intelligent, flying super-cockroaches.

Commanders Worf and Jadzia Dax plan their long-awaited wedding. Since Dax will be joining Worf's surrogate family, the House of Martok, she agrees to endure the traditional evaluation by the mistress of the house, Martok's wife, Sirella. Dax is surprised to learn that as a non-Klingon she will almost certainly fail to gain Sirella's favor. Learning that Sirella disapproves of Dax, Worf asks Martok to intervene, but Martok refuses to interfere with Sirella's prerogative.

Worf invites his son Alexander, as well as Captain Sisko, Chief O'Brien, and Dr. Bashir to join him and Martok in Kal'Hyah, the traditional Klingon "bachelor party". The four of them are disappointed to learn that unlike what they imagined the Klingons' idea of a bachelor party to be, the Kal'Hyah is actually a multi-day ceremonial ordeal featuring fasting, bloodletting and other physical trials.

Dax struggles to meet Sirella's exacting standards. When asked to recite the history of Sirella's family, Dax infuriates her prospective mother-in-law by revealing her discovery that Sirella has no imperial blood, and is descended from a concubine.

Dax throws herself a pre-wedding party. In the midst of the drinking, debauchery, and a fire dance by Dax's friend Lieutenant Atoa, Sirella enters and demands Dax join her for a ritual. When Dax tells her to leave, Sirella threatens to cancel the wedding. The confrontation escalates into a physical assault, and Sirella storms out. The next morning, Worf informs Dax that Sirella has forbidden her to join the House of Martok. He asks her to beg Sirella's forgiveness, but Dax refuses to endure any further humiliation just so Worf can have a Klingon ceremony. He rejects her suggestion to simply have Sisko officiate, and the two call off the wedding.

Martok persuades Worf to apologize to Dax, but she refuses to change her mind. Determined to see the lovers wed, Sisko goes to see Dax. She describes the indignities to which she has been subjected, reminding Sisko that, as Curzon Dax, she was Federation Ambassador to the Klingon Empire. Sisko points out that even though she shares Curzon's memories, she is a new person, and that Sirella sees her only as a young woman who wants to marry into her family. Sisko states that Dax knew what she was getting into when she agreed to marry Worf, and she must honor the traditions of his people. Warmed by her deep love for Worf, Dax follows Sisko's advice, and they are married with Sirella's blessing.

Dax and Worf are sent to meet with Lasaran, a Cardassian double-agent who wishes to defect to the Federation. Lasaran has valuable military intelligence, but will share no information until he is extracted by Dax and Worf. In three days, he plans to walk into the jungle on the planet Soukara; seeing no alternative, they agree to rendezvous with him there.

Once Dax and Worf land their runabout on Soukara, they have two days to reach the rendezvous point. They must trek through 20 kilometers of dense jungle, and will have to evade the Dominion's surveillance and patrols. They hike the entire day, finally stopping to make camp after night falls. Despite the difficulty of the journey, it is almost like a honeymoon for the newlyweds, who enjoy talking and joking together. However, they soon realize they are in the path of a patrol of Jem'Hadar, the Dominion's soldiers. They manage to kill all three Jem'Hadar, but Dax is shot with a disruptor that leaves an anti-coagulant in her wound — meaning the bleeding cannot be stopped.

With the help of painkillers and regular plasma transfusions, they continue their trek, but Dax's injuries impede their progress, and eventually she loses the ability to walk. Since they cannot abandon their mission, Dax and Worf agree Worf must keep going, leaving Dax behind to die. The newlyweds share a kiss goodbye, and Worf heads off into the jungle. But as he gets farther away, Worf realizes he cannot complete the mission. Instead, he rushes back to the now-unconscious Dax, reaching her just in time to save her life.

Back on Deep Space Nine, he learns she will recover, but their mission is a complete loss: Lasaran has been killed. Captain Sisko informs Worf that, as captain, he must issue a formal reprimand, lessening the possibility of Worf ever getting his own command, and prohibit any further missions with Worf and Dax as a team—but as a man and a husband, he would have done the same thing.

In a side plot, Miles O'Brien tries to coach Julian Bashir to win a game of Tongo, a Ferengi gambling game, and break Quark's winning streak; Quark wins by reminding Bashir of his former infatuation with Dax, leaving him too distracted and glum to focus on the game.

due to the similar look and play of the game The United Arms Organization constructs a top-secret training facility, codenamed Dark Arena, on a small, isolated island on an alien planet. Genetic splicing was performed to create dangerous Genetically Engineered Organisms (GEOs) that were intended to train troops, under the assurance that special security fail-safe systems would prevent the creatures from breaking free. However, in the summer of 2146, the failsafes failed, allowing the GEOs to overrun the facility and slaughter its personnel.

No sooner after this occurs, Angelina Bradshaw and her special operations team are summoned to the island to try and get things back under control, but all of her men are no match for the GEOs, leaving her trapped alone deep in Dark Arena. She manages to hide for a while to recollect herself and inform authorities of the situation before the GEOs finally find her. Unwilling to share the fate of her comrades, she begins to battle her way out of Dark Arena and must race against time to clear out a path to a hanger on the outskirts of the island and evacuate before a nuclear strike is called to destroy all GEOs as a last resort.

The game's ending depends on the difficulty level set by the player. If the player completes the game on the easiest difficulty, Angelina is ambushed and killed at the hangar by enemies that she did not encounter on her way out, who intelligently set a trap for her. On the medium difficulty, she makes it to the hangar and successfully escapes, but not before being threatened by some enemies she didn't fight. If the hard difficulty was completed, she discovers that she has wiped the entire facility clean of monsters, leaving none to stop her at the hangar. Confident in her unparalleled combat skills, she then takes off and plans to investigate a similar disaster occurring on the planet Wolf-354.

''Voyager'' is docked at the Markonian Outpost Space Station, which has welcomed the wayward ship with open diplomatic arms, allowing the free exchange of gifts and ideas. While meeting several representatives of various species in the mess hall, a man approaches Seven of Nine and reveals a container of several Borg implants, which she keeps. The sight stuns Seven and brings back memories from her past as a Borg. As the man walks away, it is revealed that he is in telepathic communication with two other guests aboard ''Voyager'', colluding with them to penetrate the ship's security systems.

With B'Elanna Torres' help, Seven identifies the implants as part of her own unimatrix but denies having experienced any feelings at the sight of them. After returning to her Borg alcove to regenerate, the man and his two accomplices enter the cargo bay, revealing themselves as former Borg drones. They attempt to inject Seven with nanoprobes but she detects their presence, stops the attack, and alerts security. The three are subdued and taken to sick bay. The Doctor determines that while they are former Borg, the process to remove their Borg implants was imperfect which left the three with a shared mental connection. When they awake, the three affirm their condition, stating that they were also part of Seven's unimatrix, and want to bring her into that connection to learn what happened some years ago when their Borg scout ship crashed on an uninhabited planet. Seven herself cannot recall the event, but agrees to link to the others temporarily to attempt to uncover it.

Told in flashbacks through the episode, after the crash, the four survivors - no longer in contact with the Borg collective - constructed a communication array to contact the Borg for rescue. As they waited, the other three began to feel some aspects of individuality, while Seven fought against it. When they realized the Borg were approaching, the other three attempted to flee, but Seven followed them and re-injected each with nanoprobes, neutralizing their individualistic tendencies and re-assimilating them into the Collective.

Back in the present day, the three former drones have two options: continue with their present existence or the Doctor can remove more of their Borg implants, severing their connection; however, this process would irreparably damage their bodies, leaving them with only a month to live. The Doctor asks Seven for her opinion; she consults Chakotay, who asks her what she would rather do: live as a Borg for a normal lifespan or as an individual for a month. Seven is visibly moved and tells the Doctor to remove the others' implants. The Doctor protests, saying that his objective should be to preserve life at all costs; however, Seven argues that, like herself, even the Doctor was once a "drone" of sorts (confined to the ship's Sickbay) and that he would resist any attempts to force him back to that state. The Doctor accepts this logic and removes the implants from the former drones. Lansor (the former Two of Nine) elects to explore the station for the remainder of his life; Marika (Three of Nine) accompanies ''Voyager'' on its journey; and P'Chan (Four of Nine) chooses to spend his remaining days on a nearby uninhabited planet.

The platoon are excited by the broadcast, which they will be performing from the church hall where a microphone and radio speaker have already been set up. There is a great deal of excitement in the platoon, though the typically cynical Chief ARP Warden Hodges bets they will "make a right mess of it"; he then leaves to go and listen on the Verger's wireless.

During a run-through practice of the script, the BBC producer, Mr. Willerby Troughton-Maxwell (who is heard from Broadcasting House over the speaker), annoys Captain Mainwaring by telling him he doesn't sound like an officer, and suggesting that he and Sergeant Wilson switch parts. Mainwaring points out very firmly "I am the officer and he is the sergeant, and that's the way it's staying!" Meanwhile, Lance Corporal Jones irritates both Troughton-Maxwell and the BBC sound engineer present at the broadcast by continually banging on the microphone.

Sergeant Wilson's lines have been written to be spoken in a Cockney accent which doesn't suit him too well. The rest of the men play-up to their usual roles. The BBC sound effects team are unable to make it to the broadcast because their van has broken down, and so the platoon are forced to imitate the required coastal noises (namely wind, waves and seagulls, the latter being Private Pike's only contribution) themselves.

Later, the platoon is ready and waiting to go on the air, but strangely nothing seems to be happening; not even the BBC engineer knows what is going on. Hodges enters to ask, "What happened to you lot?" and says that the programme is all over; he has just been listening to the King's speech and "''Old Mother Riley's Christmas Party'' is on now". Troughton-Maxwell apologises, revealing that a preceding broadcast from Hong Kong overran and the platoon's contribution has had to be dropped, because the BBC could not keep His Majesty waiting. The platoon take their revenge by all banging repeatedly on the microphone.

Captain Bill Fathom was captain of a submarine called the Argonaut. He and his crew would have various adventures, similar to those of ''Clutch Cargo'' or ''Jonny Quest''.

Hannah, born of the original Gatlin corn cult, visits the town of Gatlin to find her birth mother. She picks up a street preacher named Zachariah, whose car broke down. He tells her about her name and then vanishes. After Hannah crashes into a cornfield, the sheriff suddenly appears and takes Hannah to a hospital in town. Once there, she finds out Isaac was not killed by "He Who Walks Behind The Rows" after the death god took control of his body in the first film, but instead went into a coma. The hospital appears filled with strange patients who speak of a prophecy involving Hannah and Isaac before the scene changes.

After she leaves the hospital and resumes her journey, she is nearly driven off the road by a mysterious truck. After pulling into a strange motel, she almost steps on a dead crow and is startled by a smiling young boy (Daniel L Nicoletti) who suddenly appears in a chair next to her car. She meets a pair of romantically-involved teenagers in the motel office, a girl and her boyfriend, Matt. She then checks into the motel. The following day, as Hannah leaves the motel, a small crowd gathers around her car, fascinated by her.

Meanwhile, the scene changes. Isaac has awakened from his long nineteen-year sleep (in which He Who Walks Behind the Rows left him at the end of the first film) and that he has a son. Hannah returns to the hospital, where she begins having visions in the empty hallway before Gabriel appears behind her. He shows her to the record room so she can look for her birth certificate. While they are in the dark, Jake tries to split her head open with an axe. Gabriel leaves Hannah alone to take Jake back to his room. While alone, Hannah finds a scythe pinning what she thinks is her birth certificate into the wall.

A strange woman tries to touch Hannah while lying in bed in the middle of the night but leaves once she realizes Hannah is awake. Hannah recognizes her truck as the one that drove her off the road. She follows the truck until dawn into the middle of the cornfield, but before she can follow the person, she runs into Jesse: another strange teenager carrying a machete. He tells her the truck owner is Rachel Colby, the same name on the birth certificate. In her motel room, Hannah discovers the words "GET OUT OR DIE!" written in what appears to be blood in the shower. Back at the church, Rachel confronts Isaac. Rachel is the widow of Amos (both Rachel and Amos appeared as teenagers in ''Children of the Corn''), and she believes her daughter to be dead. When she leaves after arguing with the prophet, Isaac tells her how he will punish her for her betrayal. Rachel later talks with Dr. Michaels, who wants to move on beyond the ideas of cults and sacrifices. He tells Rachel to do whatever she needs to do to try to stop Isaac.

Dr. Michaels comes back to the hospital. He finds Jake has clogged the sink and caused water to go all over the floor and is now muttering mindlessly on his knees. Isaac steps out of the shadows, displaying supernatural power. Michaels stands, unafraid of him, warning him to leave Hannah alone, exposing himself as the one who took Hannah away from the town. Isaac pulls a sparking electric cord from the wall and drops it on the wet floor, electrocuting Michaels. Later, Isaac approaches the son, revealed to be Matt. He is proud of the belief that his son will carry on his legacy.

Matt, though, seems less than enthusiastic. While Gabriel talks with Isaac in the cornfield, they both discuss the events that transpired and the prophecy, but Gabriel mocks Isaac for letting his disciples hang him on a cross (which happened in the first film) and is forced to leave. Hannah is meanwhile driven off the road again, this time by a drunken Matt. After she yells at him, he hands her a shovel and tells her he is a descendant of Isaac and for her to trace her lineage. Hannah begins digging up the grave of Baby Colby, Rachel's apparently dead child. As she digs, the bloody dead body falls right above her head, hanging from a tree; however, this turns out to be only an illusion. Rachel is in the graveyard with her and warns her that there's no going back if she continues. Hannah then says she'll only leave if Rachel tells her the truth. Rachel denies her this, calling it "repulsive." As Hannah prepares to open the casket, a desperate Rachel tells her the prophecy: "The firstborn daughter of the children will return on the eve of her nineteenth-birthday to find out who she is and He-Who-Walks-Behind-The-Rows will awaken."

Hannah opens the casket to see it is empty, and Rachel knew Hannah was her child and wasn't dead. She tells a distraught Hannah that Isaac wants Hannah to make a new, "pure" race. Hannah accuses her of insanity and runs away. The cult gathers to celebrate in the cornfields as Matt is branded as the first of the chosen. While Hannah is walking through the cornfields that night, she is surrounded by children, one of whom injects her with a sedative. Hannah wakes up surrounded by the cult members and a blazing bonfire. They place a crown of corn husks on her head and brand her hand like they did Matt. They begin to perform a union-ceremony between her and Matt, but Hannah escapes. They try to catch her, activating the irrigation system and driving motorcycles through the fields. Rachel appears before the cult members, claiming Isaac is a fraud. Matt's girlfriend attempts to help Hannah escape because she wants to be with Matt. They are soon cornered by the cult members who capture them. It turns out that Gabriel was on the bike Hannah was put on and takes her out of the cornfields. Matt's girlfriend, though, isn't so lucky, and Isaac orders Matt to kill her. Matt refuses and Isaac, cursing his son, splits her in half with Jesse's blade. With that, Matt runs into the cornfield.

Gabriel tends to Hannah's wounds in a barn, helps her bathe, and kisses her. They begin to have intercourse at the exact moment the clock strikes twelve. Matt then soon appears in the barn. Hannah asks about her mother and leaves to look for her after not receiving any answer. While in the barn, Gabriel shows Matt his collection of all of the farming tools of the original children and promises that Matt will be with his girlfriend. He leaves the barn with Hannah, and Matt impales himself on a scythe. Rachel is held in the hospital's basement. Hannah is being led to her by visions of Cora beating her. In the hallway, she meets Jake, who warns her of "a false-prophet, sheep’s-clothing, raving-wolves!" while Gabriel kills Jesse with his supernatural power. Hannah confronts Isaac, who now believes himself to be 'He-Who-Walks-Behind-The-Rows' and has gone mad with power. Gabriel storms down the hospital halls and, when Cora tries to shoot him, with a flick of his wrist and the word 'bang', has her kill herself. He then confronts Isaac and exposes that he was the firstborn child of the children and that Isaac denied him his birthright in favor of his own son.

Gabriel tells Hannah to kill Isaac, but listening to her mother, Hannah does not. Gabriel, however, goes on to explain how everything that has happened has gone according to his plan. He then levitates Isaac with his power and reveals himself to be "He-Who-Walks-Behind-The-Rows", having stolen the firstborn child's body and manipulating everything from the start. Gabriel restrains Isaac to the ground and stabs him with the broken end of a lead pipe, ending the mad prophet. Rachel stabs Gabriel when he tries to convince Hannah to stay, then she and Hannah flee from the hospital but not before Gabriel tells Hannah, "The seeds have already been sown" before dying. Gabriel, though, is healed almost instantly and, after commenting on his 'good performance', begins to set off explosions, killing Jake. Rachel and Hannah then walk down the road, with Hannah now knowing what Gabriel's words meant. She is currently pregnant with the child of 'He-Who-Walks-Behind-The-Rows'.

Jamie Lowell (Claudette Mink) comes to Omaha, Nebraska after numerous phone calls to her grandmother have gone unanswered. Her grandmother's apartment building, which is built next to a cornfield, appears to be empty, except for two young, mysterious children who roam about. Jamie discovers that her grandmother has received a notice of eviction. She goes to see Det. Armbrister, who is not much help. While at the local grocery store, Jamie has an encounter with the children from the building, but they do not speak to her. Outside, she sees a priest standing in the street, staring at her. She returns to her grandmother's apartment to discover a message: "Jamie go home".

Jamie questions the building manager, Jerry Ulrich who is of no help. Jamie investigates in the basement and finds a crop of carrots and tomatoes. She flees when she hears a group of children laughing. She runs into a man with a gun, who tells her to keep out of the basement. She later meets two more tenants, an old man in a wheelchair who swears at everyone and a young woman named Tiffany (Crystal Lowe), a stripper. Jerry invites Jamie to a BBQ on the roof, she agrees. On the roof, Jerry takes a bite of corn and discovers there is blood inside. He is then shoved off the roof by the two children. When Jamie arrives, he is nowhere to be found, and she sees the priest watching her from the ground.

Jamie has a nightmare in which her grandmother was lured from her house by a strange voice to railroad tracks. The next day, Jamie goes to see Det. Armbrister who reveals Jamie's grandmother was part of a religious cult when she was a child. The kids, who were led by a boy-preacher named Abel, committed suicide by entering a tent and setting it ablaze. Only Jamie's grandmother survived. Jamie's grandmother's apartment is built upon the site of the fire. This is ironic, because Jamie's parents were killed in a house fire.

Tiffany returns home and, while taking a bath, she is attacked by one of the children who uses corn to strangle her, before taking her body. Det. Armbrister and Jamie arrive at the apartment, but don't notice Tiffany's body lying nearby in the cornfield. Later, after Det. Armbrister leaves, the old man in the wheelchair is attacked by the kids and is pushed through a stair balcony and falls to his death.

Jamie returns to the grocery store, which is ransacked. She spots a girl wearing her grandmother's hat and chases after her, failing to notice the storeowner's severed head inside a drink cooler. Jamie returns to the apartment, where she runs into the man with the gun. He reveals that everyone else has disappeared and that he is leaving. As he makes his escape, the kids trap him in an elevator and scare him so much, that he has a heart attack and dies. The kids then drag off his body.

The priest arrives and explains about Gatlin, and He Who Walks Behind the Rows, who is apparently the devil. The priest tells Jamie that her grandmother is dead and that if she does not leave, she too will be killed. The priest then leaves. Some of the children arrive and take Jamie down to the basement, where there are now rows of corn growing. Abel appears and the children close in on her. One of the children reveals herself to be Jamie's grandmother and though she is a child, speaks in the voice of an old woman. Jamie flees, but Abel uses his power to prevent her from leaving. Cornered, Jamie faces Abel and the children, who ask her to join them. Jamie agrees, but it is only a distraction and she causes a gas explosion, but Abel is unscathed.

Abel uses corn stalks to tie down Jamie, but she is rescued by Det. Armbrister. They both manage to escape before the apartment explodes and destroys the corn as well. It is implied that the souls of the children were freed and Abel was killed.

In 1928, Esteban Rigores lies wounded on a beach after taking part ina failed coup against the brutal regime of Gen. Juan Vicente Gómez. Fearing death is near, he orders Basilio, his mute servant, to search for Adriana, his daughter, and leave her his fortune. Neither Esteban nor Basilio know what Adriana looks like. When Basilio asks the girl's mother, Beatriz Ayala, now married to Salvador Asensio, one of Gomez's ministers, about the girl, she lies to him that her daughter died in childbirth, or at least that is what her parents told her. Unconvinced, Basilio goes to the house of Don Alejandro, Esteban's friend. There, she meets Adriana, and he immediately recognizes her as Esteban's daughter. But Adriana doesn't know her origins, believing she is an orphan adopted by Alejandro out of charity. Although Alejandro and Encarnación, his wife, have always been kind to Adriana, she is nothing but a glorified servant. Their children, the selfish María Consuelo looks down on her, idealistic Luis Alberto loves her secretly, and young María Eugenia who's always seen Adriana as a sister, now resents her when she realises her fiancé is attracted to the girl's beauty. Ma. Eugenia's fiancé, the arrogant Captain Mauricio Lofiego, is a man used to getting whatever he wants, a trait he has inherited from Purificacion Burgos, his mother. Purificacion is not only one of the richest women in Venezuela, but she's also got General Gomez's ear. Few people are know that Burgos's fortune comes from prostitution.

Adriana gives Alejandro the documents she's unable to read since they're written in French and English. Alejandro discovers that Adriana is now the owner of a huge fortune. That same evening, Mauricio breaks off his engagement with María Eugenia and makes love to Adriana. Alejandro sees him leaving the girl's room and vows revenge. Several attempts are made to separate Adriana and Mauricio, but their love grows stronger, especially after she discovers she is pregnant. Meanwhile, a recovered Esteban and Beatriz have joined efforts to investigate the whereabouts of their child. Adriana plans to escape with Mauricio, but she disappears mysteriously. Under the orders of Alejandro and Purificacion, she is taken to a mental asylum where she is subjected to horrible tortures, and she loses her baby and her mind. Believing Adriana lied to him, Mauricio married Maria Eugenia.

Several years go by, and Adriana has lost her beauty and mind, but she has two friends at the asylum, the kind Helena, and Saul, a political prisoner. When Gomez dies, Saul escapes the asylum together with Adriana and Helena. Adriana finds Basilio who directs her to her father Esteban who had escaped to Paris. Esteban will utilise his fortune to restore his daughter's beauty and educate her. In 1941, Adriana returns to Caracas, rich and powerful, newly transformed as Ximena, but she is called "La Dueña", and ready to take revenge against the families that locked her up.

The game opens with a self-proclaimed general named Kilbaba invading one of his neighbors, a small but wealthy emirate in the Persian Gulf. Installing himself as dictator, Kilbaba quickly begins fortifying his position with military weapons and installations, including facilities for building nuclear bombs. The United States decides to send in a single helicopter, piloted by the player's unnamed character and aided by a co-pilot, to infiltrate and destroy Kilbaba's forces in a series of swift strikes.

Altogether, four missions need to be resolved: In the first level (''Air Superiority''), the player must destroy several enemy airstrips and their support facilities, as well as liberate an exposed pro-American spy who holds important information about Kilbaba's next plans. The next mission (''Scud Buster'') entails locating and destroying a chemical weapons plant and a number of scud launchers wielding chemically charged missiles, and evacuate local and American non-combatants and P.O.W.s. The third mission (''Embassy City'') revolves around rescuing a U.N. inspection team, destroying a biological weapons plant and those bio-warhead missiles ready for deployment, as well as rescuing a large number of hostages, including the personnel from a local American embassy. Upon completion, the player is ordered to eliminate Kilbaba, who has been spotted partying on his private yacht. The player learns the yacht is heavily guarded and triggers a firefight; giving Kilbaba a chance to flee to freedom. In the final stage (''Nuclear Storm''), the player must - among other things - prevent the destruction of a major oil production facility, disable a nuclear power plant and several finished parts for nuclear weapons, and finally take down Kilbaba himself. However, Kilbaba has anticipated this attack, and has order nuclear material shipped in garbage trucks alongside garbage trucks that are engaging in legitimate duties in an attempt to confuse the player. After attacking the nuclear plant, the player captures a scientist who reveals that he produced a few bombs and shipped them to a bomber plane, where Kilbaba is on board and will attempt to use the bombs as a last-ditch effort. The player must then race to an airfield and stop the bomber plane prior to takeoff. A scene is then shown of Kilbaba perishing in the burning plane, and the player must safely return to the landing zone. *The ending scene shows the pilot and copilot at the Rose Garden of the White House, being met by President and Mrs. Bush. President Bush gives the pilot a hearty congratulations.

The game's plot was felt by commentators to be a thinly disguised reference to the Gulf War, while comparisons were drawn between Kilbaba and Saddam Hussein, and between the game's unnamed desert setting and Iraq.

Damud Hellstrike, the Prince of Darkness, has taken away the Golden Axe and put an evil curse over all the warriors. However, one of the heroes has their curse relieved and is sent to set things straight – lift the curse off the others, defeat the villain and return with the Golden Axe.

Luke is a restless and reckless drifter and Jon is a relatively timid and pessimistic film critic. Both are gay and HIV positive. After an unconventional meeting, and after Luke kills a homophobic police officer, they go on a road trip with the motto "Fuck everything."

The story begins with Nevare Burvelle scheduled for execution. However, Burvelle has been framed, and manages to escape with the help of his former lover, Lisana. The Gernia people (Nevare's ethnic peoples) plan to cut down a forest full of Elder Trees, which house the spirits of the ancestors of the Speck people. Soldier's Boy, a Speck spirit, inhabits Nevare's body and takes full control. Much of the novel is told from Nevare's perspective trapped behind this larger personality. Nevare embarks on his attempt to undermine the effort to build the road, often horrified by what his alter ego is doing with his body, even though he is powerless to stop it. The Specks and Gernia come to a peaceful solution at novel's end, with Nevare ultimately accepting his abilities and personality.

A young married couple, Celia (Meredith Monroe) and David (Matt Keeslar), move into a new home and meet their seemingly venerable neighbor Harold (George Wendt). Harold is in fact a psychotic killer who has created a family using the skeletons of his former victims. His family consists of a wife and a daughter, and later a father and a mother, all of whom Harold seems to believe are fully alive. He dresses them in clothing, moves them around the house, and talks with them as if they can talk back. He also hallucinates that a teenage girl was asking him to kill her so his "daughter" could have a sister, and at dinner, he hears Celia express a desire to have rough sex right there on the table. There is also the hint that he replaces family members when he finds a new victim.

Celia and David, however, have a secret of their own: years ago, Harold killed their daughter, and they have been tracking him down ever since. They lure him into a trap and exact their revenge. David says they can torture him 10 to 14 more days, and Harold's frightened reaction appears behind the end credits.

Major Robert Parrish (Dale Robertson) of the 7th Cavalry is considered by some to be his own worst enemy because he's not a "team player". Formerly one of the youngest Colonels in the Union Army during the American Civil War, he is now a company commander under Lt. Colonel (formerly Brevet Major General during the Civil War) George Armstrong Custer (Douglas Kennedy). His fiancée Kathy (Mary Murphy), daughter of Parrish's commanding general, breaks off their engagement because he has not risen in rank.

Parrish gains no friends amongst the civilian community when he chastises them and threatens to "break heads" when they violate Sioux lands. Custer and Parrish's exasperated General and once prospective father-in-law reassigns Parrish and his company to the Bureau of Indian Affairs where Parrish is outraged at the treatment of the Indians and refuses to carry out the orders of the Indian Agent to shoot his escaping charges. Parrish is court martialed and visits his former commanding general—now President of the United States--Ulysses S. Grant—who demotes him to Captain. Parrish convinces the President to come to the Western frontier to meet Sitting Bull and prevent a war.

Back in the West, now Captain Parrish meets Kathy who has announced her engagement with Charles Wentworth (William Hopper), a former major and now a war correspondent. Using captured Indians, including Sam, a former slave now a Sioux, Parrish meets with Sitting Bull (J. Carrol Naish) who agrees to meet the President in a secret meeting. Further conflicts with the Sioux lead Custer to lead his Regiment out assigning Parrish to guard supplies.

Following the Battle of the Little Bighorn that eliminates Custer, most of his men, and his romantic rival Wentworth, Parrish tries to befriend Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse (Iron Eyes Cody). As Parrish knows the US Army's plan of attack, he leads the Sioux to safety in the North. Parrish is court-martialed again, stripped of his rank, and sentenced to death by firing squad for treason.

As the execution is about to take place, Sitting Bull comes to the fort to speak with President Grant. Parrish had told him "the Great Chief will understand," believing he would show mercy to him because his only intention was to prevent more killing. Sitting Bull's pleads with Grant to spare his life. Grant then commutes his sentence to being discharged from the service.

The story concerns a deadly feud between two rival bike gangs. The Angels are out for revenge against their rival gang, the Las Vegas Hotdoggers, who severely beat their leader, Mother (Michael Greene).

Mother is just returning to the Angels and his old lady, Marlene (Jennifer Gan), had become the property of Fingers (Richard Rust), the new head of the clan. When Mother reappears, he quickly reassumes the gang's leadership and rights to the strawberry blonde, lascivious, foul-mouthed Marlene.

The Angels go looking for the Hotdoggers at their hang out, a bar in Las Vegas. Not finding their rivals, the Angels ruin the bar and terrorize the local citizenry. A lone Hotdogger betrays his gang and tells the Angels of a secret mine to hang out in the desert where they can find his gang.

Later that evening, Marlene and Mother are riding his chopper around Vegas, when a showgirl in a car catches his eye. He leaves with the showgirl and returns to find Marlene is livid with rage. Setting out into the desert, the Angels and Mother argue about what to do and how to travel through the said desert. Marlene angrily insults Mother. The mother gets angry and says that everyone in the gang can have Marlene. No one in the gang accepts, so Mother takes off on his own.

The Angels and finally Mother meet again at the mine hideout with the Hotdoggers. A dynamite stick brings the Hotdoggers out of the mine for a brawl with tire chains, knives, fists, and boots. The Hotdogger leader steals Angel's bike, but Mother rides him down and finishes him off while the Angels look on and cheer.

After taking revenge on all the Hotdoggers, Fingers and Mother fight it out at the end, but only one can be the leader of the Angels.

Current view of Saint-Tropez port, site of arrival sequence in film, with much plot action filmed there.

Ludovic Cruchot (played by Louis de Funès), a highly uptight gendarme in a small French village, has been reassigned to the seaside commune of Saint-Tropez under the orders of Command Sergeant Major Gerber (played by Michel Galabru), who takes no lip from his outspoken new subordinate. His daughter Nicole quickly adapts to the life in the city and, much to Cruchot's traditional-minded chagrin, begins to mix with the local carefree youths who often blatantly defy her father's official authority. However, they ridicule her at first, so she states her father is a rich American named Ferguson who has arrived to the port with his yacht. He also owns a red Mustang.

Soon, the gendarmes find themselves confronted with a major problem: a group of persistent nudists. Any attempts to arrest them ''in flagrante delicto'' are foiled by a lookout; but after several failures, Cruchot manages to hatch a master plan and succeeds in getting all the nude swimmers arrested.

Later, Cruchot discovers that his daughter and her new boyfriend have stolen and crashed Ferguson's Mustang into a ditch, puncturing a tyre in the process. Unbeknownst to any of them, Ferguson and his teammates are a gang of robbers who have stolen a Rembrandt painting, which is still in the trunk. Cruchot manages to get the car out, but realizes that the objects he threw out of the car to fix a puncture, including the painting, are valuable items.

The man who pretends to own the painting then kidnaps Cruchot, but Nicole and her friends knock out the group that kidnapped her father, and the painting is returned to its rightful owner.

Ever since their childhood, Ryōta Satō and Chika Koizumi have been close friends, going so far as to pinky swear to marry each other. The story begins when they are both now in their fifth year of elementary school in class 5-2 together with their group of friends Yūki Asano, Kazumi Aihara, Natsumi Hirakawa, Megumi Hidaka, Kōji Imai, Tsubasa Kawai. While making his way to sixth year, much to his own dismay, Ryōta is often forced unwillingly into compromising situations.

Hallam Foe (Jamie Bell) is a teenage loner who lives on his father's (Ciarán Hinds) large estate near Peebles. His hobby is spying on people from his tree house. Hallam is convinced that his stepmother, Verity (Claire Forlani), is responsible for his mother's death by drowning two years earlier. Hallam's sister leaves home to attend university and it becomes clear that Verity and his father want Hallam to move on as well. Hallam initially refuses due to his suspicion of Verity, but she uses his diaries first to have sex with him and then to blackmail him into leaving. To escape his father and stepmother, Hallam travels to Edinburgh.

Upon arrival in Edinburgh, Hallam sees Kate (Sophia Myles), an administrator at the Balmoral Hotel, located in the city centre. Kate bears a striking resemblance to his late mother. He manages to persuade her to give him a job as a kitchen porter in the hotel. Hallam makes his home in the clock tower of the hotel because of its vantage point over Kate's home in a top flat, where he can spy on her. He also spies on Kate through a skylight on her roof, clambering over the roofscape to reach his vantage point.

Hallam learns that another senior hotel employee, Alasdair (Jamie Sives), is having an extra-marital affair with Kate. Alasdair then discovers Hallam's lookout in the clock tower. Hallam attempts to blackmail Alasdair with the knowledge of his adultery, but Alasdair dismisses him. Hallam retaliates by finding Alasdair's wife and child and thereby demonstrating the ability, if he wishes, to inform her of the affair, which forces Alasdair to give him back his job.

Hallam eventually works his way up to being a front-of-house porter at the hotel. On his eighteenth birthday, Kate invites Hallam to have a few drinks after work. Whilst drunk, Hallam reveals his continuing love for his late mother. This seems to fascinate Kate, as she "likes creepy guys". A complex relationship starts to build between Hallam and Kate from this point.

Kate first invites him home with her that night, and when she attempts to seduce him, he begins to get uncomfortable and instead they sleep in the same bed. The next day, he asks her on a date and she rejects him. Later, she asks him to one of the hotel rooms and they have sex.

When Hallam is watching Kate, Alasdair confronts her and begins to act violently. Hallam comes through the skylight to save her, which results in her finding out that he had been spying. She tells Alasdair to leave. She punishes Hallam by making him stand nude and explain to her why he was spying. She feels bad for him after he tells her about his mother and she lets him stay. She puts on the dress that Hallam keeps that used to be his mother's. When Hallam sees her, he cries, and they fall asleep together.

At this time, Hallam's father and stepmother track Hallam down because of his having reported his suspicions about his mother's death to the police in Edinburgh. Hallam's father has run up significant debts and needs to develop some of the land on the estate, but Hallam is entitled to consultation under his mother's will. Hallam refuses to co-operate due to his suspicion of Verity.

Hallam's hatred of Verity consumes him entirely, and he tries to drown her in the loch by his father's house. However, his humanity takes over and he revives her. Only at this point does his father reveal that he had made no attempt to prevent Hallam's mother from committing suicide. This revelation allows Hallam to realise that his anger is in fact with his mother for leaving him. This cathartic moment enables him to move on for the first time, and the film ends with him happy and content walking the streets of Edinburgh.

Fifty years after a nuclear holocaust, mankind is decimated and the surviving nations—the American western-influenced Market and the Soviet-Russian-influenced Confederation—have agreed to outlaw traditional open war. In their place, disputes are settled with gladiator-style matches between giant robots operated by pilots called "robot jox" who are contracted to fight ten matches. The Confederation champion is Alexander (Paul Koslo), who has killed his last nine opponents thanks in part to a spy in the Market leaking information to the Confederation. The Market's champion, Achilles (Gary Graham) has won nine fights and will fight his final match against Alexander for the territory of Alaska. Achilles is supported by robot designer "Doc" Matsumoto (Danny Kamekona) and strategist Tex Conway (Michael Alldredge), the only jox to win all ten of his contract fights.

As Achilles gets the upper hand in the match, Alexander launches a rocket fist at him. The projectile goes out of control and heads toward the bleachers. Achilles intercepts the projectile but his robot takes the full force of the impact and is knocked into the crowd, killing over 300 people. The referees declare the match a draw and order a rematch, but Achilles, shaken by what happened, declares this was his contractual tenth match and announces his retirement. He goes to live with his brother Philip and his family, and finds he is publicly branded a traitor and a coward. Meanwhile, a new jox is chosen to face Alexander, a genetically engineered "gen jox" named Athena (Anne-Marie Johnson), who is the first female jox. Worried for Athena and attracted to her, Achilles returns to the Market and agrees to fight Alexander again, infuriating Athena.

As Achilles' robot is rebuilt, Matsumoto refuses to divulge any knowledge of its new weapons so it cannot be leaked by the spy, and Conway confides in Achilles he believes Matsumoto is the spy. Conway confronts Matsumoto in his office. Matsumoto reveals he has analyzed Conway's final fight and deduced that the "lucky" laser hit Conway claims allowed him to defeat a clearly superior opponent was in fact deliberately aimed; Matsumoto accuses Conway of being a Confederation agent. Conway confesses and shoots Matsumoto, who secretly records the deed as part of the mission briefing. Conway informs the Market leadership that Matsumoto was the spy. On the day of the fight Athena drugs Achilles and steals his jox suit to commandeer the robot. Unable to stop the fight once she takes the field, the Market decides to support her. While watching Matsumoto's briefing on the robot's new weaponry, the footage of Conway killing Matsumoto is played and Conway jumps down the robot's elevator shaft to his death.

Alexander takes the field against Athena. Athena takes the early advantage, but Alexander overpowers her and incapacitates the robot. The fight is declared in Alexander's favor and referees order him to stand down. Achilles arrives on the field and takes over the robot from Athena while Alexander smashes the referee hovercraft; the two jox stand to continue the fight. Both robots take to the air and a short space battle ensues. Alexander critically damages Achilles' robot, forcing him to crash land and flee for cover to the arm of Alexander's robot Athena sliced off earlier in the fight. Achilles hotwires the arm to launch its fist at Alexander, destroying his robot. Alexander emerges from the wreckage and the two battle with poles before Achilles finally convinces Alexander a match does not have to end with the death of a jock. Alexander throws down his weapon, and they salute each other with the jox's traditional "crash and burn" fist bump.

The story is a "sprawling, episodic adventure story, a comedy of brash manners and something of a detective mystery", according to Roderick Watson. It revolves around the abandoned wreck of the ''Flying Scud'' at Midway Atoll. Clues in a stamp collection are used to track down the missing crew and solve the mystery. It is only in the last chapter that different story elements become linked. Stevenson described it as a "South Sea yarn" concerning "a very strange and defective plan that was accepted with open eyes for what seemed countervailing opportunities offered". The book sold well but reviews were mixed, with a ''New York Times'' reviewer concluding that: ''The Wrecker is a kind of blank-cartridge romance with a big explosion, which raises a dust, and if anything really has happened it escapes you in the flash and the cloud of smoke.''

The loosely connected stories reflect how Stevenson and Osbourne wrote the book. Each contributed different sections, but agreed to develop characters and descriptions of places they both knew well. The following are examples:

• The schooner ''Equator'' (1888–1953) inspired the story. Its remains are preserved in a shed at Marina Park at the Port of Everett, Washington.
• Jack Buckland was a handsome, happy-go-lucky fellow passenger with Osbourne and Stevenson on the 1890 ''Janet Nicholl'' voyage. He inspired the character of "Remittance Man" Tommy Hadden.''Robert Louis Stevenson: A Critical Biography, 2 vols.'' John A. Steuart, (1924). Boston: Little, Brown & Co.[https://books.google.com/books?id=KSwH6Fp103cC&pg=PA214&lpg=PA214&&source=web&ots=8aeVd8tehC&sig=eCn_DmR-Wf5S5Rn8WDPHCKB9Nx4 ''Treasured Islands: Cruising the South Seas With Robert Louis Stevenson.''] Lowell D. Holmes, (2001). Sheridan House. James Cowan, (1937). [http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-Gov12_02Rail-t1-body-d14.html R. L. S. and his Friends Some Stevenson Memories]. ''New Zealand Railways Magazine'', 12(2):59-61.

The spinship ''Helix'' has not yet reached a suitable destination when it receives a distress signal from a binary star system. Four of the five shipboard AI (apparently formerly of the TechnoCore; in characteristic Simmons fashion, each is patterned after a famous literary figure, in this case, Japanese: Saigyo, Lady Murasaki, Ikkyu, Basho, and Ryōkan) decide that the call is worth investigating, not least because of the further anomaly that the orbital forest around the lesser of the two stars, which the AIs intend to resupply their ship from, is of neither Ouster nor Templar construction, though they may have settled on it.

The AIs awaken certain crewmembers, and together they enter the system, where they are greeted by hundreds of thousands of space-adapted Ousters; they importune the ''Helix'' to save their civilization from an enormous and ancient harvester spaceship (which gathers food, air, and water), which visits every 57 years, and is so programmatically inflexible that it sees the Ouster and Templar settlements as infestations of the tree-ring, and attempts to cleanse it by eradicating them. Over the centuries, the colony's technological infrastructure has been steadily ground under by its assaults, and many die attacking or being attacked.

A brief assay of the harvester's defenses (for the 57 years have elapsed since the last visit, and the harvester has arrived) by one of the ''Helix'' armed vessels reveal the ancient device to be minimally defended and weakened by age; easily destroyed. However, the harvester is presumably being used by its creators, and destroying it might be tantamount to condemning that civilization to slow starvation and death. Even despite its misdeeds, the crew of the ''Helix'' cannot countenance that possibility, though they saw no inhabitants in the other, red-giant system.

Since they cannot get to the system normally before the harvester strikes again, the crew votes to risk the ''Helix'' and its hundreds of thousands of stored inhabitants by making a very short Hawking drive jump. The jump succeeds, and they begin scanning the system for life. On an inspiration, they scan ''inside'' the red giant star, and discover a truly ancient rocky world which the star had enveloped in its expansion. It is honey-combed, and occupied by a curious oxygen-breathing race, whose primary method of technological communication is via modulated gravity waves (explaining the failure of previous attempts to contact the harvester). Aboard is Ces Ambre, the only survivor of the family which took in Raul Endymion; though she is not an Aenean, she received the Aenean nano-technology; she cannot freecast, but she is capable of empathetic communication with the more than 3 billion "modular... so fibrous" minds in the cinder planet. She successfully explains the harm their harvester has caused. They are devastated to learn of what they had done, and immediately transmit a gravitonic sequence which would reprogram the harvester (they offer further to commit collective suicide to atone for their crimes, but the Spectrum feels that this is not needed), as indeed it does. They also reveal the reason they stubbornly stay in their original planet and constructed the harvester and tree-ring: they like their home, and don't want to leave.

Ces Ambre offers a vial of her blood to the tree-ring inhabitants; though she is not philosophically an Aenean and refrains from using her abilities, she feels that the natives should have the choice.

The crew return to hibernation, and the AI direct the ''Helix'' on its way under Hawking drive. Mysteriously, the Shrike, Dem Loa (Ces Ambre's mother), and "Petyr, son of Aenea and Endymion" appear on the bridge. Petyr briefly communes directly with the AIs, healing Basho's psychological conflicts, and directing them to divert the ''Helix'' to a nice, but challenging system. He and Dem Loa then vanish, apparently using the Shrike as a method of locomotion.

The film tells the story of an elite Bulgarian school where the sons and daughters of high-ranking Communist officials are educated. The main characters are Ivan, his best friend Rostislav, Dana (a newly arrived student), Marina and Kostov. All of them find themselves dealing with their own youthful intrigues against the backdrop of the absurd and oppressive Bulgarian Communist regime; and all too often each one of them finds his/her own individual means of escaping from it all, either through friendship, love, or the occasional derisive remark. The plot is loosely based on past events in the [https://bg.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=%D0%93%D0%A7%D0%95_%E2%80%9E%D0%95%D0%BA%D0%B7%D0%B0%D1%80%D1%85_%D0%99%D0%BE%D1%81%D0%B8%D1%84_I%E2%80%9C Language School in Lovech], where the principal was an ardent Communist infamous for his absurdly strict rules and for setting an army-like atmosphere. At the same time that students are subjected to the bureaucratic babble of their despotic teachers, they are likewise exposed to the exquisite, thought-provoking language of Shakespeare, and the incendiary tunes of The Beatles, for which they are reproached on numerous occasions. The reality of authoritarian rule in Communist Bulgaria, the hollowness of its slogans, and the total disregard for the true values and qualities of the students are all depicted.

Millennia ago, Mother was an ancient water deity who was imprisoned below the earth upon the creation of light. Mother's mate, Otoshigo, fled to the depths of the ocean. Over time, Mother has been determined to return to the surface, and has sent out avatars (possessed human beings whom she controls) to prepare for her return. However, they continually fail their mission, and never return to the Underworld.

In 1976, an underwater cable was cut, and all power to Yamijima Island was lost and four-year-old Shu Mikami finds a young woman washed up on the shore. The woman, Kanae, bears an extraordinary resemblance to Shu's dead mother. The two become inseparable and as Kanae moves in with Shu and his father. The Yamijima locals fear her because of her aversion to sunlight. Kanae is actually an avatar of Mother, tasked with manipulating Shu into opening the seven gates of the Underworld, which are located on Yamijima Island, and keep Mother imprisoned. Before Kanae can complete her mission, Tsuneo Ohta, the head of a group of fishermen, determines she must be killed.

On a stormy night, Shu is awoken by the villagers, who have caught Kanae killing his father. Shu discovers the body but flees when he sees a man in the doorway of the house – the man is in fact his older self. Kanae escapes the villagers and reunites with Shu. Trapped by the group on the pier, the stone walkway gives out beneath them and they fall into the ocean. Shu swims to a small boat, but watches Kanae drown; the experience so traumatic that he goes blind. Meanwhile, Mother sends a tsunami to destroy the villagers in revenge. Local authorities can't explain how Yamijima's undersea power cable was severed, or how the entire population of the island disappeared.

In 2005, Ryuko Tagawa has been sent to earth as another avatar. She finds living as a human so comfortable that she forgets her original purpose and settles into a normal life. Meanwhile, Yuri Kishida, an innocent young girl, is kidnapped by Mother and hidden in a warehouse in Sanzu Harbor. Mother creates another avatar using Yuri's identity, and sends her to visit Ryuko, killing her for failing in her mission. Yuri then heads to Sanzu Harbour to watch the departure of the protagonists for Yamijima Island, as Mother knows that the person who will release her is among them.

At the harbor a grown Shu, Mamoru Itsuki, Soji Abe, Akiko Kiyota and Ikuko Kifune board a small boat heading for Yamijima Island. Mamoru wants to investigate the mystery of 1976 for a magazine article. Shu is returning to the island in an attempt to rediscover lost childhood memories. Soji has been accused of Ryuko's murder and, along with Akiko, is fleeing to the island. Ikuko is a dock worker on the boat as a deckhand, but finds herself drawn to the island. A large mass passes the boat unseen, the waves turn red, and a tsunami capsizes the vessel, splitting the passengers up.

A military helicopter carrying Private Yorito Nagai, Major Takeaki Misawa and Sergeant Hiroshi Okita crashes on Yamijima Island, killing Okita. Okita transforms into a shibito, forcing Yorito to shoot him. Already on the island is Shigeru Fujita, a police officer who has come to investigate reports of a young woman on the apparently deserted island. Also present is Ichiko Yagura, a young schoolgirl, who awakens on board the Bright Win, a ferry that has run aground. The ferry disappeared during a tsunami in 1986, but has inexplicably appeared in the present day, with Ichiko its only passenger. Meanwhile, the villagers who disappeared in 1976 have also reappeared on the island in the present day.

Awakening on the pier, Mamoru sets out to explore. He encounters a shibito, then meets Yuri, who tells him her mother is imprisoned "in the island", and she needs help to save her. They are accosted by Tomoe, who attacks Yuri, calling her a witch, and accusing her of being the same entity as Kanae. Mamoru and Yuri flee, then encounter Yorito and Takeaki, the soldiers. Yuri is afraid of them, and can't bear the light from their torches. As the group talk, a red tsunami appears and an earthquake rocks the island as a siren rings out.

Meanwhile, Shu awakens near his old house, which is unchanged from 1976. He enters to see his four-year-old self holding the body of his dead father. Tsuneo arrives, intending to kill Kanae, but Shu's father resurrects as a shibito and chases him. Elsewhere, Shigeru meets Ichiko, the girl from the ferry, and they run into Tsuneo, who transforms into a shibito and attacks them. He corners them in an ammo depot, but Ichiko smiles at him, causing him to panic and flee. Meanwhile, Tomoe is chased by a group of shibito, and falls down a ravine, fatally impaling herself on an antenna.

After surviving the tsunami, the soldiers Takeaki and Yorito board the Bright Win. Takeaki acts strangely, having taken some hallucinogenic medication, and Yorito leaves him. Elsewhere, Soji was separated from Akiko, but encounters Shu, and they head to an abandoned amusement park, where Shu believes he can rediscover his lost memories. Meanwhile, Yuri leads Mamoru to the same park, where she manipulates him into opening the seven gates to the Underworld. She then reveals her true form, Mother. Ikuko arrives and uses her psychic power to bring Mamoru back to his senses. Soji sees Mother as his murdered flatmate, Ryuko, whilst Shu sees Mother as Kanae. Unable to resist her call, Shu gives himself over to her and is enveloped.

Elsewhere on the island, Mother's siren sounds, signifying her release, prompting Ichiko to kill Shigeru. Back in the Underworld, Mother, now free from her prison, gives birth to hundreds of yamirei - albino slug-like creatures. Soji, Akiko, Ikuko and Mamoru flee, but Ikuko and Mamoru become trapped. As they are about to be killed, a group of shiryos (the spirits that animate the dead into shibito) pour down into the abyss and fight the yamirei, giving Ikuko and Mamoru the opportunity to escape. Back in the park, Ikuko destroys the seven gates, preventing the Underworld from releasing any more yamirei. Those already released become yamibito and begin converting the island's shibito. Mamoru and Ikuko escape through the amusement park and are surrounded by yamirei. But dawn breaks, and the light-sensitive yamirei are destroyed. Ikuko tells Mamoru they are both on their own now, and leaves.

Coming back to her senses, Ichiko is horrified to see Shigeru's corpse at her feet. She has a flashback of falling overboard the Bright Win and sinking to the bottom of the ocean. She was resurrected and possessed by Otoshigo, Mother's mate. Meanwhile, Shigeru is resurrected as a yamibito. Takeaki encounters Ichiko, and demands answers, Yorito appears, and fearing for Ichiko's life, shoots Takeaki in the back. Yorito leaves with Ichiko and they are attacked by a dog-like yamibito. Ichiko flees, and again becomes possessed by Otoshigo and mindlessly kills any yamibito she encounters. Yorito finds Ichiko's bracelet, and uses it to bring her back to her senses. Meanwhile, Mamoru boards the Bright Win to destroy as many yamibito as he can, knowing it was his fault they were released. He discovers that Tomoe has transformed into a dog yamibito roaming the ship.

Having fled the Underworld, Akiko notices a massive pylon reaching into the sky. She follows a psychic trail to where Shu and Kanae fell into the sea in 1976. Shu contacts Akiko from beyond the grave and asks her to save his father, Ryuhei, who has transformed into a kou-yamibito, a grotesque human/yamirei creature much stronger and more deadly than a normal yamibito. Shu leads her to a sacred tree branch which is traditionally used to keep evil spirits from the dead. Akiko finds a mysterious artifact, the Anunnaki Remains. Eventually, she destroys Ryuhei, stabbing him with the branch and freeing his soul. His body transforms into the Mekkoju tree. Akiko receives another vision – Ryuhei's murder. In the vision, Kanae flees, covered in Ryuhei's blood, but as she passes a mirror she sees Akiko's face. In the real world, Akiko collapses, and when she raises her head, she now looks and sounds like Kanae/Yuri. No longer able to resist Mother's power, she becomes another avatar.

Ikuko discovers the Anunnaki Remains lodged into the Mekkoju tree, now entwined in the tower. With it, she destroys Shigeru, who has turned into a kou-yamibito, freeing his soul. Meanwhile, on the Bright Win, Mamoru and Yorito and scale the tower. Mamoru believes their current reality is fake, a copy of the real world where time has folded back on itself. He believes the pylon reaches the point where two worlds intersect, and that is where Mother will pass from the fake reality into the real one. He and Yorito ascend the tower and obtain a Mekkoju branch for Tsuneo, now also a kou-yamibito. Tsuneo knocks Yorito off the tower, but Mamoru destroys him, also freeing his soul.

Having survived his fall, Yorito vows to destroy every yamirei and yamibito. He discovers the yamirei are living in an old school and destroys it with a flare gun. He kills and frees the soul of Okita, before being confronted by Takeaki, transformed into a kou-yamibito. Yorito defeats Takeaki, but Ichiko appears, her face swollen into a single eye. She transforms into Otoshigo and attacks Yorito. He destroys the creature, celebrating, as he believes the nightmare is over.

Back on the tower, Ikuko and Mamoru are reunited. Ikuko stabs Tomoe with the Mekkoju branch, freeing her soul. Mother scales the tower to reach the real world and the tower crumbles as the fake reality fractures. Mamoru and Ikuko are sucked into Mother's plane of existence. As they battle her, Akiko/Kanae appears, imploring for Shu's forgiveness. Akiko exerts control over her body, and kills herself by plunging the Annunaki Remains into her stomach, injuring Mother, and allowing Mamoru and Ikuko to destroy her. Another red tsunami washes over the island as the fake reality is replaced with the real one, and the timeline is purged. Lying together on the pier, Mamoru and Ikuko are bathed in sunlight as dawn breaks. Looking into the sun, Ikuko squints, as if the light hurts her eyes.

Soji is joined on the beach by Tsukasa, and together, they look out at the sun. With the purging of the timeline Soji's past has changed. In the wake of Mother's death, Ryuko Tagawa never existed, so Soji is no longer a wanted felon. Elsewhere, Yorito awakens on a dimly lit boulevard. He notices yamibito strolling past, casually going about everyday activity; one pushing a pram, one purchasing items from a stall, child yamibito playing. The sun is hidden beyond a permanent total eclipse. Unable to tell if what he is seeing is reality or an illusion, he screams and opens fire on the yamibito, gunning down many as they flee.

At the very end, Kyoya Suda, the protagonist of the first game, arrives on Yamijima Island with the Homuranagi sword and the Uryen, swearing he will destroy every monster still lurking on the island.

One night in Beverly Hills, California, a truck carrying hazardous materials crashes, releasing a deadly chemical. The citizens of Beverly Hills are sent to quarantine in a hotel in Century City, while the police and the EPA agents stay behind to keep an eye on the valuables and clean up the town.

However, the spill is a cleverly executed hoax masterminded by the head of L.A.'s football team, Robert 'Bat' Masterson. The police officers and DEA agents are bitter ex-cops eager for a piece of what the citizens have hoarded from them. Within the 70 minutes that it will take for the National Guard to arrive, they plot to loot every home and business in the city.

However, one man has been forgotten in the rush to get everyone out. Aging football player Boomer Hayes was in his hot tub, expecting to get lucky, when his lady friend, Laura Sage went to see what was going on and was taken in the rush to evacuate everyone. The officers thought that "Boomer" was her dog, but checked anyway. After taking care of one of the cops sent to kill him, Boomer is trapped in the hot tub by an officer, but before he can shoot him, he's shot from behind. Ed Kelvin, a cop in on the whole thing but disgusted by the ruthless murder of the Mayor (he was told there would be no killing), fills in Boomer on the whole situation, and Boomer decides to help bring in the real police, who are locked in the station's hazmat suit room. Donning his jersey, injecting cortizone for his bum knee, and enlisting Kelvin's help, Boomer will spend the next 70 minutes attempting to stop the robbery and bring Masterson to justice, while evading ex-cops and the hired thug Benitez, who has commandeered a SWAT tank and is gunning for Boomer and Kelvin.

William Horatio Ambrose wants desperately to live up to the proud family tradition; the Ambroses have always been mariners (even if not distinguished ones), hence their family motto, "''Omnes per Mare''" ("All at Sea"). In humorous vignettes, Guinness portrays six of his ancestors, starting with a confused caveman rowing in circles in his coracle, and ending with his own father's ignominious demise at the Battle of Jutland. Ambrose has a debilitating problem however: he suffers from violent seasickness. As a result, his contribution to the Second World War consists of testing cures for the malady.

When he retires from the Royal Navy as a captain, he purchases a dilapidated late Victorian era amusement pier (the closest thing to a command of his own) with his life savings. The workers are an apathetic bunch, led by an insolent Figg, who quits as soon as the new owner begins imposing some semblance of discipline. With the assistance of his new second-in-command, a former RN rating named Tommy, and much hard work with help by a group of bored local teenagers, Ambrose soon has the pier repaired.

Then he has to deal with the local town council, headed by the crooked Mayor Crowley and the hostile Arabella Barrington, who mistakes him for a Peeping Tom when they first meet. Every time he comes up with an ingenious way to make his business profitable, they see to it that the council outlaws it. When Crowley decides to confiscate and demolish Ambrose's pier and Barrington's bathing huts (under compulsory purchase) to further his own business interests, she resigns from the council and informs Ambrose. He counters by registering his property as a "foreign" naval vessel (christened the ''Arabella''), under the flag of convenience of the easygoing country of "Liberama", which puts it outside the town's jurisdiction. He soon attracts many happy, paying passengers for his stationary inaugural "cruise".

Thwarted, Crowley hires Figg to take his dredger and demolish the structure late at night. Using a seasickness remedy suggested by Barrington, Ambrose is able to take to sea and foil the scheme (with his ghostly ancestors watching approvingly), but in the process, part of the pier becomes detached and floats away. He remains aboard to prevent salvagers from claiming it and drifts over to France, where he is hailed as a naval hero.

Jaclyn "Jackie" Dorsey, the daughter of Olympic Gold medalists Doug Dorsey and Kate Moseley from the original film, also enters the figure skating field, with ambitions of winning her own Olympic gold. However, a serious injury derails that ambition. After months of training, Jackie is finally ready to skate again but has trouble keeping up with the rigorous demands of singles skating. Her parents send her on a vacation to Los Angeles, where she meets surfer boy/in-line skater Alex Harrison. Sparks fly between the two, but when Jackie sees how glamorous Alex's life as a pro in-line skater really is after finding out he works as a valet at her hotel, she brushes him off. This makes Alex mad, so when Jackie shows up at the beach, where they were supposed to meet for a date, and makes a half-hearted apology, the irritated Alex picks a fight and the two go fuming their separate ways.

In the meantime, Jackie realizes that, considering the circumstances, pairs skating will give her a better chance at Olympic gold. After many unsuccessful interviews with prospective partners, she becomes frustrated. Then, after Alex Harrison sees Jackie on TV, discussing her search for a partner, he shows up for an interview. Even though Alex has no experience and has trained for only a short time, he shows remarkable natural talent.

However, Jackie feels that Alex is lazy and unreliable. Inevitably, the two lock horns. They fight so constantly that Jackie's mother locks them together with a harness, forcing them to do everything together. After that, Jackie and Alex start to get along, and their attraction grows. But then, Alex's old girlfriend Heidi shows up and jeopardizes Alex and Jackie's chance at gold. After a blowout fight at regionals, Alex leaves. Jackie convinces him to return, but also learns that Heidi and Alex are engaged. Alex and Jackie train for the Olympics, which will be held in Torino, Italy. Later, while in Torino, Heidi lets it slip that they are getting married immediately after the closing ceremonies and that Alex will be hanging up his skates for good. This causes friction between Jackie and Alex, resulting in a passionless short program, and they end up in fourth place.

Jackie then reveals to her father that she still loves Alex, and her father convinces her to talk to him. Jackie goes to Alex's room and pours her heart out to someone that she thinks is Alex, but that person is actually Heidi. After hearing Jackie’s confession of love, Heidi locks the door and Jackie takes off. When Alex discovers what Heidi has done, he goes after her. Heidi tells him that if he leaves, she will not be there when he returns. He leaves anyway. Jackie refuses to talk to Alex, but right after their program begins, Alex tells Jackie that he is in love with her and that he wants to be with her for the rest of his life. Their long program is flawless and includes a move that has never been done before. In the final shot, Alex and Jackie are seen kissing.

''Incubation'' is part of the ''Battle Isle'' series, though it is only loosely related to the other games in the series. The plot is told outside of combat, through cutscenes, and the main character's voiced weary, pessimistic monologues during mission briefings.

Cpl. (later Sgt.) Braddock is a space marine going stir crazy on a space station under Capt. Rachel Rutherford. He's at risk of hearing a fellow corporal's war story for the sixth time when the call comes to deploy to the planet below. Equipment failure has exposed the colonial city of Scay-Hallwa to the planet's environment and introduced a virus among the indigenous inhabitants, Scay'Ger, who are now turning into bloodthirsty monsters.

Braddock and his squad take part in a holding action to buy time for the city to be isolated again, and rescue a noted virologist. At this point issues with Gen. Urelis, the planetside commander, come to a boil as he sets to defending the city while the virologist cures the virus. Sadly, as Rutherford briefs her troops, what the virologist actually tried to tell Urelis was just the opposite. The virus (herpes simplex) is common and endemic to humans, and has no cure. Urelis unveils a counterattack strategy entirely too late, authorizes lethal force to stop civilians from fleeing, and is overrun and killed. The marines defy their orders and escort civilian evacuees to an airlift to safety, but Braddock and his squad are caught in a rearguard action, cut off, and stranded. Rutherford parachutes down to assist them, and together they fight through the overrun city to a pick-up point. As the marines return to the station, an exhausted Braddock asks his chatty colleague for a story, rejects hearing any of the new ones, and tells him to take his time.

Mrs Fox stops by the church hall in search of Lance Corporal Jones, but she is met by Private Godfrey who tells her that the rest of the platoon has gone for a march and will not be back for some time. Mrs Fox then tells Godfrey that she was going to call Jones to "put him out of his misery."

When the Platoon arrive back, they notice that Jones is missing. Pike and Fraser then reveal that he failed to turn right on the march and just kept walking straight. Jones then arrives late in a very cheerful mood and asks Mainwaring for a heart to heart, man to man talk. He reveals to Mainwaring and Wilson that he has asked Mrs Fox to marry him, and wants Mainwaring's permission to do so. Mainwaring agrees, and Mrs Fox telephones and tells Jones that she will marry him.

At the wedding ceremony, Mainwaring has agreed to give Mrs Fox away and Wilson has agreed to be best man. The reception follows, and Mainwaring is surprised when Wilson turns up in his old uniform from the last war (having been forced to so by Mrs Pike who has hidden his trousers), revealing he was a captain. Wilson is then surprised when he learns he must toast the Matron-of-Honour, Mrs Pike.

A much needed change of pace is welcome when everyone celebrated the goodness of the wedding, but it is drastically cut short when the Colonel informs Mainwaring of an invasion alert, and thinks it may not be a bluff. Jones and Pike are then sent to keep watch at the pier where Mrs Fox comes to meet them. While Jones and Mrs Fox are discussing their future, Mainwaring and the rest of the platoon arrive with a bottle of champagne to drink to Jones good health. Hodges interrupts them and tells them that the invasion alert was a false alarm and the stand-down had been given half an hour earlier — adding that it's just as well, because Mainwaring and his platoon would be no good against real soldiers. After Hodges leaves, Mainwaring, Wilson, Jones, Fraser, Pike and Godfrey all agree that no-one is getting past them and that there are hundreds of men just like them who are willing to fight for their freedom.

In the end, Wilson suggests that they make a toast to the Home Guard. Mainwaring agrees and the platoon raise their glasses as they turn towards the camera to say in unison: "To Britain's Home Guard".

On March 20, 1980, an earthquake of 5.1 on the Richter scale strikes Mount St. Helens, signaling the first signs of volcanic activity there in 123 years. During the earthquake, a flight of quail becomes disoriented and smashes into the windshield of an Aerospatiale SA341G Gazelle helicopter in use for logging operations. The helicopter's pilot, Otis Kaylor (Ron O'Neal), makes a successful emergency landing, only to be accused of nearly killing a group of loggers.

Shortly afterward, United States Geological Survey volcanologist David Jackson (David Huffman) arrives to investigate the activity. Upon arriving in the small town of Cougar, he quickly befriends Linda Steele (Cassie Yates), a single mother who works as a waitress at a restaurant named Whittaker's Inn. While at Whittaker's Inn, he stirs up concern with its owner, Clyde Whittaker (Albert Salmi), and a group of farmers and loggers. Meanwhile, the 83-year-old owner of the Mount St. Helens Lodge, Harry R. Truman (Art Carney) has a defiant attitude toward the idea of leaving his home on the slopes of the volcano.

After Washington declares a danger zone around the volcano and prohibits anyone from entering it, owners of property inside the prohibited area demand access to their property. To appease them, the state government agrees to let them into the danger zone as long as they sign waivers agreeing that the state has no liability for death or injury they suffer due to volcanic activity. On April 30, 1980, state officials in Cougar give them waivers of liability to sign.

As the volcanic activity increases, so does the attraction between David and Linda, and the two eventually fall in love. Presumably on the day before the eruption, David packs Linda and her son off to safety and stays behind for the scientific work he still needs to do on a ridge a few miles north of the volcano. Later that night, he pays a last visit to Harry.

On the morning of May 18, 1980, David hikes to a ridge 6 miles (10 km) north of Mount St. Helens to monitor a massive bulge that has been growing on the north face of the mountain for the past few weeks, while Harry goes fishing in Spirit Lake at the foot of the mountain. At 8:32 am PDT the mountain's entire north face collapses in a massive landslide, causing the mountain to explode in a lateral eruption. The eruption kills both David and Harry and continues for hours. Pyroclastic flows destroy everything in their path, and lahars sweep down into the valley of the North Fork Toutle River, taking houses, trees, and bridges with them. Linda soon realizes the horror of the day's events when a radio announcer declares that David was one of the first victims.

The film ends with a scene of a small tree growing amidst the barren moonscape of the posteruption North Fork Toutle River valley.

The movie opens with Isabella Ford (Embeth Davidtz) travelling alone from Selmouth to Addisford on foot, and in an increasingly pathetic state. In a deserted cabin on the way, she gives birth to a stillborn baby. She buries it and continues her journey. Arriving in Addisford late in the evening, she meets lamplighter Ben Wainwright (Tom Bell), and says she is looking for a man named Arch Wilson (Greg Wise). Ben does not know him, but seeing her plight, takes her to his house. He instructs his wife (Gemma Jones) to get Bella washed up, and introduces his three children, Matty (Kenneth Anderson), Con (Ben Chaplin) and Jedd (James Purefoy). Matty, the youngest, is a shoemaker, Jedd is a soldier, and Con does not have a profession, but helps out with family chores. Bella is unable to eat any food offered her, but bursts into tears, and faints when she stands up to go to bed.

After a restless night with Arch very much on her mind, Bella wakes up next morning, and from her window, sees Mr and Mrs. Wainwright seeing off Jedd, who is returning to the army. As Bella prepares to leave, Mrs. Wainwright enquires about her family and learns that Bella has nowhere to go. She tells her that she can stay, as long as she does her share of house  work.

That evening, Bella takes a pair of shoes that she received as a present from Arch to Matty in order to alter them as they are too large. Matty tells her that it can't be done as they are "cheap Yankee" shoes. This comes as a surprise to Bella. Matty says he will make her a new pair. The next day, Bella leaves for Aylesburgh to fetch leather. Con secretly follows Bella and when confronted by her, asks her if she would like to come out with him sometime. Bella tells him that she has no mind to go out with anyone. Con asks her to forget what he said, and leaves.

One day, after Jedd's arrival, he and Bella go for a walk in the woods, and Jedd flirts with her. That evening, Jedd and Ben go to the pub, and later, Arch drops off a drunken Jedd and Ben at their house, but drives off before Bella sees him. Jedd continues to flirt will Bella, much to Con's annoyance. The next day, crop harvest begins and the entire family goes to work in the fields. During a break, Jedd insists that Bella is not comfortable and picks her up and carries her to a shadier spot, in spite of Bella's polite protests. Jedd also forcefully offers her water and Con, who can't take it anymore, suddenly attacks Jedd with a scythe. Jedd retaliates with a rake. Mrs. Wainwright intervenes and disperses them. That night, at a party for all the villagers, Bella dances with each of the brothers in turn. After dancing with Con, Bella asks him why he fought Jedd, and requests he watch his temper, as she does not want any troubles in the family which took her in.

The next day, as Bella sees Jedd off at the station, she finds Arch there. She follows him home, only to  learn that he is married and has a child. She decides to leave Addisford, while Mrs. Wainwright agrees since she set her sons one against the other. When Con arrives home, he runs to the station and tries to persuade Bella to stay. Bella confesses that she had been with another man and tells about the baby. Con replies that he loves her and that her past does not matter. Bella returns home, but Mrs. Wainwright receives her coldly. 

Con and Bella attend a party where she runs into Arch, and she accuses him of lying to her. At breakfast the next day, Con suddenly proposes to Bella in front of his parents, and Bella accepts. Con takes Bella boating on the river, but there they encounter Arch, who makes fun of them. When the bullying gets worse, Con, in a fit of rage, kills Arch with a stone, in spite of Bella's attempts to stop him.

Con and Bella flee Addisford. During the night they take refuge in a deserted house. Con is disgusted with himself and scared. Bella comforts him and professes her love for him, and they make love. The next day, they continue to Selmouth, en route for Dublin. In Selmouth, Con notices that Bella is acquainted with a lot of the men in town and he becomes suspicious of her. At one point, when he sees Bella talking to the captain of the boat, he has a vision of the captain and Bella kissing, laughing at him and him slapping Bella hard on the face. Following this, he tells Bella that he doesn't trust himself with her, and is going to turn himself in as he can't live with the guilt. He asks her to say goodbye. Bella protests violently, but nonetheless, he turns himself in.

On the day of Con's execution, when Bella comes to visit him, she runs into his family. Mrs. Wainwright tries to attack her, yelling "Damn you! Damn you!!". At the end of the visit they are overcome with emotion and hug each other. Con is hanged as Bella is on the train from Addisford to Selmouth. In the closing scene, Bella is standing on the boat deck, on her way to Dublin. She touches her stomach and smiles slightly to herself, which suggests that she is pregnant with Con's child.

In ''The Miner'', the 19-year-old protagonist decides to flee his hometown of Tokyo after his relationship falls apart. He encounters a grotesque figure who specializes in recruiting cheap labour, and is persuaded to work in a copper mine. The story follows his journey towards and descent into the mine. The protagonist's perceptions and later reflections are described in great detail, such that a "split-second of visual clarity" is accorded three pages of analysis.

The protagonist does not get along with the other "animalistic" miners, but eventually meets an educated individual who is, like himself, fleeing from a failed relationship. This miner convinces him to return to his former life. The novel ends with the protagonist emerging from the mine. Outside the mine, he remarks on the beauty of a flower and the ugliness of the miners. He then visits a clinic for a mandatory examination, and is reminded of human mortality by the scent there. He passes the same flower and no longer finds it beautiful, nor does he find the miners ugly:

As always, the miners were looking down at me from their barracks, chin on hand. Their faces, which before had filled me with such loathing, now seemed like clay dolls' heads. They were not ugly, not frightening, not hateful. They were just faces, as the face of the most beautiful woman in Japan is just a face. And I was exactly like these men, a human being of flesh and bone, entirely ordinary and entirely meaningless.

The actions once again take place in the small French town of Saint-Tropez. While driving with one of his gendarmes, Cruchot (Louis de Funès) has to stop in order to fix the car. The gendarme wanders away and sees a flying saucer in a field which then flies away. He tries to tell Cruchot and the rest of the station, but they don't believe him. Shortly after, the same occurs with Cruchot and the chief of the gendarmes. This time it is Cruchot who wanders away and sees the saucer, however the chief does not believe him. Later on, when the same gendarme is doing paperwork in the office, a young man appears in front of him and says that he is a part of an alien expedition which has arrived to Saint-Tropez in order to examine humanity as people from all around the globe go to Saint-Tropez during the summer. The alien demonstrates its shapeshifting ability by transforming into the same gendarme it is talking to. The gendarme runs and tells Cruchot, who doesn't believe him. In the midst of the racket, the chief comes and sends the gendarme away. The chief reveals that he is actually an alien disguised as the chief, and when Cruchot doesn't believe him the alien becomes agitated and uses laser vision to cause damage to Cruchot's room. He relents when a watch on his hand flashes red and drinks something out of a flask. The alien begins coughing and upon hitting it on the back, Cruchot discovers it makes a metallic sound. Later on when the real chief arrives, Cruchot stabs him with a screwdriver thinking that it is the alien. The chief orders Cruchot out, since the supervisor will come in tomorrow to check up on the station. During the check up, Cruchot notices the same watch on the supervisor as on the alien he saw last night and attempts to attack him. The gendarmes hold him back while the alien supervisor flees, and the real supervisor arrive. Cruchot once again stabs the real supervisor thinking he is an alien. He is arrested, but escapes the station.

Cruchot hides at a church while the gendarmes search for him and eventually manages to evade them. He then attempts to track down the aliens, which proves to be difficult as they can only be identified by the metallic sound they make when struck. He runs into an alien disguising as a gendarme at night in the woods, but manages to run away. He encounters another alien on the beach during the day, which manages to run away to avoid being exposed. This alien labels Cruchot a threat and orders him eliminated. Later at night, Cruchot sneaks into his own house to find his wife waiting. She convinces Ludovic to go on a night drive and they end up in the woods as per her directions. They encounter the flying saucer within the woods, which Cruchot's wife insists he enters. Cruchot realizes the woman next to him is actually an alien in disguise and manages to flee. Some of the gendarmes who were searching for him happen to witness this encounter and now believe Cruchot and agree to help him find the aliens. The next day at a restaurant, they encounter 2 aliens who they identify by them drinking machine oil. They attempt to ambush the aliens, and during the scuffle one of aliens is doused in water from an aquarium. The other flees but not before telling the gendarmes to stop their struggle. The chief, who regularly dines at the restaurant, arrives to find it has vanished due to one of the aliens disintegrating it. He finds the alien who was doused in water walking along the beach, evidently hurt. As he follows the alien, it falls apart and collapses, revealing that the aliens are actually robots made of metal. The chief brings the remains of the robot to Cruchot and the gendarmes who deduce that water causes the metallic aliens to rust. They then use a fire truck to spray the citizens of Saint-Tropez with water, hoping to cause damage to any aliens in disguise. When the supervisor confronts them about this, they reveal the alien's remains, convincing the supervisor of the threat.

The gendarmes build a replica saucer to bait out the aliens and place it in the field where they had seen the saucer before. When the actual aliens arrive to investigate the second saucer, they disguise themselves as the gendarmes. The actual gendarmes then ambush them and spray them with water using packs on their back. Despite being sprayed with water, the aliens use their laser vision do destroy the gendarmes' water packs. The gendarmes briefly engage the aliens in hand-to-hand combat before the aliens seemingly retreat into their saucer and fly away. The next day, the gendarmes are being saluted as heroes at a parade, when they suddenly start making metallic noises and collapse. It is revealed that these are actually the alien gendarmes. Moments later, the flying saucer comes out of nowhere and flies over the crowd, being piloted by the real gendarmes who accidentally boarded the real saucer. The saucer runs out of power and falls into the sea. The gendarmes get out, and are hailed as heroes by Saint-Tropez. Louis de Funès during the shooting of ''Le gendarme et les extra-terrestres''

''Castle Crashers'' is set in a fictional medieval universe. It begins with four knights attending a party in a king's castle. During the party, a dark wizard arrives, stealing a mystical gem and capturing four princesses. The king sends the knights to retrieve the gem, rescue his daughters, and bring the wizard to justice. The knights encounter several enemies along the way, including other knights, multiple encounters with a cyclops and a knight who might be cyclops' son, thieves, a giant "catfish", fencers and industrial prince, ninja pirates, demons, a necromancer, dragon, medusa from Greek myth, a frost king, and alien invaders. As the knights progress they succeed in rescuing the princesses, and ultimately the journey culminates in a final showdown with the evil wizard. The knights emerge victorious from the confrontation, having defeated the dark wizard, rescuing all of the king's daughters, and recovering the mystical gem. The knights then ride the reclaimed gem through several empty battlefields on their trip back to the castle. At the castle the king brings one of his daughters for one of the knights to kiss, her face veiled throughout the entire game. As with previous levels, the players fight to the death to claim a kiss from the princess. However, when the winner tries to do so this time, the princess is revealed to be a clown (A character that first appeared in an animation by dan paladin) that blankets the screen in the ending animation with penguins, weasels, kitties, hearts and rainbow beams.

“The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse” is narrated by a nine-year-old Armenian boy named Aram, a member of the Garoghlanian tribe, living among the lush fruit orchards and vineyards of the San Joaquin valley in California. One morning Aram is awakened at four in morning by his thirteen-year-old cousin Mourad, who is thought to be demented by everyone except Aram, and has a way with animals. Aram is astonished to see that Mourad is sitting on a beautiful white horse. Aram had always wanted to ride a white horse, but his family is too poor to afford one. However, in spite of being poor, the Garoghlanian tribe is noted for its honesty and trust, as a result, it is unthinkable that Mourad would have stolen the horse. Aram felt that his cousin couldn't have stolen the horse.

Mourad's crazy behavior was considered to be of natural descent from their uncle Khosrove, even though his father, Zorab, was a practical man. Uncle Khosrove was an enormous man who was always furious, impatient, and irritable. He would roar for everyone to stop talking and say ''It is no harm, pay no attention to it''. In fact, one day, when his son came and told them that their house was on fire, Khosrove silenced him by roaring "Enough. It is no harm".

Aram was invited to ride on the horse with Mourad. The idea of Mourad stealing the horse drained away from Aram's mind as when he felt that it wouldn't become stealing unless they offer to sell the horse. They enjoyed rides on the horse for a few hours.

After a short time of riding, Mourad wanted to ride alone on the horse. Aram had the same longing, but when he sat on the horse and kicked its muscles it reared and snorted and raced forward, eventually dropping Aram off its back. After half an hour they found the horse and hid it in the barn of a deserted vineyard of a farmer named Fetvajian which had once been his pride.

That afternoon, an Assyrian farmer named John Byro—an Assyrian friend of the Garoghlanians—came to Aram's house. He reported to Aram's mother that his white horse which had been stolen a month ago was still missing. Hearing this, Aram concludes that, Mourad must have had the horse for a long time. Khosrove, who was at Aram's house when Byro came, shouted -“it's no harm" to such an extent that Byro was forced to leave to avoid responding.

Aram ran to Mourad to inform him about Byro's arrival. Aram also pleads with Mourad not to return the horse until he could learn to ride. Mourad disagrees saying that Aram would take at least a year to learn, but promises he would keep it for six months at most. This became a routine. Mourad came daily to pick Aram to ride, and Aram continuously fell off the horse's back after every attempt. Two weeks later, when they were going to take the horse back to its hiding place, they met John Byro on the road. The farmer was extremely surprised. He recognized his horse but refused to believe that the boys had stolen it. Later the boys return the horse quietly. That afternoon Byro came to Aram's house to inform that the stolen horse has been returned. He thanks God because the horse has become better tempered and well behaved too.

In a dark satire of the 1999 film ''The Matrix'', Leo, a pig on a seemingly bucolic family farm, is approached by Moopheus, an anthropomorphic bull. Moopheus shows Leo that the farm he has known is an illusion, and that he is really trapped in a horrific factory farm. Leo and Moopheus then work to break out of the Meatrix and help others do the same, with some help from a third character, Chickity. The animated short aims to encourage consumers to purchase organic food products and free-range meats.

In the film, Donald Duck is portrayed as an everyman who has just received his weekly pay. He is met by two physical manifestations of his personality — the classic "good angel on one shoulder, bad devil on the other shoulder" dilemma common to cartoons of the time — identified as the "thrifty saver" and the "spendthrift."

The "good duck" appears as a slightly elderly duck with a Scottish accent who wears a kilt and Scottish cap and urges Donald to be thrifty with his money so he can be sure to pay his taxes for the war effort. The "bad duck" appears as a zoot suit-wearing hipster who urges Donald to spend his duly earned money on idle pleasures such as "good dates". The good angel reminds of other "dates": the dates when his taxes are due. The narrator explains that Americans should "gladly and proudly" pay their income taxes which are higher that year "thanks to Hitler and Hirohito."

A tug-of-war ensues between "spend" and "save" with Donald caught in the middle. Eventually the two sides give way and crash on opposite ends of Donald to reveal the "true" selves: the doors of the bad duck's club are revealed to be swastikas and the bad duck himself turns out to bear a resemblance to Hitler (his bow tie is now a swastika and he has grown Hitler's characteristic mustache), while the wall the good duck has crashed up against resembles the flag of the United States. The narrator then asks the audience if they are going to "spend for the Axis" or "save for taxes". Having made the seemingly obvious choice, Donald is assumed to shake hands with the bad duck, but it is revealed that he heads over to the bad duck to punch him out at the last second. He then goes to proudly pay his taxes with the good duck.

The second part of the film is a montage entirely recycled from ''The New Spirit'', showing how the taxes are being used to make planes, bombs, ships, and other war materials. It then shows them being used against Axis forces, along with the repeated slogan "Taxes... to (bury, sink, etc.) the Axis", accompanied by the opening bars of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony (the "V for Victory" theme).

Caprona is a city-state in the Italy of Chrestomanci's world (World Twelve A), which never united as a nation-state. The houses of Casa Montana and Casa Petrocchi, both renowned for being powerful magician families, have been feuding with each other for generations. The city has begun to lose its "virtue," and the states of Florence, Siena, and Pisa intend to take advantage of this by uniting to conquer Caprona. The only way to save the city is if the true words to the ''Angel of Caprona'', both a hymn and a powerful spell, can be found and read aloud.

The story is told through the eyes of the young Tonino Montana and his brother Paolo. They are both members of Casa Montana, one of two spell-houses in Caprona, the other being Casa Petrocchi. The two spell-houses are deadly rivals; the two families are both convinced that the decline of Caprona is all the fault of the other spell-house, and refuse to work together under any circumstances.

Tonino is, unknown to himself or the rest of Casa Montana, a talented enchanter; however, he is unaware of his ability, and prefers to spend his time reading. Paolo is more outgoing and friendly, and does better at school. When representatives of both houses are called to the Duke of Caprona's palace, they both go. Whilst there, they meet members of the Petrocchi family for the first time, and they also encounter the Duchess, a powerful woman who appears to be the true ruler of Caprona.

On an early summer evening, Mario Bellini finds a cricket chirping near his parents' newsstand in the Times Square subway station. Papa Bellini allows Mario to keep the cricket in the newsstand as a pet despite Mama Bellini's fear that the cricket will attract more bugs.

The cricket's name is Chester. That evening, Chester meets Tucker Mouse and Harry Cat, best friends who live in an abandoned drainpipe near the newsstand. Chester tells them that he is from Connecticut and that he came to New York by being accidentally trapped in a picnic basket. Tucker and Harry show him Times Square, which he finds overwhelming.

Mr. Smedley, a music teacher who is a regular customer of the Bellinis, hears Chester chirping and likens the cricket to Orpheus. Mario takes Chester to Chinatown and buys a cricket cage from a shop owner named Sai Fong. While dreaming that night, Chester eats half of a two-dollar bill. The Bellinis decide that Chester must stay in his cage until Mario repays the two dollars. To free Chester, Tucker donates his life's savings, a collection of coins scrounged from the subway station. Mario realizes that he has been feeding Chester the wrong kind of food. He takes Chester to see Sai Fong, who from then on provides Chester a steady supply of mulberry leaves.

Two months after Chester's arrival in Times Square, he hosts a dinner party for Tucker and Harry in the newsstand. They turn on the radio, and to Tucker and Harry's delight, Chester begins imitating the songs. Tucker dances and accidentally knocks over a box of matches, setting the newsstand on fire. Mama Bellini blames the fire on Chester and demands that he go. Chester, saddened, chirps one of the songs he heard on the radio. The song is Mama Bellini's favorite, and she sings along. She relents and allows Chester to stay.

That night, Chester listens to the radio to learn more human music. The following morning, Chester chirps for Mr. Smedley, who is so impressed he writes a letter to the music editor of ''The New York Times''. The letter attracts crowds to the newsstand. Chester gives twice daily concerts, but by Thursday, he is exhausted and decides to retire. On Friday evening, he performs a farewell concert. For his final encore, he plays the sextet from Lucia di Lammermoor, and the whole city pauses to listen.

Chester and Mario play together for the last time. Mario falls asleep. Chester takes the bell from his cricket cage. Tucker and Harry bring Chester to Grand Central Station. When Mario wakes, he realizes that Chester has left for home, and he feels glad. Tucker suggests to Harry that they visit Connecticut next summer.

In order to graduate from Monster Academy, three young monsters, Ickis, Oblina, and Krumm, need to pass their Monster Midterm Exam. This test has them scaring a number of people that their headmaster, the Gromble, orders them to scare in order to pass the exam.

Roopa is a woman with self-respect, determined at her decisions, and yet lovable and sensitive. She works in an ad agency along with teaching classical music part-time. Along with Anita, she also works on weekends at a nursery. After losing her parents at a young age, she fends for herself.

She is engaged to Rahul, a rich Marwari whom she fell in love with. On the night of the wedding, she is confronted with Rahul's mother who insists Roopa to wear a North Indian dress. Roopa, however, has always desired to wear her mother's sari for her wedding. The argument turns ugly while Rahul keeps mum tacitly supporting his mother. Roopa finally decides to call off the marriage after realizing that her freedom and individuality are not being respected by them.

Anand is the son of a rich industrialist who unintentionally killed Roopa's parents in a car accident, thereby losing mental stability. Anand brings his father to Roopa's wedding hoping that his blessings for the wedded couple would bring solace to his soul. At the wedding, however, Anand witnesses the turn of events and finds that Roopa is the woman for him. In order to try his luck in wooing Roopa, he drops his studies in the US and decides to move into a room next to her house. They frown, fight, argue with each other all through his stay there. Anita who is aware of Anand's love for Roopa helps him by giving tips to get closer to her.

A few months later, Rahul's mother dies and Roopa is the one he approaches to seek solace. She gives all the support as a friend to Rahul during his difficult days. On the other hand, the affection between Anand and Roopa is on and off, with arguments on trivial issues. Anand continues to put in his efforts till one day drunken Rahul appears at Roopa's house only to forcibly convince her to marry him. Anand gets frustrated and kicks him out of the house and blames her for choosing Rahul over him. Trying to win back the love of Anand, she cooks for him. Anand rejects and leaves the house. After a few days, they both meet again at a Dandiya night, where Roopa confesses her love to him. Later, Anand reveals that his father is responsible for her parents' death. Though she was shocked by learning this, she decides to forgive that event and move on with her life and agrees to marry Anand.

The gendarme Cruchot meets the widow Josepha. They quickly fall in love. But Cruchot's daughter doesn't like Josepha and is determined to prevent the wedding by all means necessary.

Elliot Slater is a young, attractive, Australian professional photographer living in Southern California. Having always been uncomfortable with his sexual proclivities, which tend toward the BDSM realm, he signs up for a dominatrix-themed vacation on a private tropical island known as "Eden" in the hopes of working through his discomfort.

Unbeknownst to him, before embarking on his journey of sexual discovery, he has unwittingly photographed an international jewel thief of whom no other photos exist. The jewel thief Omar and his criminal partner Nina are intent on recovering the film in order to retain Omar's anonymity.

They follow the photographer to the island resort run by the dominatrix, Mistress Lisa Emerson, posing as vacationers. Following a tip that Omar is on the island, undercover police officers Fred Lavery and Sheila Kingston also arrive, Sheila in the guise of a vacationer and Fred as a handyman. When a submissive asks Sheila what he can do to please her, she tells him to go paint her house.

Comedic antics ensue amid the activities of scantily clad guests and employees, acting out their dominant and submissive fantasies.

In the course of Elliot's experiences as Mistress Lisa's personal submissive, including a scene where she ties him up and fondles his naked body (especially, his bare buttocks, which she also spanks), the two begin to fall in love. The action comes to a climax on a quick trip to New Orleans, where Lisa reluctantly admits her feelings for Elliot, all the while tailed by Omar, who attempts to kill them.

Fred and Sheila save the day, sending Omar and Nina to jail, and receive commendations for solving the case. Elliot returns to Eden and proposes to Lisa, who says yes. Also, the submissive who spoke to Sheila makes good on her request: he has her house painted.

''Thomas & Sarah'' follows the adventures of Thomas Watkins, the chauffeur, and Sarah, the house and nursery maid, after leaving service at Eaton Place in 1910. Sarah is pregnant, and according to their last episode of ''Upstairs, Downstairs'' they have married, but according to ''Thomas & Sarah'' they "never got round to it". In addition, a two-part short story, entitled ''The Spin of the Wheel'', that bridges the gap between them leaving Eaton Place and the start of ''Thomas & Sarah'', was written by Alfred Shaughnessy and published in the ''TV Times'' in the 23 December and 6 January issues.

Dr. Lawrence Angelo is a scientist working for Virtual Space Industries (VSI) in "Project 5", a secret research facility that attempts to increase the intelligence of primates using psychotropic drugs and virtual reality (VR) training. Dr. Angelo is reluctant to use the research for military purposes, and after one of the chimps escapes and shoots a guard, Dr. Angelo is given a forced vacation. While taking notes on the need for experiment with a human subject, he discovers Jobe Smith (Jeff Fahey), a man with an intellectual disability who makes his living by doing odd jobs such as mowing the grass (hence the title of the movie). Angelo takes in Jobe, subjecting him to VR treatment. The first experiments quickly increase Jobe's intelligence, but after an accident, Dr. Angelo stops the experiments. The Shop, a secret agency overseeing Project 5, reinserts the drugs responsible for Jobe's violent behavior into the program and speeds up the treatment. As Jobe develops telekinetic powers, he starts to take revenge on those who abused him before he began the treatments, and plots to take over all of the computers in the world.

The SNES version continues the storyline after the point where it ends in the film. Jobe transfers his mind into VSI's computers, and from there is able to corrupt and destroy information systems all over the world, a course of action which is implied to bring about Dystopia. With society in complete meltdown, Dr. Angelo discovers that Jobe has been acting under the control of a person known as Zorn the Doomplayer, who is the head of The Shop, and poised to take over what remains of the world. With Jobe apparently gone missing, Angelo sets off to put an end to The Shop once and for all.

The inhabitants of Planet Bomber lived in peace, protected by five spirits, until the evil Bagular and his Robot Army invaded. The Spirit Pictures, the source of the spirits' magical power, were destroyed, splitting Planet Bomber into five pieces. Bomberman arrives to restore the Spirit Pictures and reassemble Planet Bomber.

After thief Alex Cardo (Daniel Bernhardt) gets caught and betrayed by his partner in crime John (Philip Tan) while stealing an ancient Jian in Thailand, he soon finds himself imprisoned and beaten. One of the guards, Demon (Ong Soo Han), is particularly upset by Alex's appearance and tortures him whenever he gets the opportunity. Alex finds one friend and mentor in the jailhouse, Master Sun (James Hong), who teaches him a superior fighting style called "Iron Hand". When a "best of the best kumite" is to take place, Demon gets an invitation. Now Master Sun and Alex need to find a way to let Alex take part in the kumite, too.

The final fight pits Alex and Demon together. At first, and for a long time, Demon has the upper hand in terms of strength and fighting ability. When Alex is down, he takes one last look at Master Sun and uses the "Iron Hand" against his opponent, severely damaging and defeating Demon. Alex is the winner, and as part of deals previously made, Master Sun is freed from prison, and so is Alex.

Various college students try to survive the 'finals' period - literally. Common incidents at the learning institution include murders, world-changing wars and various cults.

''Bloodsport III'' reintroduces the character Alex Cardo (Daniel Bernhardt) from ''Bloodsport II'' and is largely told in flashback format. Alex wakes up late one night after having dreams of the Kumite years prior. He goes into his 10-year-old son Jason's bedroom to find his son still awake, reading. After questioning him, Jason reveals that he has been suspended for fighting in school. He insists he fought off 3 bullies in self-defense and, to his surprise, Alex is understanding of the situation. Alex suggests that he and Jason go camping together to bond. Alex begins to tell Jason about his former life as a criminal, a prisoner, his tutelage under Master Sun (James Hong), and, finally, as the champion of the last Kumite. Alex explains to his son that years after his tournament win, he traveled to India and gambled in a casino, when masked men arrived and stole money and a package from the casino, but not before Alex beat up several of the men. After the robbery, the casino owner convinces Alex to retrieve the package (a bag of diamonds) from the robbers, since they belong to a mob boss named Duvalier (John Rhys-Davies). Alex does so, and Duvalier invites him to a dinner party he's hosting as thanks.

At the party, Duvalier shows Alex his top fighter, the Beast, and tries to convince Alex to fight in his upcoming Kumite. Alex refuses, since he does not fight for profit, much to Duvalier's ire. To provoke him into fighting, Duvalier has Sun, Alex's mentor, teacher, and spiritual "father", killed. Alex turns to Leung (Pat Morita) to whom he was indebted in ''Bloodsport II: The Next Kumite''. Leung directs him to the great shaman, Makato "the Judge" (Hee Il Cho), to whom Alex must turn for guidance. (The Judge is Sun's brother who developed his own variation of Sun's Iron Hand technique). The judge teaches him to fully channel the energy in his mind and body in order to rout the Beast in the Kumite.

By this point however, Duvalier has invested everything in the Beast and no longer wants Alex in his Kumite for fear he will upset the odds. When he is unable to block Alex's entry, he has his men stationed at the entrances to the tournament arena. Alex gets round this by posing as one of the entourage of another fighter. Both Alex and the Beast make their way through the Kumite, and face each other in the finals. Alex is initially outmatched by the Beast's great physical strength and endurance, and takes a severe beating as a result. Eventually, he remembers his training, and is able to knock out the Beast. He refrains from killing Duvalier, knowing that it won't bring Sun back.

In the present, Alex and his son finish their camping trip and drive away.

Sharon Myers (Sarah Parish) unexpectedly turns up at a school reunion party being held in her birthplace of Luckwell, twenty years after leaving the village. She has returned to her hometown to take up the position of Detective Inspector, after recently being promoted. She bumps into her childhood best friend, Helen Andrews (Poppy Miller), who is heavily pregnant, and attending the party with her current husband, Phillip (Paul McGann). Helen is unaware that Sharon and Phillip know each other, and that they had an affair shortly before she discovered she was pregnant. During the party, Sharon notices that Phillip is making eyes at new schoolteacher Lesley Tenant (Nicole Lewis). The following morning, Sharon is given an early wake up call by D.S. Harry Fielding (Mark Benton), who informs her that a body has been found in a nearby lake. Sharon arrives at the scene to discover the body is none other than Lesley Tenant. Initial reports suggest that she was stabbed to death, and that her handbag, mobile phone and necklace have all been stolen. Suspicion initially falls on Phillip, but Sharon is quick to dissuade the idea that he could be the killer.

Phillip is arrested, but after an initial round of questioning, he is released without charge. Meanwhile, D.C. Marcus Watson (Andrew Buchan) discovers that only three necklaces of the kind Lesley was wearing have been bought locally in the past six months, one of which was purchased by a cash-buying customer, who matches Phillip's description. After a series of e-mails are discovered on Lesley's hard drive, signed "Love from P", Harry is determined to haul Phillip in again, but Sharon convinces him to bide his time, and instead look into one of Phillip's work colleagues, Paul, who was in a relationship with Lesley up until six weeks before her death. Meanwhile, after being invited round for supper by Helen, Sharon goes in search of some old childhood photos in Helen's garage, and unexpectedly comes across Lesley's necklace, hidden inside a music box.

Sharon confronts Phillip, but he denies murdering Lesley. During their heated confrontation, Sharon's rage turns into lust, and the pair end up having sex. Sharon informs Phillip that she intends to protect him, whatever the cost. The next day, Harry and Marcus interview Paul, and he confirms that he was the one who sent the series of e-mails. Harry, however, informs Sharon that Paul denied all knowledge of the e-mails, and that in her absence, he has applied for a warrant to search Helen and Phillip's house. The search proves fruitless, but in order to disguise her loyalty to Phillip, Sharon orders a search of his workplace. During the search, Harry finds a tube of lipstick hidden behind a cabinet. The lipstick is sent for forensic analysis, and Phillip is re-arrested. However, once again, a lack of evidence leads to his subsequent release. When he is forced to explain his absence to Helen, the unduly stress causes her to collapse, and she is immediately taken to hospital. Later that night, Sharon meets with Phillip, unaware that Harry is watching her every move.

Early the next day, Sharon hauls Harry in after discovering he lied about who sent Lesley the illicit e-mails. In order to point suspicion in Harry's direction, she accuses him of holding a flame for Helen, and alleges that his grudge against Phillip is purely personal. Harry, however, fires back with the accusation that Sharon has been protecting Phillip and that he was witness to her meeting with him the previous night. Unwilling to show bias, Sharon questions Phillip once more, but when Phillip questions her about Lesley's necklace - which as far as her colleagues know, is still unaccounted for - Harry realises that Sharon hasn't been telling him the whole truth. Suspecting that Sharon may tamper with the DNA evidence found on the lipstick in Phillip's office, Harry asks the lab to contact him - and him only - with the results. As suspicion gradually begins to fall on Sharon, Phillip approaches Harry and warns him that he believes he is being framed. Harry and Phillip covertly break into Sharon's house, and they find Lesley's missing mobile phone and handbag.

Phillip suspects that Sharon is framing him in order to prove her ability to control, and to eventually end his relationship with Helen. Realising that Sharon has gone to pick Helen up from hospital, Harry telephones the hospital, but is told that Helen was discharged twenty minutes previously. Racing across town, they find Sharon and Helen down by the riverbank, engaged in a tussle on a jetty. Phillip suspects that Sharon is trying to kill Helen, just like she killed Lesley. During the tussle however, Sharon falls from the jetty and subsequently drowns, seemingly closing the case. Her death is recorded as accidental by the coroner, and the investigation into Lesley's murder is closed. Helen and Phillip's baby is born, and they subsequently hold a welcoming home party. During the party, Phillip goes to look for some firecrackers, and finds a piece of Lesley's jewellery in the garage. Phillip realises that Sharon is not the killer, and that Helen in fact murdered Lesley after witnessing them having sex on the night of the school reunion.

Scotty Pelk is a socially inept film geek who works at a video store called Video Connections in Portland, Oregon. His biggest claim to fame is his website, www.scottysfilmpage.com (which has yet to receive a hit). He is a hard worker, but eventually gets fired for being too much of an annoyance to the customers. In a funk, he visits several video stores around town to try to find a job, but none of the stores are hiring.

While traveling on the MAX to the Portland Staffing Resources office, Scotty sees a young woman, Niko, reading a book called ''The Films of David Cronenberg.'' He is infatuated and chases her down to talk to her about Cronenberg, but she essentially brushes him off.

At the Portland Staffing Resources office, Scotty finds a job working with auto parts. He is confused and lost during his first day at work, all the while continuing to talk about movies with his co-workers. On the way home, he sees Niko again and joins her for coffee, and she invites him to her art show later that night. During the show, Niko kisses Scotty to make her ex-boyfriend, Brandon, jealous. Later, the two go out and sit in Niko's car to talk. Scotty smokes marijuana with her, and they head to a party afterwards. At the party, Scotty gets drunk with two guys who are also film fans.

Scotty constantly calls Niko over the next few days, trying to ask her for a date. She eventually says yes, and they go out to eat at a Mexican restaurant. Afterwards, they watch a movie and then go to a bar. Brandon shows up at the bar and upsets Niko, ending their date.

Scotty continues to obsess and call Niko frequently, but she does not answer her phone. Eventually Niko picks up, but she brushes him off. On the way to visit Niko with flowers and a balloon, Scotty sees Niko and Brandon kissing. Niko then informs Scotty that she and Brandon have gotten back together, indicating that her interest in Scotty had been a ruse to make Brandon jealous.

Scotty goes home and, in a fit of rage and self-loathing, destroys the bouquet of flowers and balloon he had bought for Niko.

Scotty is shown masturbating in his bathroom (one of several such scenes), when he is interrupted by the phone ringing. A ''Willamette Week'' newspaper editor is calling Scotty to do an article on him after hearing about his website from the two guys at the party. Once the article is published, Scotty's website becomes popular around the city and he becomes a local celebrity, and eventually gets his own office. While Scotty is signing autographs at Video Connections, Niko walks in after having a fight with Brandon. After talking a little, Niko and Scotty get back together and kiss. Finally, the film cuts back to Scotty masturbating, with the implication that the phone call and all that followed was only a masturbatory fantasy.

Russ Richards, the weatherman for a Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, television station, is revered as a local celebrity by his viewers, and fame affords him such perks as a reserved parking spot and his own booth at Denny's, where an omelet bears his name. His eternally optimistic demeanor conceals the fact his snowmobile dealership is on the verge of bankruptcy due to an unusually warm winter.

His friend Gig, a shady strip club owner, suggests an insurance scam will free Russ of his financial problems, but when the scheme fails to pay off, Russ finds himself even deeper in debt and the target of a hitman named Dale. Gig then proposes Russ rig the Pennsylvania Lottery with the help of his amoral girlfriend Crystal Latroy, a ditzy model who pulls and announces the winning numbers on television, and her oddball cousin Walter, who will pose as the owner of the lucky ticket.

Their plan works, but before the $6.4 million jackpot can be claimed, everything begins to unravel. First, Walter gets greedy, refuses to hand the winning ticket over to his cousin and Crystal's physical confrontation triggers Walter's ultimately fatal asthma attack. Sleazy station manager Dick Simmons, who also is sleeping with Crystal, tries to blackmail her and Russ when he discovers what they have done, and others who have uncovered what appears to be the worst kept secret in town demand their share as well.

Mayhem and murder ensue, prompting lazy detectives Lakewood and Chambers to initiate an investigation they hope will not be too taxing. Russ decides to sell the ticket to Dick for $100,000 to get clear of the debt he owes to Dale. Crystal is irate, and she immediately seduces Dick to get back into her share of the winnings. Dale breaks into Dick's house and tries to rob the ticket from him, but the police arrive, and Lakewood ends up killing him.

On his way home, Lakewood comes across Russ who has jackknifed and overturned an 18-wheeler as he tries to unload his snowmobile inventory on another dealer. Fearing Lakewood has come to arrest him, Russ flees with his $100,000 on a snowmobile but crashes into a tree. At the hospital, Lakewood gives him a ticket for operating the snowmobile without a license and explains what happened to Dick and Dale. Russ goes to Dick's hospital room and steals the lottery ticket back. He gives it to Wendy the waitress from Denny's and moves to Florida where he becomes a successful host of a gameshow called "Lucky Numbers".

The story ends with the arrival of a hunched figure on the protagonist's doorstep

Daniel Upton, the story's narrator, explains that he has killed his best friend, Edward Derby, and that he hopes his account will prove that he is not a murderer. He begins by describing Derby's life and career. Derby had been interested in the occult even as a very young boy, which led to him befriending Upton. The two would discuss dark mythology in their spare time. Whenever Derby visited he always used the same knocking pattern of three strokes, a pause, and then two additional strokes on the knocker; Upton had always been able to identify Derby this way. Derby's parents had always doted on him and he had a particular reliance on them, especially his mother. Her death had sent him into a depression from which he took a long time to recover. Upton then tells of Asenath Waite, a female classmate of Derby's at Miskatonic University. Edward and Asenath soon wed after bonding over their love of the occult. Despite his qualms Derby moves into the old Crowninshield House, with three servants from Innsmouth.

A few years later, people start to notice odd changes in Derby's abilities. Sometimes he drives off by himself, even though he has never been taught to drive. Occasionally he is driven back by a chauffeur or mechanic while he huddles in the back seat of the car. Derby confides in Upton, telling him strange stories about Asenath. One night he comes to Upton's door in a panic and proclaims how he will never let her do a certain thing to him again. Derby tries to hint at how he believes that Asenath's late father, Ephraim Waite, may not actually be dead. In the midst of this story he abruptly stops, as if some hypnotic spell has come over him. Upton is later called to pick up Derby, who has been found in Chesuncook, Maine, rambling incoherently. On the trip back, Derby tells of Asenath using his body, and is certain that it is in fact Ephraim who resides in the body of Asenath. Derby tells Upton, "She [Asenath] jots down a note in writing that’s just like her father’s manuscripts, stroke for stroke." Before finishing his story, Derby has a small seizure and rapidly changes personality, asking Upton to ignore what he might have just said. However, Upton sees a change in his eyes; he thinks they look like Asenath's eyes, then that they look perhaps more like Ephraim's eyes.

A few months later, Derby shows up at Upton's door and says he has found a way to keep Asenath away and to stop her from using his body, implying some sort of spell or ritual. Derby finishes renovations on his old family house, yet seems strangely reluctant to leave the Crowninshield House. Upton receives another visit from Derby, who begins raving about his wife and father-in-law and how he can still feel her, him, it, clawing at his mind while he sleeps, trying to get hold of him. Upton gets Derby to sleep, but then has him taken to a sanitarium in Arkham. The sanitarium calls Upton to tell him that Derby's "reason has suddenly come back," though upon visiting Upton can see it is not the true personality of Derby, but the person he had encountered on the ride home.

Upton is roused from his sleep by a knocking at his door, using Derby's old signal of three-and-two strokes. Upton believes it may be Derby, but opens his door to find a dwarfed, humped messenger concealed under Derby's large coat, carrying a letter from Derby. The letter explains that Derby has in fact killed Asenath and buried her body in their cellar. But he should have realized that Asenath's (possibly Ephraim's) soul is partially detached from her body, and that the soul will live on until the body is cremated. Asenath had succeeded in taking control of his body while he was in the sanitarium, which means that "the thing on the doorstep" is actually Derby inhabiting Asenath's putrefying corpse. The note implores Upton to go to the sanitarium to kill Derby, who has now been permanently possessed by Ephraim's soul the way he imagines the original Asenath once was. Upton does so, though he reveals that he is afraid of having his soul transferred as well.

Soviet Army troops cross the Khyber Pass from Afghanistan into Pakistan. John Rourke is conducting classes in Pakistan and witnesses the invasion. Rourke then attempts to return home to the United States.

The Soviet leaders launch a nuclear strike against the U.S. and the U.S. president retaliates in kind. Nearly two hundred million Americans and over a hundred million Soviets are killed in the ensuing nuclear exchange, and tsunamis hit both California and New York. Rourke is on a Boeing 747 bound for Georgia when the missiles hit, and the pilots are blinded by the explosions. Rourke manages to crash-land the plane near Albuquerque, New Mexico and teams up with Paul Rubenstein, another survivor of the crash.

With Soviet airborne forces landing on U.S. soil, and almost every other major U.S. politician dead, the U.S. president commits suicide to prevent a forced surrender. Rourke's family become refugees after a gang of looters attack their farm.

Searching for a NASA astronaut who knows about a mysterious "Eden Project", Rourke enters Soviet-occupied Athens, Georgia, and is captured. Varakov has a job for him: Rourke is to kill Karamatzov, who has beaten Natalia on suspicion of adultery with Rourke.

A National Guard officer joins forces with a cult of wild-men to infiltrate a remaining missile silo and use the missiles to destroy Chicago. While Rourke's family fight with the resistance and the Soviets experiment with cryonic suspension, Rourke and Natalia fight the wild-men to save the city.

Rourke finally finds his family in Tennessee, and takes them to his survival retreat. To save themselves from war-induced climate change (specifically, the ionization of the atmosphere due to unexplained side effects of the nuclear exchange), the KGB loot Eden Project cryonics research from the Johnson Space Center, while Rourke and Natalia fight through Soviet troops, feral dogs, and cannibals to discuss the coming 'end of the world' with Varakov in Chicago.

Rourke and Natalia break into 'The Womb', a Soviet survival habitat in what used to be NORAD, to prevent the KGB from destroying the Eden Project shuttles on their return to Earth. The two take cryonics equipment allowing the Rourkes, Paul, and Natalia to survive the impending climatic catastrophe. Almost all life on the Earth's surface is wiped out, with Varakov dying in Chicago. Rozhdestvenskiy, searching for Rourke in Georgia, dies in a climactic shootout with him, even as the world's atmosphere ignites above them.

Having planned a five hundred year cryogenic sleep to await the returning Eden Project shuttles, Rourke awakens Annie and Michael early, raising them until their late teens. He then returns himself to cryogenic suspension so they'll be adults by the time that he and the others awaken. Michael explores the post-apocalypse world, finding tribes of cannibals surrounding a pre-war fallout shelter where the occupants rigorously maintain a limited population, sending excess workers outside to die.

The Eden Project (an international project) returns and lands in Georgia at a makeshift runway created by the Rourkes and they form a colony there. The Soviet Union has survived in massive underground shelters and continues their conflict with the Rourke family across the globe. Nazi Germany also survived in an underground shelter in South America but the Nazi regime is overthrown through the efforts of Rourke and his family. The now democratic German colony become staunch allies of Rourke. Iceland's inhabitants survived in hollow volcanoes and join the Rourke family in their battles. A particularly dramatic book, Mid-Wake, details how the United States survived in an underwater colony in the Pacific. A Soviet colony nearby also survived and both colonies have continued the war over the last five centuries. The Chinese survived in three underground cities and become involved in battles as well. The books end with an alliance of the freedom-loving states defeating the evil regime states and peace returning to the Earth.

Wealthy James U. Sperling approaches Nero Wolfe to investigate Louis Rony, an admirer of Sperling's younger daughter Gwenn. Sperling wants Wolfe to find evidence that Rony is a member of the American Communist Party. Wolfe is reluctant since he believes Rony has connections to “Z”, a shadowy criminal mastermind who has crossed Wolfe's path before. Nevertheless, Archie Goodwin is dispatched undercover to Sperling's Westchester estate to see if he can discover any grounds to convince Gwenn to break off the relationship.

Present at Sperling's estate are his family, including his wife, his son and two daughters; Rony himself; Paul Emerson, a controversial conservative radio commentator who is sponsored by Sperling's corporation; and Webster Kane, an economist and friend of the family. Madeline, the eldest daughter, reveals that she is aware of Archie's true identity, having read about his exploits with Wolfe and nursed a crush on him. That night, Archie plans to drug Rony, but when he switches drinks he discovers that Rony's drink was already spiked.

The next night, Archie offers to drive Rony back to New York, but instead arranges for Wolfe's operatives, Saul Panzer and Ruth Brady, to pose as robbers and waylay them. Once Rony is knocked unconscious, Archie searches him and discovers a membership card for the Communist Party under the name of William Reynolds. Returning to New York, Archie learns from Wolfe that “Z” has given Wolfe a deadline to withdraw from the case. After the deadline passes, the greenhouse on the roof of Wolfe's house is attacked with machine-gun fire, destroying many of the orchids there.

Wolfe meets with Sperling and his family and explains that while he cannot necessarily prove that Rony is a Communist, he can prove that Rony is a member of “Z”’s criminal organisation, but it is Gwenn’s decision whether he is to proceed. That night, while everyone is awaiting it, Gwenn goes missing, prompting Archie and Madeline to search the grounds for her. Gwenn is found and reveals that she has contacted Rony and asked him to meet with her so that she can break off their relationship. Following this, Archie discovers Rony’s body; he has been hit by a car and moved into bushes away from the estate’s driveway.

When investigators arrive, evidence is found on Wolfe’s car that it was the one used to run over Rony, and therefore Archie is suspected. Then Webster Kane steps forward, claiming to have borrowed Wolfe’s car the previous night and to have accidentally run over Rony in the dark. Satisfied by Kane’s confession, the investigators prepare to rule Rony’s death an accident, but when Sperling attempts to pay Wolfe off, Wolfe becomes convinced that Kane’s confession is false and determines to discover what really happened.

Later, an anonymous package arrives at Wolfe's house, containing $50,000 cash by way of reparation from “Z”. But on his weekly radio broadcast, Emerson ridicules Wolfe and his investigation and Archie is sent to the Sperling estate to locate evidence that Rony was struck down before being run over. There Archie discovers a stone that is later proved to be the weapon. Wolfe now contacts Lon Cohen, the city editor of the Gazette, and puts a plan into action.

Over the next three days, with information provided by a secret contact, Archie drafts and submits a series of reports detailing confidential meetings of the Communist Party, which are then published in the ''Gazette''. Wolfe subsequently meets two senior party officials and convinces them to aid him by identifying the man they know as William Reynolds, against whom Wolfe has fabricated evidence to suggest that he is the informant to the papers.

Now Wolfe gathers the suspects and pressures Webster Kane to refute his previous confession. Once he has done so, the party leaders arrive to expose Kane as William Reynolds. It emerges that Kane fabricated the earlier confession of accidental manslaughter in order to avoid being suspected of murder after Rony had discovered that he was secretly a Communist. For payment, Wolfe demands that Sperling end Paul Emerson's contract, thus forcing Emerson off the air. “Z” calls Wolfe to congratulate him on solving the case and sends another package to offset Wolfe's expenses. The money is set aside as an emergency fund to be used should they ever have to face “Z” head-on from hiding.

Walter Gilman, a student of mathematics and folklore at Miskatonic University, rents an attic room in the "Witch House", a house in Arkham, Massachusetts that is rumored to be cursed. The house once harboured Keziah Mason, an accused witch who disappeared mysteriously from a Salem jail in 1692. Gilman discovers that, for the better part of two centuries, many of the attic's occupants have died prematurely. The dimensions of Gilman's attic room are unusual and seem to conform to a kind of unearthly geometry. Gilman theorizes that the structure can enable travel from one plane or dimension to another.

Gilman begins experiencing bizarre dreams in which he seems to float without physical form through an otherworldly space of unearthly geometry and indescribable colors and sounds. Among the elements, both organic and inorganic, he perceives shapes that he innately recognizes as entities which appear and disappear instantaneously and at random. Several times, his dreaming-self encounters bizarre clusters of "iridescent, prolately spheroidal bubbles", as well as a rapidly changing polyhedral-figure, both of which appear sapient. Gilman also has nightly experiences involving Keziah and her rat-bodied, human-faced familiar, Brown Jenkin, which he believes are not dreams at all. In other dreams, Gilman is taken to a city of the "Elder Things" and even brings back evidence that he has actually been there—a miniature statue of an "Elder Thing" which he breaks off from a balustrade within the city. The statue is made of unknown materials and a strange kind of alloy.

Gilman's odd experiences seem to escalate as he dreams that he signs the "Book of Azathoth" under the commands of Keziah, Brown Jenkin, and the infamous "Black Man." Gilman is later taken to Azathoth's throne at the "Center of Chaos" by this group and is forced to be an accomplice in the kidnapping of an infant. He awakes to find mud on his feet and the news of his involved kidnapping in the city's newspaper. On Walpurgis Night, Gilman dreams that both Keziah and Brown Jenkin are sacrificing the kidnapped child in a bizarre ritual. He thwarts Keziah by strangling her, but Brown Jenkin bites through the child's wrist to complete the ritual and escapes into a triangular abyss. As he awakens, Gilman hears an unearthly sound that leaves him deaf. He tells fellow boarder Frank Elwood his horrific story. The next night, Elwood suddenly witnesses Brown Jenkin eating its way out of Gilman's chest.

The landlord soon abandons the house and evicts his tenants. The house is condemned by the building inspector. Later, a gale wrecks the roof. Workmen sent to raze the building years later find Keziah's skeleton and her books on black magic. A space between the walls is found filled with children's bones, a sacrificial knife and a bowl made of some metal which scientists are unable to identify. A strange stone-statuette of the star-headed "Elder Things" from Gilman's dreams is also discovered. These items are put on display in Miskatonic University's museum, where they continue to mystify scholars. The skeleton of an enormous deformed rat with hints of human or primate anatomy is soon discovered within the attic's flooring; this baffles academia and disturbs the demolition workers so greatly that they light thanksgiving candles within a nearby church in celebration of the creature's demise.

In post-nuclear Alaska, a fascist group ("The Ownership" also featured in ''Wheels of Fire'') battles rebels in hopes of possessing a massive weapon—the "Equalizer 2000" of the title, created by ex-Ownership Captain Slade who joins the rebellion to defeat Mayor Lawton. Lawton killed Slade's father (The Ownership's field commander) and he also wants to kill General MacLaine, The Ownership's leader, to be the new leader.

The story begins with Detective Malone describing an on-duty incident in Red Hook, Brooklyn, that gave him a phobia of large buildings. Back-tracking to where it all began, the Brooklyn waterfront slum Red Hook is described in detail, with its gangs and crime, and hinting at an occult underbelly.

The "case of Robert Suydam" is then told to be the driving force behind Malone's federally ordered involvement at Red Hook. Suydam's demeanor changes suddenly. Known as a shabby recluse, he is seen around town looking younger and more radiant. News arrives of his engagement to a well-to-do woman, while, at the same time, there is an increase in local kidnappings. A police raid, involving Malone, uncovers nothing useful from Suydam's Red Hook flat save a few strange inscriptions.

After Suydam's wedding, he and his bride leave on a ship. Aboard, a scream is heard and, when the crew enter Suydam's stateroom, they find him and his wife dead, with claw-marks on his wife's body. Later, some strange men from another ship come on board and lay claim to Suydam's body.

Malone enters Suydam's flat to see what he can find. In the basement, he comes across a door that breaks open and sucks him inside, revealing a hellish landscape. He witnesses human sacrifices and a ritual that reanimates Suydam's corpse. Malone is found in the basement of Suydam's flat, which has caved in inexplicably above him, killing everyone else inside. The tunnels and chambers uncovered in the raids are filled in and cemented, though, as Malone recounts, the threat in Red Hook subtly re-emerges.

Jaque is in a terrible situation after being caught having sex with the daughter of the dreaded businessman Oscar Cabos; his boss. The day after receiving the most savage beating of his life, Jaque is confronted by Mr. Cabos, who accidentally trips and loses consciousness. Jaque then asks his friend, Mudo, to aid him. Leaving Cabos in his office, a childhood friend that now works as the company's janitor, who was betrayed by Cabos then takes revenge by stealing and wearing Mr. Cabos' valuable clothes. When Jaque and Mudo arrive, Cabos is half naked and they take him to the bathroom while they decide what to do. When Cabos' former friend leaves the building to take his car, he is intercepted by two kidnappers who think he is Cabos, one of whom is actually his own son, who wanted to kidnap Cabos to make him pay for what he did to his father. Meanwhile, in the bathroom, Jaque and Mudo decide, in order to avoid a possible accusation to take Cabos with them and then decide what to do with him, so they flee with him in their car. While leaving the parking lot, they cross roads with the kidnappers, stopping on a street light. Both couples have a body in their respective trunks, and feeling nervous, they smile at each other in order to look casual. Then, they both go opposite directions. While driving, Jaque and Mudo get cut off the road by an impolite bus driver. They confront him in a mid-road stand off and insult each other; Jaque calls the driver "cross-eyed", which makes him remember his tumultuous past, being rejected by everyone, including his fiancé, for being cross-eyed. He gets very angry and rams his bus against Jaque's car and flees. The crash causes the trunk to get stuck, and as a consequence, they cannot get Mr. Cabos out of the car. To aid them, Mudo calls his friend, the legendary pro wrestler Ruben "Mascarita" (who hates being called Mascarita) and his sidekick, Tony "the Cannibal", a man-eating dwarf.

They then agree to go to a bar and there decide that the best plan is throw Cabos' body in his house, as a massive party is taking place that evening, and make him believe he drank himself to unconsciousness. After toasting for the plan to work, a rugby player in the bar recognizes "Mascarita" and calls him by that name. A huge fight "Santo" style takes place. While "Mascarita" takes away all of the students in the table, another group of students from a billiards table get mad and provoke him again. "Mascarita" prepares for more, but Tony stops him. "Mascarita" understands and tells Jaque and Mudo to leave with him and let Tony do his thing. They are seen outside the bar while noises and shouts are heard from inside. Tony then exits the places, spitting out a ring, taken from one of the students finger, thus explaining the nickname "Cannibal".

Meanwhile, the kidnappers arrive to a girl's house, leaving the abducted tied in a chair with a bag on his head. They now attempt to call Cabos' house and inform his wife that they have him and ask for ransom. However, the maid is confused about the call and hangs up repeated occasions. After the wife takes the phone, she interprets this as an excuse for her husband not to show up at the party, and hangs up again.

After being worn out from the bar fight, "Mascarita", Mudo and Jaque go to the latter's apartment to change clothes for the parties occasion. While Jaque is selecting a presentable shirt, Mudo and "Mascarita" are annoyed by the neighbor's bird and go to the door and complain. They stay a while waiting for an answer. Then Jaque's girlfriend arrives to argue with him for standing her up and not taking her to her father's party. Angrily, she leaves and takes Jaque's car (with Cabos still in it). When Mudo and "Mascarita" finally hear the neighbor's voice, Mudo flips out and starts screaming for him to shut his bird up. The neighbor then opens his door (after unlocking around five locks) and points two Tec-9's at each of their faces. He explains his emotional bondage with the bird and threatens them to not complain again. After that, Jaque tells them to get going.

Ironically, Jaque's girlfriend, Cabos' daughter, is also the kidnapper's ally's friend. She goes to her house and asks her to join her to her father's party. The kidnapper's leader then appears from their hideout and pretends to be her boyfriend, and the three go to Cabos' party.

In the party a series of mix-ups occur, resulting in the dumping of Cabos' friend by mistake and Cabos being left in Jaque's house. He then returns to his house, and finds his wife having sex with Tony. Tony escapes out the window. Cabos chases him and sees his friend lying in the yard, who wakes up to the sight of an angry Cabos and subsequently receives a golf club to the face.

While riding his bicycle in the Miskatonic Valley of rural New England, a genealogist seeks shelter from an approaching storm. He enters an apparently abandoned house, only to find it occupied by a "loathsome old, white-bearded, and ragged man", speaking in "an extreme form of Yankee dialect... thought long extinct." The narrator notices that the house is full of antique books, exotic artifacts, and furniture predating the American Revolution. At first, the old man appears harmless and ignorant towards his guest. However, he shows a disquieting fascination for an engraving in a rare old book, ''Regnum Congo'', and admits to the narrator how it made him hunger for "victuals I couldn't raise nor buy"- presumably human flesh. It's suggested that the old man was murdering travelers who stumbled upon the house to satisfy his "craving", and has extended his own life preternaturally through cannibalism. Soon, a now frightened narrator realizes the old man has been alive for over a century. Still, the old man denies he ever acted upon such a desire. Suddenly, a drop of blood falls from the ceiling, clearly coming from the floor above, and splashes a page in the book. The narrator then looks up to see a spreading red stain on the ceiling; this belies the old man's statement. At that moment, a bolt of lightning destroys the house. Fortunately, the narrator survives to tell of his ordeal.

Shortly into the Galactic Empire's rule, Imperial spies locate a Jedi survivor of the Great Purge named Kento Marek on Kashyyyk. Darth Vader arrives as the planet is invaded and eliminates any Wookie resistance between him and the fugitive Jedi. Reaching Kento’s home, Vader easily defeats him in a lightsaber duel but senses someone far more powerful nearby. Initially believing it to be Kento’s Jedi Master, Vader prepares to execute the defiant Jedi until his lightsaber is suddenly force pulled from his hand by Kento’s son Galen. Sensing the boy’s strong connection to the Force, Vader proceeds to kill Kento and an Imperial squadron after they try to execute Galen and secretly takes him as his secret apprentice with only a select few knowing of his existence.

Years later, an adult Galen (given the alias "Starkiller") completes his Sith training. He is sent by Vader to eliminate several Jedi survivors across the galaxy in preparation for assassinating the Emperor so that the two of them can rule the galaxy together. Starkiller travels aboard his personal ship, the ''Rogue Shadow'', alongside training droid PROXY (who is programmed to try and kill Starkiller) and Imperial pilot Juno Eclipse. Starkiller's targets include Rahm Kota, a Clone Wars veteran and leader of a militia; Kazdan Paratus, insane after years of isolation on Raxus Prime; and Shaak Ti, who is hiding on Felucia. As they duel, Kota senses that Vader will not always be Starkiller's master and that he will be part of his future before being blinded with his own lightsaber and falling to his seeming death. Before she dies, Shaak Ti warns Starkiller that he will eventually be betrayed by Vader. His final mission complete, Starkiller is summoned by Vader as the Emperor arrives. Vader then swiftly impales Starkiller, and at the Emperor's insistence, hurls his apprentice through a window into space to prove his loyalty.

Unbeknownst to the Emperor, Vader has Starkiller recovered and resuscitated. Vader sends Starkiller to foster a rebellion among the Empire's enemies, as part of his plan to create the proper conditions to overthrow the Emperor. Starkiller rescues Juno, who had been arrested and branded a traitor to the Empire, and escapes with her and PROXY. Looking for allies to aid his mission, Starkiller finds an alive Kota on Cloud City, rendered blind and reduced to alcoholism, and rescues him from Imperial forces.

The group travels to Kashyyyk to locate Kota's contact, senator Bail Organa. Starkiller discovers his old home and meets his father's spirit, who expresses remorse for Starkiller's upbringing under Vader. To gain Bail's trust, Starkiller rescues his captive daughter Princess Leia Organa, and liberates the enslaved Wookiees at her request. Starkiller learns from Kota that Bail went missing on Felucia, after searching for Shaak Ti in the hope she would rescue Leia. Starkiller travels to Felucia to find Bail, discovering he had been captured by Shaak Ti's former apprentice Maris Brood, who succumbed to the Dark Side after her master's death. Starkiller defeats Brood but spares her life, and convinces Bail to join the rebellion.

To convince more dissidents to do the same, Vader suggests that Starkiller attack a Star Destroyer facility on Raxus Prime to show that the Empire is vulnerable. Juno learns Starkiller is still serving Vader and chastises him, but agrees to keep silent. On Raxus Prime, Starkiller is attacked by PROXY, who attempts to fulfill his programming by killing him, but Starkiller defeats him, destroys the facility, and pulls a falling Star Destroyer out of the sky using the Force. Bail meets with fellow senators Mon Mothma and Garm Bel Iblis on Corellia to formally organize a rebellion, only for Vader to arrive and arrest them and Kota. After overpowering Starkiller, Vader reveals that he was merely a tool to lure out the Empire's enemies, and had never intended to use him to overthrow the Emperor. Starkiller escapes after PROXY sacrifices himself by attacking Vader.

Juno rescues Starkiller, who uses the Force to see that Kota and the senators are being held on the Death Star. After bidding farewell to Juno, Starkiller battles his way through the station to reach the Emperor's throne room. Vader confronts him, but Starkiller defeats his former master and faces the Emperor, who tries to goad him into killing Vader so Starkiller can take his place. Kota tries to attack the Emperor, but is subdued with Force lightning. At this point, the player must choose between saving Kota (Light Side) or killing Vader (Dark Side).

• If the player chooses the Light Side, Starkiller defeats the Emperor, but spares him at Kota's urging. The Emperor unleashes Force lightning at Kota, but Starkiller absorbs it, sacrificing himself to allow Kota and the senators to escape on the ''Rogue Shadow''. The Emperor and Vader become concerned that Starkiller has become a martyr to inspire the newly-formed Rebel Alliance. On Kashyyyk, the senators proceed with the rebellion and Leia chooses Starkiller's family crest as their symbol. Kota tells Juno that among Starkiller's dark thoughts, Juno herself was one bright spot that he held onto right until his death.
• If the player chooses the Dark Side, Starkiller kills Vader and is congratulated by the Emperor, who commands him to kill Kota to sever his ties to the Jedi and become a Sith Lord. Starkiller instead attacks the Emperor, who foils his attempt and then crushes him with the ''Rogue Shadow'', severely injuring Starkiller and killing Juno, Kota, and the senators. Starkiller later awakens to find his body being grafted with armor to continue serving the Emperor, though he assures Starkiller that he will be replaced once he finds a new apprentice just as Vader before him.

Downloadable content

Three downloadable content (DLC) levels for the game were released. The first one is set during the events of the main story and explores more of Starkiller's background, while the second and third ones expand upon the non-canonical Dark Side ending of the game, taking place in their own alternate timeline.

The Coruscant DLC depicts Starkiller, at some point before traveling to Kashyyyk, deciding to visit the abandoned Jedi Temple to learn more about his identity and connection to the Force. After fighting his way past the Imperial security forces, he reaches the old Council Chambers, where he meets Kento Marek's spirit who tells him that he needs to pass three Jedi trials. Upon doing so, Starkiller is faced with a mysterious Sith warrior, revealed to be a dark reflection of himself created by his own fear. Following his defeat, Starkiller finds a holocron left by Marek, who reveals himself as his father and implores him to return to the light side. Starkiller then returns to the ''Rogue Shadow'' to resume his current mission.

The Tatooine and Hoth DLC's are set during alternate depictions of ''A New Hope'' and ''The Empire Strikes Back'', respectively, and present Starkiller as the Emperor's trusted assassin, referred to as "Lord Starkiller". In the Tatooine DLC, he is tasked with retrieving the Death Star plans stolen by the Rebel Alliance, which have been tracked to Tatooine. He visits Jabba the Hutt, who has knowledge on the plans' whereabouts, revealing they are in the possession of two droids at Mos Eisley. When Starkiller refuses to work for him, Jabba attempts to have Starkiller eaten by his rancor. Killing the beast, Starkiller escapes from Jabba's palace after massacring Jabba's mercenaries, including Boba Fett. At Mos Eisley, Starkiller kills Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi after a duel which allows the droids to board the ''Millennium Falcon'', though Starkiller manages to place a tracking device on the ship before it takes off.

In the Hoth DLC, Starkiller partakes in the Battle of Hoth, where the Empire attacks the weakened Rebel Alliance's base. During the battle, Starkiller infiltrates the base with orders to capture Luke Skywalker, who had begun training as a Jedi. Starkiller finds and defeats Skywalker in the base's hangar, severing his right hand. When the ''Falcon'' tries to take off, Starkiller seizes the ship with the Force while goading Skywalker to give into the Dark Side to rescue his friends. Skywalker attacks Starkiller with Force lightning, causing him to let go of the ship and congratulate Skywalker for embracing the Dark Side, planning to make him his apprentice the same way Vader did to him.

Someone breaks into Grim's trunk and releases his Mojo Balls, orbs of dark magic that infect anyone who touches them with supernatural rage, causing everyone in Endsville to senselessly fight each other. Following a suspicious trail of feathers, Billy, Mandy, Grim, and Irwin travel to various locations to simultaneously recover the Mojo Balls and look for clues as to who released them, defeating others infected by mojo rage along the way.

After being led back to Billy's house, the group recovers the last of the mojo from the brain-eating meteor that crashes in his backyard. The others then discover that Billy was the one who opened Grim's trunk hoping to free "Moe and Joe"; a curse Grim had put on the trunk as a failsafe measure had caused Billy to begin sprouting chicken feathers, which he had been leaving a trail of so he would not get lost. Everyone is infuriated at Billy, and Mandy breaks the fourth wall to express hope that the game includes a mode where they can all beat him up. The player is then able to control Mandy and attack Billy for the duration of the game's credits sequence.

Lisa is facing 30, is three months away from ending her acrimonious divorce from Bryan, and is constantly rebuffing her child psychologist/writer mother, who questions her daughter's life decisions. Marc, in between plugging his successful novel '''''Goombah''''', is a star professor at the State College of New Jersey, which is poised to become a university. Nina and Tim Simon, a mixed couple and mutual friends, attempt to bring Lisa and Marc together at a party in Montclair, New Jersey on the very night that an Italian mob in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn murders Yusuf Hawkins, a Black teen.

Nina and Tim have their matchmaking work cut out for them. Lisa and Bryan constantly wrangle over community property. Lisa, by some registration fluke, winds up in Marc's class. A.J., Lisa's militant friend, drives Lisa incessantly to prove her Blackness. Marc receives word that Michele, his ex-wife, is about to remarry, forcing him to re-evaluate his feelings for her. Demonstrations and hate crimes plague the campus and stress the college's chancellor, who is fixated on seeing the college become a university. All these activities are interwoven with the charged political context of the New York City mayoral race, which ends in Democratic Party (United States) candidate David Dinkins beating Republican Party (United States) candidate Rudy Giuliani to become the city's first Black mayor.

When Lisa and Marc finally do become a couple, interpersonal conflicts, along with racist and prejudiced family and friends, an ambitious college chancellor, Michele, and a showdown at Lisa's job threaten the union. Lisa, stressed, crashes her car on her way home and lapses into a coma. A bedside vigil ensues. Bryan agrees to the terms of the divorce. Marc decides to take a fellowship in San Diego. Lisa's mother rushes to her.

Lisa regains consciousness. She and her mother come to an understanding. On his way out of town, Marc visits Lisa, and they negotiate their way to love. On the way to San Diego, they marry in Las Vegas. Lisa is on the balcony overlooking La Jolla Cove at sunset. Marc returns home, and Lisa informs him that the EPT stick has turned blue...

Cyril Orchard, the publisher of the weekly horse racing sheet ''Track Almanac,'' is poisoned with cyanide during a live soft drink commercial on a popular radio talk show. A media sensation, the case attracts the attention of Nero Wolfe, who is facing a crippling income tax bill, and Archie Goodwin is dispatched to convince the producers and sponsors to hire Wolfe to investigate the crime. The police have identified several suspects, including the show's host Madeline Fraser; her business manager, friend and former sister-in-law Deborah Koppel; her on-air side-kick Bill Meadows; Tully Strong and Nathan Straub, representatives of the show's sponsors; script-writer Elinor Vance; Nancylee Shepherd, the head of Fraser's fan-club; and F.O. Savarese, an assistant professor of mathematics and the show's other guest.

Although his initial investigations seem unpromising, Wolfe eventually learns that a separate bottle of the beverage being advertised was provided for Fraser, identified with tape around the neck. When pressed, the producers admit that Fraser is unable to drink the beverage she was advertising because it gives her indigestion, and instead drinks iced coffee from the bottle instead. As the marked bottle was the one containing the poison, this suggests that Fraser was the intended victim instead of Orchard.

Wolfe passes this information on to Inspector Cramer, seeing this as an opportunity to claim his fee without further work. When the press -- prompted by Archie -- criticises him for his lack of effort, however, he is stung into further action but, to Archie's surprise, begins investigating a different murder. Beula Poole, the publisher of an independent political and economics journal, has been shot dead in her offices days before. Although there is no apparent connection between the crimes, Wolfe is skeptical that two independent publishers would be murdered within weeks of each other without any link. His investigations reveal that the magazines were in fact the front for a sophisticated blackmail operation which targeted its victims using the threat of slander to compel them to purchase subscriptions for a year. This, in turn, brings Wolfe into contact with Arnold Zeck, the shadowy and powerful criminal mastermind behind the operation, who warns Wolfe not to interfere in his affairs.

After the blackmail story is published Walter Anderson, the president of the soft drink company, tries to end Wolfe's investigations by paying him off and announcing that his company is withdrawing sponsorship from Fraser's show. With no further leads, Wolfe sends Archie to Fraser and her entourage with a fake letter implicating Elinor Vance in order to try and shake a response out of the suspects. During the meeting, Deborah Koppel dies after eating a piece of candy laced with cyanide. Discovering the letter on Archie, the police threaten to charge him with obstructing justice, but they are interrupted by a phone call from a rival radio station. Wolfe has announced that he knows the identity of the murderer and threatens to reveal it on-air that night.

To avoid humiliation, the charges against Archie are dismissed and Wolfe is permitted to reveal the identity of the murderer in his office. Once the suspects have arrived, Wolfe presses Anderson to reveal the reason he tried to terminate his contract with Wolfe and Fraser's show. Anderson had discovered that Madeline Fraser had received blackmail letters, and it is revealed that Fraser was being accused of murdering her husband years before. However, while the blackmail syndicate had previously created false claims about their victims to slander them, in this case they had unwittingly stumbled upon the truth – Fraser ''had'' in fact murdered her husband. Fraser murdered Orchard and Poole to conceal her secret, and Koppel when she began to suspect the truth. Fraser is arrested and charged with murder. The novel ends with Wolfe receiving a phone call from Zeck, congratulating him on solving the case — and warning him not to interfere in the crime lord's affairs.

Having come home after half of his squadron was killed during the Vietnam War, Sergeant Jack Stryker (portrayed by Brian Schulz), given an honorable discharge due to his injuries, attempts to get his life back together. Finding himself reunited with an old girlfriend, Sally (Cheryl Hausen) and his war buddies, he feels he may have successfully re-established his life. However, this happiness is quickly cut short when a murderous cult led by an enigmatic but unnamed Charles Manson-like figure, portrayed by director and writer Sam Raimi, comes into town to continue their rampage.

After Sally is tortured and Stryker and his compatriots find the cult torturing police officers near his house, they arm themselves up and decide to - as the trailer puts it - "break the laws of both God (the title is a reference to one of the Biblical Ten Commandments) and man" and fight back. What follows is a war between the two groups, ending in numerous deaths, including the cult leader's; the exchange between the cult leader and Stryker is as follows:

Cult leader: "I am Jesus Christ!

Stryker: "No, you're not — you're dead.

Upon which Stryker shoots Raimi's character in the chest, and he careens into a river, eventually being impaled on a motorcycle, and their brutal war is ended.

On location in San Fernando Valley

Jerry Ferro is turning 40 years old and leading a mediocre life. He works part-time in construction as a carpenter and part-time as a boxing instructor at a fitness center near Los Angeles. He drives a beat-up pickup truck and loses both the construction job and the woman in his life.

An amateur Golden Gloves boxer long ago, Jerry is asked one day if he would be willing to spar with an up-and-coming fighter named Malice Blake. He takes a beating, but surprisingly lands a one-punch knockout. Due to his strong left hand, Jerry's boxing nickname was "The Hammer," though a running joke depicts people assuming the nickname describes Jerry's work as a carpenter.

He is noticed by Eddie Bell (played by real-life boxing coach Tom Quinn), a coach who will train boxers trying to qualify for the next Olympic Games. Bell invites him to come to the Olympic tryouts. Jerry is clearly too old and out-of-shape, so he is not interested. But his friend and co-worker Oswaldo Sanchez gives him encouragement, as does Lindsay Pratt, an attractive lawyer who works out at the gym and has caught Jerry's eye.

Jerry comes to the tryouts. He is mocked by Bell's top light-heavyweight contender, Robert Brown, which motivates Jerry to get into shape. He goes into serious training, loses weight and needles Brown, telling him there is "a new sheriff" in town in the light-heavyweight division.

What Jerry does not know is that Coach Bell privately sees Jerry as no more than a sparring partner and motivator for Brown, who is a legitimate Olympic candidate but who has a weakness against hard-hitting left-handers like Jerry. By falsely boosting Jerry's hopes, Bell can avoid paying him the usual $100 per day for a hired sparring partner.

Jerry drives team members to the first stage of the Olympic qualifying eliminations in Phoenix, where because of his age and lowly status he is immediately paired against the No. 1 contender. Coach Bell has gotten all he wanted out of Jerry and is so apathetic about the outcome that he deserts Jerry's corner in the middle of the bout. Motivated by the memory that he has never finished anything he ever started, Jerry scores a shocking knockout.

He and Brown both advance to the next round of the competition, to be held in Pasadena. When Brown learns that Coach Bell has lied to Jerry about his prospects, Brown begins to sympathize with Jerry and to bond with him as unlikely friends. Unfortunately, they will need to fight each other soon, with only one able to qualify for the Olympics.

On top of that, Lindsay has a job offer that would require her to move out of state. Jerry knows he has little future in boxing, no matter what happens next, so he needs to get his priorities straight as he and Brown head toward a showdown in the ring.

In the final round of the competition, Jerry and Brown go up against each other. Lindsay decides to stay in California. At the fight, right as Jerry is about to win and KO Brown, Jerry instead hugs him and lets Brown win. The film ends with all three at a party at their house and Jerry becoming Brown's trainer.

It is late 1598, shortly before the Battle of Noryang, the final confrontation of the Imjin War. The remnants of the Japanese invasion force are desperate to go home, but are also driven by personal motivation to beat their greatest adversary, Admiral Yi Sun-sin, once and for all. Self-serving Ming generals and Joseon officials also fear Yi's growing popularity and its impact on their personal base of power. These incidentally combining ambitions fan King Seonjo's paranoia and make him eventually fear that Yi might come after his throne, and after a series of what he calls acts of high treason, he decides to have Yi arrested.

Yi, on the other hand, is determined to teach the Japanese a lesson for the atrocities they committed on the Korean people, and despite orders to remain quiet while the Japanese are to pull out without anymore bloodshed, he rallies his naval force and prepares for the upcoming engagement. The battle commences and the Japanese are dealt a crippling blow, but Yi is fatally wounded by an arquebuse bullet. As he lies dying, the plot backtracks on the important events of Yi's life, from his boyhood to his military career, his efforts before and during the Japanese invasion, his disgrace at the hands of his king, and his reinstatement, back to the battle of Noryang, where he succumbs to his wound just as victory is declared.

Set in the Jewish ghetto of medieval Prague, the film begins with Rabbi Loew, the head of the city's Jewish community, reading the stars. Loew predicts disaster for his people and informs the elders of the community. The next day the Holy Roman Emperor signs a decree declaring that the Jews must leave the city before the new moon and sends the knight Florian to deliver the decree. Loew, meanwhile, begins to devise a way of defending the Jews.

Upon arriving at the ghetto, the arrogant Florian is attracted to Miriam, Loew's daughter, for whom his assistant also feels affection. Loew talks Florian into reminding the Emperor that he has predicted disasters and told the Emperor's horoscopes, and requests an audience with him. Having flirted with Miriam, Florian leaves. Loew begins to create the Golem, a huge being made of clay which he will bring to life to defend his people. Florian returns later with a request from the Emperor for Loew to attend the Rose Festival at the palace. He shares a romantic moment with Miriam while Loew reveals to his assistant that he has secretly created the Golem and requires his assistance to animate it. In an elaborate magical procedure, Loew and the assistant summon the spirit Astaroth and compel him, as per the ancient texts, to say the magic word that will bring life. This word is written on paper by Loew which is then enclosed in an amulet and inserted onto the Golem's chest. The Golem awakes, and the Rabbi initially uses it as a household servant.

When Loew is summoned to the palace for the festival, he brings the Golem with him to impress the audience. Florian, meanwhile, slips away from the court to meet Miriam, whose house is being guarded by Loew's assistant. Back at the palace, the court is both terrified and intrigued by the arrival of the Golem. Impressed, the Emperor asks to see more supernatural feats. Loew projects a magical screen showing the history of the Jews, instructing his audience not to laugh or even speak. Upon the arrival of Ahasuerus, the Wandering Jew, the court begins to laugh and the palace suddenly begins to crumble. At Loew's order, the Golem intervenes and props up the falling ceiling, saving the court. In gratitude, the Emperor pardons the Jews and allows them to stay.

Loew and the Golem return to the ghetto, spreading the news that the Jews are saved. Loew returns to his house and begins to notice erratic behaviour in the Golem. After managing to remove the amulet, he reads that upcoming astrological movements will cause Astaroth to possess the Golem and attack its creators. Loew is called down by his assistant to join in the celebrations in the street. As the community rejoices, the assistant goes to inform Miriam but finds her in bed with Florian. Devastated, he reanimates the Golem and orders it to remove Florian from the building, but the Golem, now under Astaroth's influence, literally does so by throwing Florian from house's roof, killing him. Horrified, the assistant and Miriam flee, but the Golem sets fire to the building, and Miriam falls unconscious.

Loew's assistant rushes to the synagogue to alert the praying Jews of the disaster, but upon their arrival at Loew's house, they find that it is burning, and both the Golem and Miriam are missing. Despaired, the community begs Loew to save them from the rampaging Golem. Loew performs a spell that removes Astaroth from the Golem. Promptly, the Golem, who is wandering the ghetto causing destruction, leaves Miriam, whom he has been dragging by the hair through the streets, lying on a stone surface, and heads towards the ghetto gate. He breaks the gate open and sees a group of little girls playing. They all flee except for one, whom he picks up, having now a docile nature. Out of curiosity, she removes the amulet from the Golem; it drops her and collapses, unconscious. Loew finds Miriam, who awakes shortly after. Happily reunited, they are awkwardly joined by Loew's assistant, who informs him that the Jews are waiting for him by the gate. After Loew has left, the assistant promises Miriam that he will never tell anyone of her forbidden affair with Florian and asks for forgiveness for his actions in return. The Jews meanwhile gather at the gate to find the dead Golem. Rejoicing and praying, they carry it back into the ghetto, the Star of David appearing on the screen as the film ends.

The setting is Argentina. El Nene (Leonardo Sbaraglia), a petty thief, and Angel (Eduardo Noriega), a drifter, meet in the toilets of a Buenos Aires subway station, and from that moment they are inseparable. They become known as "the twins", but their relationship is in fact that of lovers and, soon, as partners in crime. At a point when their relationship is already turning difficult, the plot sets in.

Their love and loyalty to each other is tested when "the twins" join a plan to hold up an armored truck together with a group of seasoned gangsters: their swaggering straight cohort Cuervo (Pablo Echarri), a sedative addict who's been carrying on an affair with the luscious Vivi (Dolores Fonzi); a 16-year-old nymphet; the trio's boss Fontana (Ricardo Bartis); and the elderly lawyer Nando (Carlos Roffé), who is past the days of any professional illusions and helps make connections to find a good team for the crime.

Angel is wounded by police gunfire during the robbery, provoking Nene to kill all of the guards and police in a fit of rage. Two police officers are among the victims, and so the police of Buenos Aires start a major search for the culprits. They soon find a lead to Vivi's apartment, where the gang had been hiding out, but by this time, all except Vivi have escaped to neighboring Uruguay. The police force Vivi to give away their plans, and the search is broadened to Uruguay.

Meanwhile, the gang needs to wait for new passports (to be arranged by a dubious character played by Héctor Alterio) for their escape from Uruguay.

They take refuge in an empty apartment in Montevideo, but the organisation of the documents takes longer than originally planned. The waiting is especially hard on Nene: Angel—who is described as constantly "hearing voices" and seems to suffer a slight form of schizophrenia—has been rejecting intimate contact with Nene since at least the beginning of the escape, for reasons indirectly connected with his condition.

Nene eventually decides to break curfew and "get some air", and he, Angel, and Cuervo go and enjoy themselves at a fair. That evening outside of the apartment is not their last though, partly because Angel continues to reject any contact and does not even speak to Nene anymore.

On one evening, Nene ends up verbally and sexually abusing another gay man, but finally he meets the prostitute Giselle (Leticia Brédice) and starts a relationship with her, even mentioning a solo escape with her.

When Nando is caught by the police, the group is forced to abandon their refuge. Fontana goes off on his own, but Nene brings Angel and Cuervo to hide out in Giselle's apartment before they leave the city at night.

Angel had sensed that Nene had been cheating on him, and he soon understands where Giselle fits in. Before it can come to a fight, however, he also hears from Giselle that Nene still cares for him and suffered from his rejection. Giselle tells Nene that she has a cousin who lives near the border and she can arrange passage, but not for three men the police are after. She says that a couple, a man and a woman, will be able to get across easily. When she forces him to choose between her and Angel, he chooses Angel.

Nene tells Giselle that he will find her and kill her if she turns them in. Despite his threats, Giselle goes straight to the police to turn in the gang. Before the group takes to their heels, police have already surrounded the building. At first, the trio believes they will be able to escape, thinking that the police will not endanger the haul (several million dollars) or the lives of a large number of policemen. In high spirits, the three of them set to defend the apartment and their freedom, while Nene and Angel rekindle their relationship and spend some short and erotic moments of mutual happiness. After the first wave of attacks, a contented Angel even says the "voices" he always heard have fallen silent.

The group soon finds out, however, that there is no way out. Cuervo dies in an attempt to sally, and Nene and Angel remain waiting for the next wave of police attacks on the apartment. Seeing that they can save neither their own lives nor the money, they burn the entire haul in a final outburst of ''joie de vivre.''

Finally, Nene catches a bullet and dies in Angel's arms. Angel still holds Nene and sends intermittent volleys of bullets in the direction of the approaching police. When the screen fades to black, the audience is left with the sound of the final fusillade of police machine gunfire, implying that Angel has committed suicide by cop.

In the summer of 1942, American Lieutenant Colonel Robert T. Frederick, a War Department staff officer with no prior combat or command experience, is summoned to Britain where he is selected by Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten to raise a commando force composed of both American and Canadian personnel for operations in German-occupied Norway.

Back in the U.S., Frederick arrives at the derelict Fort William Henry Harrison in Montana where he receives his American troops — all of whom are jailbirds, ne'er-do-wells, and misfits. When the hand-picked elite Canadian contingent arrives there is immediate friction with the Americans and chaos ensues. By the time Frederick manages to overcome the national differences and mold the First Special Service Force into a highly trained commando unit, he is informed that the Allied High Command have had a change of heart and offered the Norwegian missions to British Armed Forces troops. Left without a role, the brigade is ordered to be disbanded and its soldiers reassigned. Frederick remains undeterred and manages to persuade Lieutenant General Mark Clark to give his men a chance to prove themselves with a new mission in Italy.

Clark's skeptical deputy commander, Major General Maxwell Hunter, orders the 1st Special Service Force to reconnoiter a Wehrmacht garrison in an Italian town, but Frederick goes one better and captures the entire town. In the process, they earn the nickname "Die Teufelsbrigade" — The Devil's Brigade.

Convinced now of the ability of Frederick's men, Lieutenant General Clark promotes Frederick to full Colonel and gives them a task no other Allied troops have managed to accomplish — to capture Monte la Difensa. Facing severe obstacles, the Devil's Brigade attacks the undefended eastern side of the mountain by scaling a cliff the Germans believed could not be climbed. Reaching the top as a unit, they take the stronghold despite considerable losses, allowing the Allies to continue their advance north into Italy.

As the story opens, the fierce, barbaric empire of Atlantis is ruled by King Kron. His brother Thalok is high priest of the bloody state cult, which demands human sacrifices, hearts torn out in Aztec fashion. Kron’s wife has given birth to a daughter, who is called Astera and at this same time a beautiful blond woman is shipwrecked on the Atlantean coast. She dies after giving birth to a girl who grows up as the bosom companion to Astera. King Kron names the orphaned child Atla.

When the young women are about twenty years old, Prince Herekla of Cacara in Phoenicia invents the magnetic compass. Herekla derives the basic idea from Chinese merchants. King Kron recognizes the power of Phoenicia, and is willing to betroth his daughter to Herekla. Herekla comes to Atlantis to accept his bride. Love, however, does not honor contracts, for Herekla and Atla fall in love. Astera, in turn, falls in love with Zemar, the virtuous son of the vile, ruthless priest Thalok.

Thalok, who has long lusted for the throne and the gorgeous blond Atla, murders Kron, usurps the crown, and is about to start his persecutions. But as the four lovers flee Atlantis in various ways (agreeing to meet at the island of Surchi), Atlantis sinks beneath the sea. Thalok, in pursuit of the refugees, is killed by a poisonous serpent, the pet of an amorous sorceress-lover he had discarded.

The lovers now pair off. Zemar and Astera go to found a new Atlantis in the west, presumably Central America, while Herekla and Atla make their way to Phoenicia. As a Magian explains, when moral virtue is dead, physical changes take place, with catastrophe the result. This is why Atlantis sank.

Category:1886 American novels Category:1886 fantasy novels Category:American fantasy novels Category:Atlantis in fiction Category:Harper & Brothers books Category:Phoenicia in fiction

''Eagle'' takes place during the 2000 presidential election. Some of the characters are entirely original, such as Senator Kenneth Yamaoka (D-NY) (ケネス・ヤマオカ ''Kenesu Yamaoka'') and the series protagonist, Japanese journalist Takashi Jo (城 鷹志 ''Jō Takashi''). Others are fictionalized depictions of real people, such as campaign advisor George Tuck (based on Dick Tuck), Democratic Vice-President Al Noah (based on Al Gore), and the current president Bill Clayton (ビル・クライトン ''Biru Kuraiton'', based on Bill Clinton), who hails from Arkansas, has faced multiple scandals, and has a politically ambitious wife named Ellery Clayton (エラリー・クライトン ''Erarī Kuraiton'', based on Hillary Clinton).

Mr Dingle (John Mills) seeks to interest his pupils in music in order to enjoy life, while the new strict headmaster, Mr Frome (Cecil Parker),believes Dingle is ruining the children's traditional education.

Mr Dingle's pupils come up with a way to raise money by playing to crowds in the street and persuade him to help them. When this fails they decide to jazz it up and bring in some younger kids to help. This initiative is a success and, with the help of one of the pupil's parents, they are able to buy new musical instruments. The total cost, £200, is to be paid in instalments of £2.10s. per week which Dingle personally signs for.

However, when Mr Dingle ends up on the front page of the local newspaper, the headmaster locks the instruments up. The pupils manage to get them out of the locked cupboards, rehearse and put them back without anyone noticing.

Mr Dingle takes a second job playing the piano in his local pub for £4 a week plus free beer. However, he is spotted by one of the teachers who reports him to Mr Frome, who sacks him for it. The children protest about Dingle's dismissal by organising a strike and a sit-in. Children from other schools also stand outside in protest.

Eventually, order is restored as Mr Frome relents and allows Mr Dingle to return. The children carry both out triumphantly to the tune of Top of the Form.

Mini 4WD racing is an interesting hobby where kids and adults compete using customized motorized miniature cars. Every year, competitions revolving around the hobby circulated around the world, where kids and adults test out their spirit and passion for racing, with companies developing new technologies and innovations for Mini 4WD cars. The story revolves around the competitive Seiba Brothers: Go and Retsu, who were once constantly arguing with each other to see who between them is the best racer. However, one day after a community-sponsored race they both met Dr. Tsuchiya, the head of the Tsuchiya Racing Factory who gave them two Mini 4WD Cars from the prototype Saber Series: Sonic Saber and Magnum Saber. With his advice to customize them for the upcoming race, they are now determined to win, race to victory and set off on the wildest race of their lives while meeting both friends and enemies in the Mini 4WD Racing world.

The street

As Wallace helps one of his young charges with their math homework, Poot shows up and asks him to return to work. Wallace refuses to leave his room and asks to borrow money from Poot, who begrudgingly obliges. Afterward, Poot reports his concerns about Wallace to D'Angelo, who wants to talk with him face-to-face. Meanwhile, at the Barksdale-run print shop, Stringer scolds the staff for not acting like professionals. Wee-Bey, Stinkum and Savino raid Omar's apartment and torch his van while he watches from his hiding place across the street. Later, they pick up D'Angelo, who mentions Orlando's proposition; the others tell him that he should talk to Avon. Orlando is berated and beaten by Avon for even considering getting involved in dealing.

The soldiers throw a party celebrating Stinkum's promotion, which will be official as soon as they kill a dealer named Scar and chase his crew off his corner. Before leaving to buy more alcohol, D'Angelo notices an extremely inebriated dancer named Keisha being held by Wee-Bey against his chest; he regards D'Angelo coldly before he takes Keisha into a bedroom and shuts the door behind him. When D'Angelo returns, he finds Keisha's naked corpse lying on a bed in the room where Wee-Bey took her. D'Angelo is slightly shaken, while Wee-Bey appears disturbingly unconcerned; it is implied Keisha died of an overdose after Wee-Bey drugged and raped her.

Later, Shardene asks D'Angelo about Keisha, and he tells her that she was sick when he last saw her. They discuss his future and she tells him that if he is unhappy, he should do something else. As Wee-Bey and Stinkum prepare to hit Scar's corner, they are ambushed by Omar; Stinkum is killed while Wee-Bey is wounded. Avon increases the bounty on Omar, but Stringer suggests luring him into the open with the promise of a truce.

The police

McNulty spots Stringer while taking his sons to Northeast Market and has them follow him. McNulty briefly loses sight of his sons, but they manage to write down Stringer's license plate number. Bunk disapproves of McNulty involving his sons in the operation. Meanwhile, Herc and Carver prepare for their sergeant's exam. Prez and Greggs ask them to tail the pit crew to see which phones they are using now. Based on information gleaned from the wire, they pull over Senator Davis's driver, Damien "Day-Day" Price, and find a bag full of cash in his car.

Because of Price's political connections, Burrell demands that his men return the money and tells Daniels he will shut down the detail. Daniels tells Marla that his superiors dislike wiretaps because they know that drug money ties into politics. He also complains that McNulty asked what Burrell has on him; she asks him what he said, and he doesn't reply. Phelan calls McNulty into his chambers and asks about Burrell's order, and they agree to the opposition involved with it. The judge then threatens Burrell with a contempt charge if the wiretap is terminated prematurely. Later, McNulty tails Stringer and discovers he is taking an economics class at Baltimore City Community College.

The detail learns through the wiretaps about Omar's murder of Stinkum. McNulty and Greggs bring in Omar, but he denies any involvement. While at the detail, Omar spots a photo linking Avon to Orlando's club. Omar is unapologetic about his actions and the detectives have to let him go. Later, Omar observes the club from the shadows. Greggs goes to Freamon with her concerns that she caused Omar to volunteer as an eyewitness; Freamon assures Greggs that justice will be served even without Omar, as the ballistics matched. They discuss dancers at the club and pick out Shardene as a potential informant.

Bunk tells McNulty that Ray Cole has been assigned the task of solving Stinkum's murder. McNulty tells Bunk that Omar was the shooter, and asks him to tell Cole that they will give him a closed case once their case is finished-but acknowledges that because of Omar's assistance he will not ultimately deliver him to Cole; both men regret the lie and go out drinking to soothe their consciences. They discuss the strange position of protecting Omar from the murder investigation. Bunk spots a woman he wishes to bed, and asks McNulty to cover for him with his wife. Later, McNulty is called by the woman to come and collect Bunk, who is so drunk that he decided to burn his clothes to destroy the evidence of his infidelity. McNulty brings Bunk home and deposits him in the empty bunk bed normally used by his sons. Bunk mumbles that McNulty is bad for the people around him before falling asleep.

Bubbles, clean for three days, meets with Walon at a park. Walon gives Bubbles some frank advice while telling him about how he became infected with HIV and infected his girlfriend. Avon and Stringer meet with Wee-Bey and tell him to contact Omar to negotiate a truce. Stringer convinces Avon to take a step back from the game and insulate himself further from his organization. Avon gives up his pager so that his subordinates will have to contact him through Stringer. McNulty visits Phelan, who seems to have lost his stomach for the Barksdale investigation. Pearlman later informs McNulty that Phelan has been cast off the mayor's re-election ticket.

D'Angelo ignores Donette as she plans out a home for their family, and walks out without giving her the money she is asking for. He waits for Shardene outside of Orlando's strip club, but she refuses to talk to him. Freamon traces the Barksdale stash to a payphone in Pimlico. Every time a resupply is needed, they page the same number and the return call comes from the same payphone. Carver and Sydnor are the only detectives available to watch the phone, as Herc is on a training course for the week. The next day, Santangelo identifies Little Man using the tower phone, and Sydnor soon finds the respondent. Freamon instructs Sydnor to follow the resupply man and tracks him to a suburban house. Later, Freamon organizes Sydnor and Prez to surveil the house as garbage men.

Orlando is arrested by narcotics cops when he tries to buy cocaine from an undercover officer, Troy Wiggins. He gives them Avon's name to try to avoid his charge and the detail gets involved. When Orlando is transferred to county jail, he is identified by Marvin Browning, a Barksdale crew member serving time, who phones in Orlando's whereabouts. Levy visits Orlando, but only to take his name off the club's liquor license; now that he has a record, Avon is severing their ties. Daniels suggests they could use Orlando in a buy-bust to move up the ladder. In a meeting with Burrell and Major Raymond Foerster, Daniels makes a case for waiting, but Burrell insists on a buy-bust. After working out that Wallace is squatting in the projects and tapping power from a vacant apartment, McNulty bribes Officer Bobby Brown and his partner with a case of beer and some crab cakes to wait for him to return home. Greggs informs McNulty that Omar has contacted her and needs medical care for his shoulder wound.

Wallace gives up Stringer, Wee-Bey, and several other tower soldiers in Brandon's murder. Afterward, Daniels and Pearlman decide to place him with his grandmother on the Eastern Shore, as there are no funds for protective custody. Later, Daniels drives Wallace to his new home and notices that he is in withdrawal. McNulty discovers that Elena has organized an emergency hearing to limit his visitation rights. The judge dismisses the suggestion and asks them to deal with the problem themselves. McNulty tries to convince Elena that he loves his family, but she reminds him that she has photographs of him meeting with Pearlman. While going out drinking with Cheryl and some friends, Greggs is asked how she knew she wanted to be a cop and tells the story of an adrenaline-fueled arrest. Cheryl looks uncomfortable throughout, but when Greggs acknowledges her misgivings, the two kiss.

Omar meets with Stringer to discuss a truce under Proposition Joe's supervision. Despite Omar wearing a wire, the detectives come away with little new information. Stringer does not deny a link to Brandon's murder but is quick to shield Avon's name from the discussion. When Stringer does not reject Omar's demand for $5,000, he realizes the truce is a trap and boards a bus to New York City. McNulty sees him off and asks him to keep in touch. Avon, Stringer, and Wee-Bey later discuss the meeting, while Shardene tries to listen in with little success. Bubbles meets with Greggs and asks for her help getting a place to stay clean; she agrees to give him some money the following day. With no other option, Daniels organizes a buy-bust and Greggs is sent in undercover as Orlando's girlfriend. Savino meets with Orlando and they drive to another location, with Greggs sitting in the back. However, the bust goes awry when Savino abandons the car and two gunmen open fire on the car, killing Orlando and wounding Greggs in the neck and chest.

The most important plot elements in all of the ''Cotton'' games are magical candies called Willows. In the previous and first installment of the series, ''Cotton: Fantastic Night Dreams'', the world had fallen into an endless night after an evil Demoness called Wool stole the 7 Willows that brought light to it. In desperation, the Fairy Queen Velvet dispatched a beautiful fairy named Silk to get the Willows back. Before long, Silk met up with Cotton, a witch who loved to eat Willows, and together, they defeated Wool and brought back the willows. Light returned to the world, and Cotton left on her own.

''Panorama Cotton'' s story begins when Silk's sister Knit comes to tell her that Queen Velvet has started saying things that do not make any sense. Later, the Queen reveals that she believes that the world is falling into chaos, and that she is the only one who can save it. She rides off on an animal called "Pinky" to save the day, and disappears before anyone can stop her. Perplexed, Silk and Knit deduce that a burnt Willow which recently turned up in the castle garden is responsible for the Queen's odd behavior. Apparently, monsters north of the kingdom have been burning any Willow they see. Before doing anything else, Silk immediately decides that she needs to get rid of the burnt Willow in the castle first.

Silk carries the burnt Willow far away, but before she can dispose of it, Cotton appears suddenly and snatches it from her. Not pausing for a moment to hear Silk's story, Cotton begins to eat the burnt Willow. However, she quickly spits it out, angry and disgusted. When Cotton discovers that someone is burning Willows, she vows that she won't let it continue. From there, Silk and Cotton set off on their new adventure.

According to the game's story, the first Speedball league (founded in 2095) fails due to violence and corruption. As the organisation gives rise to anarchy, the game is forced underground. But five years later, in an attempt to regain public interest, ''Speedball 2'' is born. The game starts in 2105 with the emergence of a new team, Brutal Deluxe.

As Quark ponders the large debts he has run up, his cousin Gaila arrives on the station and offers him a chance to pay them off by participating in an arms dealing scheme. Since Constable Odo will confiscate any actual weapons brought aboard Deep Space Nine, Quark will use the holosuites in his bar to simulate the weapons for potential customers. The merchandise will be supplied by Gaila's associate, the suavely sinister Hagath, and all transfers of cargo will occur off the station. Quark agrees to the deal, enticed by the prospects of settling his debts and even turning a profit. Hagath arranges for Quark's percentage of the proceeds to go immediately to his creditors until his debts are fully paid.

Quark is a natural at selling weapons and the scheme becomes quite profitable. The Bajoran government prevents Odo from arresting Quark, citing Hagath's sale of weapons to the Bajoran resistance during the Cardassian occupation. However, Quark soon finds himself ostracized by his friends, particularly Jadzia Dax, who is disgusted that Quark has sunk so low. Gaila warns Quark not to cross Hagath, bringing news that an associate who did so has been killed. The group's latest client is the Regent of Palamar, who wants to make a purchase that will kill millions of followers of his opponent, General Nassuc. Gaila and Hagath take the matter lightly, but Quark is horrified at the idea of being responsible for so much death.

Having now paid off his debts, Quark realizes he must find a way to escape with his life and avoid being part of a genocide program. He invites Nassuc to the station, on the pretense of supplying weapons to both sides, and arranges for Nassuc and the Regent to encounter each other in a cargo bay. A firefight ensues between the two leaders, and they pursue Gaila and Hagath off the station, believing the pair to be responsible for the double-cross. The Regent is later killed by Nassuc's forces, preventing his genocidal plan. Quark's friendship with Jadzia is renewed, but he ends up in debt once again when Captain Sisko makes him pay for the damage caused by the firefight.

Meanwhile, O'Brien has trouble caring for his new son Kirayoshi, who cries incessantly unless O'Brien holds him. He carries Yoshi around all day, even at work and while playing darts in the bar. The baby finally settles down when Worf holds him, allowing O'Brien to get some much-needed rest.

New York drug dealer Monty Brogan is arrested for drug possession with intent to sell, and sentenced to seven years in prison. He spends his last night of freedom with two friends, contemplating his uncertain future and the decisions he made that brought him to this point.

''Armed & Delirious'' tells a surrealist story about the Crotony family, who torture animals. The family is targeted by the Great Rabbit, one of their escaped captives, who kidnaps them and steals Granny Crotony's cookbook. Granny then seeks to defeat the Great Rabbit, rescue her family and retrieve her cookbook.

While "joy-hunting" together in Canada, Wild Thing is shocked when her father Wolverine is kidnapped in front of her eyes. Elsewhere across the world, one of the Ladyhawk sisters is abducted as well. These events get the attention of the Watcher Uatu.

After the first appearances of the original Fantastic Four, and the defeat of Loki which caused the creation of the first group of Avengers, a new line of heroes have emerged in a possible future timeline. These heroes now form the groups of A-Next and the Fantastic Five (F5), while other heroes such as Spider-Girl, the Green Goblin, and Darkdevil remain solo.

At the Avengers Compound, the headquarters of A-Next in the future, the young heroes are busy being trained by Captain America. At a local hospital, Iron Man has just visited a still comatose Scarlet Witch. After leaving her room, he hears noises in it, and when he re-enters it, she has been kidnapped as well.

At her home, young May "May Day" Parker, alias Spider-Girl, is busy taking care of her baby brother Ben, while being watched over by her parents Peter Parker and Mary Jane. After that, she leaves for school.

Meanwhile, the Thing of the F5 walks over the main streets of the city, when they suddenly start to crumble. Ben realizes he is in danger and sets off an alarm to alert his teammates.

Peter later discusses recent events with Phil Urich, alias Green Goblin. They are attacked by a gigantic robot which manages to abduct Peter. A panicking Phil contacts May about this. She, the Buzz, the other Ladyhawk and the Green Goblin dive into a tunnel that was created by the robot that kidnapped Peter. There, they meet up with all the members of A-Next who discovered the same tunnel earlier.

Meanwhile, somewhere else, an unconscious Peter is dragged by the robot into a dark realm.

An ancient Doctor Strange tries to gain the assistance of Doc Magus, but he prefers to work on his own. Doc Magus uses his astral form to scan the entire world for the missing heroes, which leads him to a dark cave. There, he is attacked by a dark entity that defeats and then kidnaps him as well.

At Avengers Compound, Captain America is exercising alone. Thunderstrike realizes Cap is feeling down because of his old age and promises him that he does not have to worry about it because A-Next will follow him anywhere. Cap and Thunderstrike are called to an A-Next meeting where they discuss possible villains who could be behind the kidnappings. They suspect: Kala, the Queen of the Underworld; Tyrannus, Master of the Subterraneans; Terrax the Tamer; the Living Lava Man; or Mole Man, the ruler of Monster Isle. They also inform the X-People of the situation, but Jubilee, their leader, decides that they work better on their own, causing J2 and Wild Thing to wonder why they ever bothered to try join the X-People; they are glad they decided to stay with A-Next. The team decides to split up to investigate the different possibilities.

At Barton's Dojo, American Dream and Freebooter discuss things with retired hero Hawkeye. Soon a crack in the ground is made and the heroes are kidnapped as well.

The Fantastic Five depart to Monster Isle, only to discover that the Mole Man is dead, and that a statue has been built in his honor.

Spider-Girl, Captain America and Thunderstrike learn about the kidnappings at Barton's Dojo. They jump into the hole together with J2 and Wild Thing. There, they discover a weird portal. After entering it, the heroes are immediately attacked by robot-like creatures and start to fight them. Soon the mastermind villain reveals himself to be Loki. He wants revenge on the Avengers, realizing he helped create them years earlier, and shows that he holds the missing heroes prisoner in life-size crystals.

Mary Jane fears for her husband's safety. Spider-Man returns home, but he seems different, and his eyes have turned completely evil, causing MJ even more fear.

Spider-Girl and the other heroes are still being attacked by the robot-like creatures. Cap and Thunderstrike are defeated and kidnapped, and Spider-Girl suggests she and J2 retreat while they can.

Meanwhile, in the city, Spider-Man confronts DarkDevil the hero he dislikes most. The two fight each other.

The Vision returns to the Avengers Compound where he finds Stinger discussing matters with Jubilee, who promises to contact them when she learns anything new. The Vision explains that he has arrived at the request of the President of the United States, G. W. Bridge, who believes that the kidnappings could threaten the nation. Jarvis arrives suddenly to inform the two that all of the missing heroes have mysteriously returned. Jarvis also alerts them to the Spider-Man/DarkDevil battle in midtown.

Captain America, Wild Thing and Thunderstrike are put in chains. Elsewhere in the caves, Loki manages to kidnap Nova as well. Loki injects Nova with a dark mist, which causes him to become evil and to side with him.

J2 and Spider-Girl return to the caves and set their teammates free. They later find Nova captured in the same crystals as before and set him free as well. Meanwhile, Loki has set up two sides of heroes against each other: the ones he kidnapped and turned evil against the unaffected heroes.

The heroes begin fighting each other: the Human Torch fights the Hulk, and his flames reveal some robotic body parts covering the Hulk. Hulk manages to defeat the Human Torch by throwing water over him. The Hulk is almost taken down by Psi-Lord and the other F5. Hulk still feels angry about being called "Banner" and Loki uses his magical influences to make the Hulk even angrier.

The Hulk uses his gigantic fists to punch the ground, which creates an earthquake throughout the city, destroying some buildings and, at the same time, defeating the F5. While some other heroes are injured along the way as well and are taken care off by medical staff, the others worry about what to do.

In Asgard, Thor and Captain America try to figure out what is wrong with the heroes. Discouraged and concerned about his performance, Cap determines he should limit his role in the matter.

Elsewhere in Thor's castle, the Vizier notices that Nova is acting strangely and senses that Nova has been turned evil. He uses his magic spells to bring Nova back to normal and plans to do the same with the other Earth heroes. Nova also remembers what happened to him and reveals to his teammates that Loki is behind everything.

Together, the Thing and Wolverine are battling the heroes, but Wolverine is stopped by Stinger and the Hulk. Thor transports himself and the others on Asgard back to Earth to confront the Hulk and the "evil" heroes.

Meanwhile, Spider-Girl's spider-sense warns her of a mysterious presence which she cannot see. Dormagus and the Vizier use their combined magic powers to make Loki reveal himself, and the heroes all fight each other. Captain America notices a gem hanging on Loki's neck, and smashes it with his shield. Loki apparently used this gem to help him turn the heroes evil. Once the gem is destroyed, the heroes, including the Hulk, revert to normal.

A furious Loki releases a deadly blast against Captain America, injuring him. Thor releases a blast from his hammer which will send Loki into Limbo forever and the Hulk decides to join him to make sure that Loki remains there.

Captain America dies, and Thor uses his hammer to grant Cap's soul immortality. The soul floats into the skies, and creates a shiny bright star in the form of Cap's shield, meant to inspire the heroes and future generations to come always.

Cunda (Kingsley) lives deep in the Brazilian rainforest and is intent on making enough money so he can marry a widow in his village. However, his trade - capturing snakes for scientists - pays very little money, and he is in direct competition with other suitors.

One day, Cunda is bitten by a snake, and he crawls to the river to recover. While going through the agonizing recovery, he has an hallucination of four chimpanzees sitting in the river. Recovered, he returns home and finds the four chimpanzees waiting for him, and his efforts to shoo them away fail. Knowing that chimpanzees are not native to Brazil, he decides that they are a kind of supernatural gift for him. Believing this, he decides to take them to "the city" to sell them.

The journey isn't easy from the start; he discovers that he can't tie them on a rope and drag them, and the only way is to coax them. They stumble into a gold-panning camp, where Cunda is forced to work in order to pay off an old debt. When one of the monkeys is taken as payment, Cunda must figure how to retrieve the monkey and escape. Later, he, the monkeys and the adults of a village are kidnapped by mercenaries. Cunda and the monkeys escape, along with a village woman who refuses to leave his side. Arriving at a small town, a confusing sequence results in one of the monkeys disappearing, and Cunda becoming the servant of the local rich woman who has taken it upon herself to take care of the monkeys. Cunda now has to solve these two problems, and deal with the fact of the village woman's attraction to him plus his growing fondness of the monkeys.

Story

King Glames leads denizens of the Dark World to conquer both Vecanti and Earth, seeking a home for his people before the destruction of his planet. Against this common foe, Yuko Asou fights together with Cham and Valna. Furthermore, the mystical Valis sword wielded by Yuko Asou is shown to be capable of more than what Yuko has accomplished with it thus far. During the course of the game, Yuko rescues Cham from kidnapped and Valna from captivity. Later, they visit the ruler of Vecanti, Nizetti, and unleashes the Valis blade's full potential, which culminates in a climactic battle between the three girls and Glames as well the returning antagonist from the first game, Rogles. Yuko defeats them both, and for her dutiful and unwavering service, she is permitted to step down from being a guardian and become a goddess in Vecanti, leaving Earth behind forever. The Valis sword retires to the heavens, and Vecanti prepares itself for prosperity, while Cham and Valna wave goodbye to Yuko as she departs to take on her new role.

Characters

Yuko Asou is the main character of ''Valis'' ''III'', a Japanese teenage schoolgirl chosen as the Valis warrior and keeper of the Valis sword. Of the three playable characters, she is the one with the most fighting strength, but is little weak in her magical abilities. Cham is the game's second character, a demon warrior-maiden born in the Dark World who wields a deadly whip. Her father, Lada, a baron of the Dark World, was killed by Glames for standing against the plan to invade Dreamland. Faced with this fact, she seeks revenge and initially tries to steal the Valis sword from Yuko. However, Cham and Yuko decide to fight together. Valna is Yuko's sister who grew up within Vecanti and the game's third character. She became strong in the ways of magic and carries with her a powerful magic staff. Valna has the most powerful magic of the three character, but it is the one with the least attack strength.

Antagonist Grimlord sends an arcade game to Tao's Dojo which ends up sucking protagonists Ryan Steele, J.B. Reese, and Kaitlin Star into Virtual Reality. To escape, they embark on a mission to defeat Grimlord's Skugs and monsters.

The film is set around 1938. During an auction, Mr. Boormans is put into a psychiatric hospital after he bid 32,000 Belgian francs for a worthless piece of paper. Frans Laarmans visits the psychiatrists claiming Boormans is not crazy and there is a story behind the bid.

When Laarmans's mother dies, the Laarmans family decides that Laarmans should pay for the embalming of her corpse. As he does not have the money, Laarmans visits Boormans, who is the publisher of the ''World Magazine for Finance, Trade, Industry, Art and Science'', a publication Boormans claims is sold worldwide and translated into many languages. He represents it as a reputable consumers' journal, comparing different companies in the same industry. Boormans informs Laarmans that, by coincidence, the next edition is about the funeral and undertaking industry.

Boormans visits the undertakers and a deal whereby his company will be featured in the magazine. The offer comes with two conditions, namely that in addition to the normal print and distribution, the undertaker must order a large number of copies for own purposes, and that the purchase of the magazines will be at a significant discount if the undertaker in turn gives Laarmans a discount for the embalming services. The undertaker agrees.

Boormans, who is looking for a new assistant, hires Laarmans and sends him out in search for new customers. Mrs. Lauwereyssen, the owner of a business in elevators, is interested. In addition to the copies of the magazine distributed by Boormans, she agrees to purchase a further 100,000 copies for own purposes.

Laarmans then finds out the "World Magazine" is a fraud, in that the magazine is not distributed to the public, but only the copies purchased by the featured company exist. The magazine does not have any subscribers and is, in effect, merely an expensive advertising brochure using unproven figures and fake competitors. Only the information of the customer is "valid", although it too is also based upon lies and twisted figures.

It turns out Mrs Lauwereyssen only placed the order as her company is almost bankrupt. She now hopes to become an international awarded entrepreneur. The extra money she is about to earn will be used for acute surgery on her infected leg. Laarmans feels sorry for Mrs Lauwereyssen and tries to convince her not to sign the contract or to reduce the amount of obliged prints, but is not able to convince her. Later he speaks with Boormans in an attempt to void the contract or to reduce the price and Boormans agrees that Mrs Lauwereyssen can pay the invoice on 12 month terms. In meantime Mrs Lauwereyssen is aware she has been swindled. She is so upset she refuses to pay last instalment.

Some time later, Boormans and Laarmans meet Mrs Lauwereyssen at the market. Her leg has been amputated. Boormans feels remorse and makes up tells her there has been a calculation error and offers 32,000 Belgian francs as a credit note. However, Mrs Lauwereyssen does not want to take the money. A dismayed Boormans decides to give the money to Mr Van Kamp, another customer he cheated, and who is now in financial problems. Van Kamp also refuses Boormans money.

Boormans conscience continues to trouble him and he sues Mrs Lauwereyssen in an attempt to force her to take the money. The judge dismisses the case as there is no evidence that Mrs Lauwereyssen paid too much. Some time later the elevator company becomes bankrupt.

When Boormans and Laarmans attend an auction, Boormans, still having moral qualms, bids 32,000 Belgian francs for a worthless piece of paper.

Laarmans resigns and starts a shop selling cheese. He meets Mrs Lauwereyssen who forgives him, as she feels that she should have known the magazine was a fraud. Furthermore, when she signed the contract she knew that her leg was not able to be saved and that an amputation was inevitable.

The film ends when Laarmans meets Boormans in a museum. Boormans intends to talk the curator into taking 1.5 million copies for the next release of the "World Magazine".

The game takes place in the Danger Room, a training area for the X-Men inside the X-Mansion. A virus transmitted via satellite has infected the Danger Room, disabling control and safety limits. The X-Men must endure the unpredictable behavior of the Danger Room until the virus can be located and eliminated. Once the virus is eliminated, the X-Men discover that Magneto is behind the computer virus and the final stage involves a battle with him.

Earth has been captured by Space Phantoms using magical forcefields. The only hope for Earth's survival is Mr. Smart, a rabbit like creature. Mr. Smart must travel from shield to shield while out-running the Space Phantoms in order to save the world.

Josh Mallon (Bing Crosby) and Ace Lannigan (Bob Hope) are best friends and work aboard the same ship. As their ship returns to the US after a long voyage, they see all the other sailors being mistreated by their wives and girlfriends, and the two friends pledge never to get involved with women again. Unfortunately, this vow is tested almost immediately. First, Ace is confronted by the family of a former lover, Cherry, who insist he marry her. Then Josh, who is the son of rich shipping magnate (Charles Coburn), has to fend off his fiancée, Gloria (Judith Barrett), and his father's wishes that he settle down and take over the family business. Things get worse when Josh and Ace get caught up fishing and turn up late for a party to celebrate Josh's engagement. Gloria's hostile drunken brother starts a fistfight and a news reporter takes photographs that cause a scandal. Josh and Ace flee to Hawaii and then head for Singapore.

However, the pair only get as far as the island of Kaigoon before their money runs out. They rescue Mima (Dorothy Lamour), a local (but not native) woman, from her abusive dance-partner, Caesar (Anthony Quinn), and she moves into their hut. Soon Mima is running the two men's lives, much to their chagrin. The trio try to make money in several different ways, including trying to sell a spot remover that is so bad it dissolves clothes.

When Josh's father finally locates his wayward son, he and Gloria fly out to bring Josh back to face his responsibilities. The resentful Caesar leads them to where Ace, Josh and Mima are enjoying a local feast. By this point, both Josh and Ace have fallen in love with Mima. She is heartbroken to learn that Gloria is Josh's fiancée.

Ace proposes to Mima, but before she can accept, Josh returns. The two friends almost come to blows over Mima, but then decide that she should choose between them. Mima picks Ace. Josh boards an ocean liner with Gloria and his father.

Meanwhile, Caesar informs the local police that Ace is on the island illegally. Ace is arrested when he cannot produce a passport, but manages to escape. He and Mima flee aboard a ship, but Ace comes to realize that Mima really loves Josh.

When Josh's ship docks at a tropical port, a passenger complains about a terrible spot remover that disintegrated his suit jacket. Josh realizes that Ace and Mima must be on the island. When he finds them, Ace tells his best friend that Mima really loves him.

The film starts with con-artist Chuck Reardon singing "You Lucky People, You" as a side-show caller at a circus advertising an act featuring his friend Hubert "Fearless" Frazier. "Fearless" poses as a human cannonball, but quickly substitutes a dummy at the last minute and hides in a secret compartment. The flaming dummy sets the big tent on fire and the two of them flee to Africa. At a fancy restaurant, they're sent champagne by diamond baron Charles Kimble, who convinces Chuck to spend all their money on the deed to one of Kimble's diamond mines. When they find out Kimble is an eccentric and the deed is worthless, Fearless ends their partnership. Later that evening, Fearless comes back with a fistful of money, claiming to have sold the diamond mine to a Monsieur LeBec for a profit. LeBec wants Chuck and Fearless to accompany them to see the mine. Chuck and Fearless manage to escape and jump onto a boat bound for the interior.

Stranded, they are propositioned by Julia Quimby to help rescue her friend Donna LaTour from being sold at a slave auction. Unbeknownst to both of them, Julia and Donna are also con-artists who use the money to buy food. They convince Chuck and Fearless to take them along on safari, not telling them it's to see Donna's wealthy boyfriend. As their journey continues, Chuck and Fearless both vie for Donna's attention.

Eventually, the men learn they've been duped from the beginning and angrily run into the jungle to confront Donna. While she is swimming in the nude, a pair of leopards tear her clothes while she hides in the reeds. Upon seeing her torn clothes, Chuck and Fearless assume she's dead and prepare a funeral. During their attempt at a eulogy, they admit that despite the fact she lied to them, they both loved her. Chuck and Fearless start to sing "It's Always You" and burst into tears, until Donna sings to them and then they both turn on her. They storm off into the jungle and the safari leaves without them.

The men fight their way back to civilization, haggard, dirty and penniless until they sell gold nuggets they had received from the natives. They find the girls and Donna confesses her love for Chuck. The four decide to stay in Zanzibar and start a carnival, which features Julia being sawed in half.

Flashbacks

In Jack's flashbacks, Jack is going through a divorce from his wife Sarah (Julie Bowen). He demands to know who she has been dating, but she refuses to tell him, so he spies on her and steals her cell phone. He proceeds to call every number in her phone, and his father Christian Shephard's (John Terry) cell phone rings. After following Christian to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, Jack accuses him of sleeping with his wife and physically attacks him. After Jack is arrested, Sarah pays his bail. She tells him Christian is no longer sober, and also tells him "now [he has] something to fix." She then leaves with an unidentified man.

On the Island

New character Juliet Burke (Elizabeth Mitchell) prepares for a book club meeting in a modern suburban home. The club is in a heated discussion of Stephen King's ''Carrie'', when they are interrupted by what sounds like an earthquake. The group leaves Juliet's house and Ben Linus (Michael Emerson), previously known as "Henry Gale" to the survivors, appears along with Ethan Rom (William Mapother), looking up to watch Oceanic Flight 815 break apart in mid-air. Ben quickly orders Goodwin (Brett Cullen) and Ethan to join the survivors, stay undercover, and provide "lists in three days." The camera zooms out to reveal that the suburb is actually on the Island and is inhabited by The Others, while in the background the smoke trail of the midsection and tail section of Flight 815 can be seen.

Back in the present, Kate Austen (Evangeline Lilly) wakes up on the floor of a locker room. Tom (M. C. Gainey) allows her to have a shower and afterwards, forces her to change into a dress, after which she is led to an elegant breakfast on the beach with Ben, who tells her to put on handcuffs before she can eat. She asks him why he is doing this, and he tells her that he wanted to give her something pleasant to remember, as the next two weeks will be "very unpleasant". James "Sawyer" Ford (Josh Holloway) wakes up in a cage in the jungle. A teenager, Karl (Blake Bashoff), in a nearby cage initially ignores Sawyer but then later expresses interest in Sawyer's camp and unlocks his cage then Sawyer's. However, they are both caught and Tom makes Karl, who is now beaten and bloody, apologize to Sawyer before taking the teen away. Sawyer figures out the mechanical puzzle in his cage, though Tom says it "only took the bears two hours." Kate is then put in Karl's (now empty) cage.

Jack wakes up in a cell in the Hydra Station, where Juliet gently interrogates him. At one point Jack attacks her and attempts to escape, holding an improvised weapon at her throat. He orders her to open a door, but she refuses to comply, claiming that doing so would kill them both. Ben appears and agrees that opening the door will kill them all. Jack throws Juliet away, and then opens the door. As Ben dashes back through the door he came in, water starts rushing into the hallway. Juliet helps Jack struggle into an adjoining room, tells him to push a button which she had previously mentioned was for emergencies. He does so and she knocks him unconscious. When he awakes, she shows Jack a file which she says contains documents about his entire life. Juliet asks Jack if he has any questions about Sarah. After a pause, he asks, "Is she happy?" Juliet replies yes, and walks outside, and Ben congratulates her on a job well done.

The limited series begins with Reed and Sue Richards investigating a strange phenomena in another galaxy. Reed realizes that Earth may be in danger within a week. However, before he can send a message to warn Earth, an alien vessel causes a sun in the middle of the galaxy to overload and implode, creating a massive shockwave that destroys his ship.

The occupant of the alien vessel is revealed to be Dominas the Wavemaster, a Herald of Galactus. Dominas flies toward the Shi'ar Imperial Throneworld, where he battles Gladiator and the rest of the Shi'ar Imperial Guard.

On Earth, the rest of the Fantastic Five receive Reed's transmission. They rush into a rescue operation while Doom stays behind to warn the President and the other heroes. Doom informs A-Next of the current situation, but they are busy dealing with their lifelong adversaries, the Red Queen and her Revengers. Jarvis sends A-Next the emergency call and Stinger calls her team back, realizing that protecting Earth is more important than fighting the Revengers.

Vision discusses matters with G. W. Bridge, the current President of the United States, who is not sure how to handle things.

At Barton's Dojo, American Dream trains with Freebooter and Hawkeye. American Dream is considering leaving the Avengers, which disappoints Hawkeye. At school, May Parker chats with her friends about her future plans and later leaves to perform her daily role as Spider-Girl. She receives a call from Stinger, who is summoning all of the reserve Avengers.

Dominas continues to wreak havoc on the Shi'ar Throneworld, and his master Galactus prepares to devour it completely. While Lilandra is ushered into safety, her Imperial Guard do their best to protect her world. Despite the Guards' efforts, Galactus's elemental converter drains the planet dry. Galactus reveals to Dominas that he no longer desires to merely sate his hunger, but to gather energy with the intention of evolving to the next level. The newly birthed Captain America star is vital to his plan. Galactus decides to absorb Asgard next.

The Fantastic Five head to the galaxy where Reed and Sue's ship was destroyed, but find nothing. However, they receive a signal and head straight toward it. As they hoped, the signal is coming from Reed and Sue. Sue had created a force field to protect them both while their ship exploded. Once the F5 find their missing teammates, they advise the President about the situation and head back home to help deal with it. Reed Richards has a long-standing plan to stop Galactus if it should ever become necessary.

Meanwhile, Thor leads his mighty warriors into battle against Galactus. Galactus sends for his robotic troops to protect him. Spider-Girl and Vision arrive at Avengers Compound. Vision has already sent Nova and Earth Sentry into space to investigate matters. He orders the other A-Next members to wait. The situation worsens when the Revengers show up again, and A-Next want to take them down. Vision refuses to allow this because of the President's orders.

The gods realize they are outmatched against Galactus. While Thor is taken prisoner by Galactus, the other Asgardians escape. Dominas also apprehends the Odinsword for its cosmic power. Galactus absorbs the entire world of Asgard with the sword he finds.

Back on Earth, Vision has agreed to send in a few members of A-Next to battle the Revengers, including Spider-Girl, Stinger, Mainframe, and Thunderstrike. As Thunderstrike faces Sabreclaw, he suddenly loses his powers due to the demise of Asgard. As Thunderstrike's secret identity is revealed, Spider-Girl and the rest decide to let the Revengers escape to bring their teammate into safety.

Dominas attacks the Watcher, destroying the moon in the process. He telepathically announces the imminent destruction of Earth to its populace, causing widespread panic.

Many of the Great Powers of the Universe gather at the far edge of reality to discuss Galactus's latest actions. They unite their power to send a Galactus-destroying bolt towards Earth, knowing that it could destroy the entire Milky Way. Reed Richards makes a desperate decision to use his single-shot transdimensional cannon, which is his one hope of stopping Galactus, against the bolt and its originators.

Galactus arrives on Earth, causing tremendous planet-wide destruction and chaos. While the heroes do their best to keep everyone safe, Dominas reveals that Galactus plans to destroy the entire universe so a new "Big Bang" can take place and an entire new universe can be formed. The Captain America star is to be the focus, and all the gathered living energies are to be directed at it in a recreation, on a far greater scale, of the sun-implosion at the beginning of the miniseries. As Reed Richards realizes, that was merely a test run.

The Silver Surfer learns of his former master's plans, and arrives on Earth to deal with it. He and Dominas face each other. The Surfer triumphs, absorbing Dominas's Power Cosmic and becoming even more powerful than before. He then focuses on Galactus. The Fantastic Five, A-Next, X-People, and Revengers all team up to stop Galactus. The Surfer's Power Cosmic and Scarlet Witch's reality-altering power combined enable Reed's machine to destroy Galactus's barrier, and Stinger, American Dream and Spider-Girl manage to reverse the effect of Galactus' device, causing him immense pain through an overload of energies. Death appears before Galactus in a vision, and she laments that though he'd ever been one of her most loyal advocates, Galactus was always destined to die.

As the Surfer eventually faces the dying, energy-saturated Galactus, they somehow merge into a new unnamed entity who declares that a new form of energy, the "Power Essential," has been born through the union. Instantly repairing the damage Galactus caused on Earth, the entity vows to be a builder of worlds and a guardian of life, bringing life and joy to dead planets. He can thus be seen as the "anti-Galactus". He is a silver giant, clad in a silver armor similar to Galactus', who travels by cosmic surfboard.

As the heroes watch the entity leave, new allies are made, and while some may only last for a while, others will be explored further in the future. They look upon the sky, and see the Captain America star once again.

The film takes the form of a docudrama in which actors who are cast as FBI Special Agents speak to camera about the war on gangsters in the mid-1920s through the late-1930s. Using contacts with gun molls, agents track down criminals. The film dramatizes the crime careers, and final capture or deaths of John Dillinger, the Barker Gang (Ma Barker, Fred Barker, Arthur Barker, Alvin Karpis), Bonnie and Clyde, Homer Van Meter, Doc Barker and Pretty-Boy Floyd. The "docudrama" does not portray events, many situations, or the FBI Special Agents accurately. For instance, the name of the FBI Special Agent who was killed in the Kansas City Massacre on June 17, 1933 was Raymond J. Caffrey, and it was not his first day with the FBI. Names of all FBI Special Agents who have been killed in the line of duty may be found on the FBI Hall of Honor.

In 1837, Swiss governess Elisabeth Laurier (Sophie Marceau) agrees to bear a child for an anonymous English landowner in return for money needed to pay her father's debts. They meet over three nights at a lonely island hotel. Despite their wish for detachment, they develop a deeply passionate connection during their lovemaking by firelight. Their feelings grow after they converse on the beach and at the hotel. Nine months later (10 August 1838), Elisabeth gives birth to a girl, and as agreed, she gives up the child to the care of the English landowner. Over the coming years, Elisabeth never forgets her child. She begins to keep a journal of watercoloured flowers and plants, adding a page for each holiday and birthday they are apart.

The anonymous Englishman is Charles Godwin (Stephen Dillane), a landowner and struggling sheep farmer, who can barely keep the debtors of his philandering father, Lord Clare, at bay. Charles's wife, Amy Godwin, is paralysed and catatonic due to a horseriding accident. Amy's sister, Constance (Lia Williams), runs the Godwin household.

Seven years after giving up her daughter, Elisabeth gets hired as the new governess for the child, who is named Louisa. Initially, Charles rejects Elisabeth, and demands that she leave immediately. However, Constance insists that he should give the new governess a month to find a new situation. Showing Elisabeth the catatonic form of his wife, Charles forces Elisabeth to swear never to reveal to Louisa or anyone the nature of their previous relationship.

Louisa (Dominique Belcourt) is a spoiled, ignorant, wilful, and foulmouthed child—unloved by anyone except her father. Though she acknowledges the father's loving relationship with his daughter, Elisabeth is appalled by the lack of control Charles exercises over the girl. He refuses to use any forms of discipline in her upbringing. Unable to keep Louisa at her lessons, Elisabeth locks the child in the classroom. When he discovers this, Charles is furious and roughly manhandles Elisabeth in an effort to extract the key to the schoolroom. While Charles wants his daughter to enjoy life as much as she can, Elisabeth is determined to teach her daughter how to behave to be loved by others, and to be educated so she can determine her own path in the world. To convince Charles to support her approach, Elisabeth promises she will never harm the girl, and whatever she does to Louisa she will also do to herself.

Outside of class, Louisa spends all of her spare time in her lakehouse, a small belvedere on the estate in the middle of a pond, which can only be reached by boat. Here, Louisa pretends she has a mother. At first, Elisabeth watches clandestinely from the boat docks while Louisa is in the lakehouse. However, when she finds out that Charles swims naked there in the morning, she begins to go to watch Charles too, leaving before he can see her. In the classroom, Elisabeth paints picture cards to teach the seven-year-old how to read. She also tells Louisa a tale about the firelight: ''It's a kind of magic. Firelight makes time stand still. When you put out the lamps and sit in the firelight's glow there aren't any rules any more. You can do what you want, say what you want, be what you want, and when the lamps are lit again, time starts again, and everything you said or did is forgotten. More than forgotten it never happened.''

Elisabeth finds that this helps Louisa concentrate on her lessons, knowing there is a time at the end of the day when there are no rules.

Increasingly attracted to Elisabeth, Charles asks her to promise him that they can never be close like they once were. But Elisabeth doesn't answer. Charles even talks about the three of them leaving together, but Elisabeth says she knows it is impossible, as he has obligations to his estate, family, and wife. Charles suddenly announces that the entire estate is being appraised for sale, purportedly to cover his overwhelming debts. On a bitterly cold night, Charles consults his conscience as to whether his wife, Amy, would want him to release her from her catatonic prison of ten years. He opens the windows of her bedchamber, removes her covers, and allows the fire in her room to go out, leaving her to die of exposure. With Amy's death, her sister Constance expects to be Charles's choice as a new wife. However, she concedes a dignified defeat when she realises Charles's depth of feeling toward Elisabeth. Elisabeth confronts Charles and asks him if he killed Amy, which he admits. They both feel strong guilt, but no regret.

Soon after, Louisa looks through Elisabeth's room and discovers the illustrated journal dedicated to "My English Daughter". Louisa confronts her governess who confirms she is in fact her mother. After the sale of the Godwin's estate, Charles, Elisabeth, and Louisa leave on a snowy day to begin their new lives together as a family.

A woman named Karen, who is suffering from a growing tumor on her neck, enters a hospital in San Francisco. After a series of X-rays, the doctors begin to think it is a living creature: a fetus being born inside the tumor. Eerie and grisly occurrences begin; the tumorous growth perceives itself – himself – to be under attack as a result of the X-rays used to ascertain its nature, which are starting to stunt and deform its development.

The growth is the old Native American shaman, Misquamacus; he is reincarnating himself through the young woman to exact his revenge on the white men who invaded North America and exterminated its native peoples. Karen's boyfriend, psychic fortune teller Harry Erskine contacts a second Native American shaman, John Singing Rock, to help fight the reincarnating medicine man, but the kind of spirits he can summon and control appear to be too weak to match his opponent's abilities.

The story begins with a morose and brooding Detective (Duane Sharp) receiving a phone call from a local temple, saying someone is about to die. At the temple, a meditating monk (Howard Fong) is seen falling over, apparently dead. The Detective shows up moments afterwards and begins to question the other monks in the temple. He receives cryptic answers to all his queries from Ed (Ezra Buzzington), Jane (Debra Miller) and the Master (Kim Chan), to his rapidly growing frustration.

The Detective continues to treat the case as a murder, although both Jane and Ed insist that they did not kill the dead man. An agitated Ed directs the Detective to meet him at midnight for an unspecified purpose. In the meantime, the Detective rants at the Master, who remains unperturbed, before discovering that the Detective's gun is missing.

Ed meets with the Detective and commits suicide with the Detective’s gun. The Detective, stunned by Ed’s sudden death and haunted by visions of his deceased wife Nora (Jennifer Siebel), is comforted by Jane. The two eventually make love. Afterwards, the two talk, and the Detective is alarmed to realize that he cannot remember his own name.

Jane reveals that she is dying. Distressed, the Detective says he cannot go through the heartbreak of losing someone again, and goes to the Master for his insights on life and death. The master says that he doesn’t know what happens when we die, because he’s “not dead yet.” He does, though, calm the Detective with a lecture on interconnectedness.

The Detective sits with the Master, who after a time also falls over, dead. The Detective continues to sit alone, at first sobbing, then at peace as Nora’s ghost leaves him.

The film ends with a shaven-headed Detective sitting with Jane, holding hands. He asks Jane how long she has to live, and she says she doesn’t know. The Detective accepts this, and they continue to sit together quietly.

Jamie Ashen and his wife, Lisa, receive an anonymous gift of a ventriloquist doll called "Billy". When Jamie goes out to pick up their takeout dinner, a figure attacks Lisa, who is pregnant, causing her to have a miscarriage and scream. Jamie returns home and finds her dead with her tongue cut out. After Jamie is released from custody by Detective Jim Lipton due to lack of evidence, he spots inside Billy's box a mysterious message about "Mary Shaw", a deceased ventriloquist from his hometown, Raven's Fair.

Returning to Raven's Fair, now old and rundown, Jamie visits his estranged, wealthy and wheelchair-using father, Edward, and his much-younger wife, Ella, for information regarding Mary Shaw. Dismissing them as superstitions, Jamie arranges for Lisa's funeral with the help of a local mortician named Henry Walker. Henry's senile wife, Marion, warns Jamie that Mary Shaw's spirit is dangerous and urges him to bury Billy. Jamie does so but is confronted by Detective Lipton, who followed Jamie and finds his actions suspicious.

Henry explains to Jamie that Mary Shaw was a famous and popular ventriloquist who was publicly humiliated when a young boy named Michael rudely claimed that he could see her lips moving during one of her performances. Some weeks later, Michael disappeared and his family blamed it on Mary Shaw and lynched her. Mary's last wish was to have her body turned into a doll and buried with her 101 dolls, who she called her children. Henry, then still a child, saw Shaw (after she was turned into a dummy) rise up, but was spared thanks to his silence, because Mary takes her revenge by killing those who scream. Jamie finds out that Michael, who actually ''was'' murdered by Mary Shaw, was his great-uncle. As part of Mary's lynching, the Ashen family forced her to scream and permanently silenced her by cutting her tongue out; as such, she has since been seeking revenge against their entire bloodline and all those in Raven's Fair by killing them using the same method.

Mary Shaw kills Henry Walker and Detective Lipton discovers that all of Mary Shaw's dolls have been dug up. He informs Jamie and is just about to arrest him, when Jamie receives a call from "Henry", asking him to go to Shaw's old theatre to prove his innocence. At the ruined theater, Jamie and Lipton discover 100 of the dolls in their massive display case, along with Michael's body, which had been turned into a marionette. Mary reveals to Jamie that she killed Lisa because, unbeknownst to him, she was pregnant with his child, thereby killing any potential newborn of the Ashen family. Jamie and Lipton burn the theatre and all of Shaw's dolls, but Lipton falls and screams, sealing his fate.

Back at his father's residence, Jamie is confronted by Mary, but repels her by throwing Billy into the fireplace. He learns, much to his horror, that his father actually died long ago; the current "Edward" is actually a doll converted from his corpse, controlled by Ella, who is the "perfect doll" that Mary Shaw created just before her death. Jamie screams in terror as Ella, possessed by Mary, kills him.

The film ends with Jamie reciting a nursery rhyme about Shaw while a photo album with human puppets is shown: Lisa, Henry, Lipton, Edward, Ella, and Jamie himself. Mary closes the book, finally completing her revenge.

The story begins in a courtroom, where Stan and Ollie appear before Judge Beaumont on a charge of vagrancy. The duo quickly anger the judge, who can't remand them in custody for 180 days as he would normally do because the jail is full; and so instead gives them "One hour... to get out of town! And never let me set eyes on you again..." — dismissing the case by snarling "Scram! Or I'll build a jail for you!"

Later, as Stan and Ollie are walking down the sidewalk in a heavy rainstorm, they meet a well-dressed, highly intoxicated man and help retrieve his car key, which he has dropped down a grating, and in return he invites the homeless pair to stay at his mansion. Once they arrive at the residence, the congenial drunk cannot find his house key, but the boys finally get into the house, where they startle a young woman, causing her to faint. They revive her with what they think is water, but is actually gin, and all three get tipsy in the process. While the three enjoy music and dancing in the woman's bedroom, the drunk in the hallway learns from the butler that he is in the wrong house, so he staggers away to find his real home. Soon the mansion's true owner arrives: it is Judge Beaumont. Finding Stan and Ollie upstairs with his drunk wife and wearing his pajamas, the enraged judge ominously advances toward Stan and Ollie, who hurriedly retreat to a corner of the bedroom. In a panic, Stan switches off the lights — and the film ends in darkness with Judge Beaumont's wrath conveyed via a soundtrack of breaking glass, screams, whirlwinds, and explosions!

In 1980s San Francisco, Weslake, who was laid off from his job, is working in a low-paying position at Garvey's pawn shop. Weslake has one friend nicknamed "Turtle" who is homeless and is seen throughout the whole film searching for something to eat.

One day, Dillard, who is an amateur musician, and Ramon, an illegal immigrant from Mexico who lives with his sister Maria, come to Garvey's shop. The purpose of their visit is to buy off a guitar pawned earlier by Dillard; because both have little money they're offering the pawn shop owner a stolen car radio, but it is not enough for Garvey. Instead, he offers Dillard a deal: he wants Dillard to install an alarm system in his shop (as Dillard is an electrician). Dillard is not thrilled by the deal but Ramon convinces him, arguing that when the alarm system is installed, Garvey may have enough confidence to leave the shop (he normally stays in it, since he lives there) and they may then get an opportunity to break in and get the guitar back.

Their conversation is heard by "Boardwalk", a pimp who was just left by his girlfriend with his small child. He tells Weslake that he should report the plans of Dillard and Ramon to Garvey, but Weslake realizes that when the new alarm system is installed, Garvey may no longer find it necessary to employ him, and he will be broke again. Because of this Weslake does not inform his employer of the planned robbery, and instead joins Dillard, Ramon Boardwalk and Turtle in their attempted robbery. He becomes the brain of the whole operation, designing a plan for breaking into the large safe in the pawn shop.

The opportunity comes very soon, as Garve announces that he's leaving the shop because of a planned visit to his old mother. The group then puts their plan into action (albeit with many troubles along the way), eventually finding out that the big vault which is supposed to be full of goods is empty, because Garvey was not keeping anything inside it for years. The whole story has a good ending, however. As Garvey is coming back drunk in the middle of the night (since his mother died when he went to see her), he meets the would-be robbers inside his store. Surprisingly, he does not realize that they intended to rob him, and instead is happy that in this sad time he is surrounded by "friends".

The year is 1929 and in the opening episode Jeremiah Unsworth (Freddie Jones), the proprietor of the undertakers, dies. This leaves his widow Ivy (Thora Hird) and gormless nephew Billy (Christopher Beeny) to take over the business. As might be expected, the accident-prone Ivy and Billy have numerous mishaps, and hardly a funeral goes by without something untoward occurring. A running subplot is Billy's pursuit of romance, often at the encouragement of Ernie Hadfield; this later ends with Billy's marriage to old schoolfriend Mary Braithwaite - who had originally been set to marry Ernie.

The story is narrated as a "found manuscript" penned by Karl Heinrich, Graf von Altberg-Ehrenstein, a lieutenant-commander in the Imperial German Navy during the days of World War I. Altberg begins by declaring that he has decided to document the events leading up to his untimely end in order to "set certain facts" before the public, aware that he will not survive to do so himself.

In the North Atlantic, after sinking a British freighter and its occupied lifeboats, the cruel and arrogant Altberg commands his U-boat to submerge, surfacing later to find the dead body of a seaman who died clinging to the exterior railing of the sub. A search of the body reveals a strange piece of carved ivory. Because of its apparent great age and value, one of Altberg's officers keeps the object, and shortly thereafter, strange phenomena begin to occur - such as the dead man apparently swimming away rather than sinking.

An uncharted oceanic current pulls the sub southward, and several members of the crew suffer the sudden onset of severe fatigue and disturbing nightmares. One even claims to have seen the dead seamen from the freighter staring at him through the portholes. Altberg has him brutally whipped, rejecting the pleas from some of his men to discard the ivory charm. He eventually resorts to executing a couple of them when it is clear that they have gone insane from fright, ostensibly to maintain discipline. A mysterious explosion irreparably damages the U-boat's engines, leaving them without the ability to navigate. They encounter an American warship, and Altberg kills several more crewmen who urge him to surrender. Later, when the U-boat faces ominous waves from a violent storm, Altberg orders the sub to submerge. Afterward, it is unable to surface when its ballast tanks fail to repressurize, leaving it being pulled southward without resistance while slowly sinking deeper into the ocean; they never see the light of day again.

With the U-boat's batteries running low, and their chance of rescue non-existent, the six remaining, delirious crewmen attempt a mutiny, successfully disabling the U-boat by destroying several key instruments and gauges, even as they rave on about the curse of the ivory talisman. All are murdered by the venomous Altberg. His lone companion, Lieutenant Klenze, grows increasingly unstable and paranoid. Certain of their fate, the two pass the time in their drifting vessel by sweeping the sub's powerful searchlight through the dark abyss, noting that dolphins follow them at depths and for lengths previously unheard-of. Soon after, Klenze goes completely mad, claiming that ''"He is calling! He is calling!"'' Unable to soothe his insane companion, and unwilling to join him in suicide, Altberg agrees to operate the airlock, grateful to send Klenze to an assured death in the airless, crushing pressure of the deep.

Altberg, alone at last, drifts for a couple more days before his U-boat finally lands on the ocean floor, where he is amazed to see the sunken remains of an ancient and elaborate city. Deciding that it is the ruins of Atlantis and overcome with excitement, Altberg dons a deep-sea diving suit, exploring the breathtaking, indescribable beauty of the ruined city and discovering a mysterious rock-hewn temple, amazed to find the image of the ivory carving within. He spends the next couple of days in darkness as the sub's last reserves of battery power and air are expended. In the end, he acknowledges that even with his mighty "German will", he is no longer able to resist the powerful visions and auditory hallucinations, nor his madness-inspired impulse to depart his U-boat and enter the temple, now impossibly illuminated by what seems to be a flickering altar flame. Slipping on his diving suit, he releases his sealed manuscript in a bottle (which is later found on the coast of Yucatan), and goes willingly to his death.

In St. Louis, Anson Stokes, an apathetic employee at a self storage facility, is yelled at by his boss to clean out an old and dusty storage locker. To his surprise, he finds a woman wrapped in a rug. His boss comes to check on him; while he is yelling for Anson, his mouth disappears. FBI agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) speak with the boss, Jay Gilmore, after surgery to fix his mouth, which has left him disfigured and with a speech impediment. They question Stokes' brother Leslie at their mobile home, which inexplicably has a large boat in its tiny front yard. The woman from the storage container is in the Stokes brothers' kitchen. Mulder and Scully search the container and find old antiques and a picture of the previous owner with the woman from the apartment.

The woman is revealed to be a genie. Stokes is angry that he wasted his first two wishes; Stokes had previously wished for his boss to stop talking (which caused Gilmore's mouth to disappear) and for a boat. The boat, however, was not placed in water and Stokes is still forced to pay taxes on it. The genie hints, in vain, that Anson should give his physically handicapped brother the ability to walk as his third wish. Instead, he wishes for the ability to turn invisible at will, but neglects to stipulate that his clothes also become invisible. Undiscouraged, Anson strips and turns invisible, only to be struck and killed by a truck as he crosses the road.

Scully does the autopsy on the invisible body by covering it in powder. Mulder, meanwhile, researches the owner of the container. He learns that the man in the picture was extremely wealthy and lucky for a short period, before he died with a giant oversized penis. Mulder believes the woman in the picture is responsible for everything, and determines she is a jinniyah, a female genie. Mulder goes to the Stokes residence and asks Leslie to hand her over, presuming her to be kept in a box. It turns out, however, that she is not in the box, but is within the rug that Stokes found back in the storage facility, where Mulder also finds pictures of the jinniyah next to Benito Mussolini in the 1930s and next to Richard Nixon in the 1960s, two men that had a lot of power and then lost it.

Leslie takes possession of the jinniyah and asks for his brother to be returned to life, neglecting to specify that he be in good health. Consequently Anson is returned, but in a decaying, post-autopsy zombie-like state, complete with injuries from the crash. Despite the jinniyah's warning, Leslie's second wish is for Anson to talk, which results in Anson screaming at the top of his lungs and telling his brother that he is cold. Back at the morgue, Scully finds the body has disappeared and Mulder suspects it is because of Leslie's wish. They go to the Stokes residence and arrive just as Leslie finally decides to wish for functional legs and Anson blows up the house trying to light the stove in an attempt to warm up.

Mulder questions the jinniyah, who says she's 500 years old. According to her, she gained her powers after wishing for great power and long life from an efreet, an extremely powerful type of genie. She also says that Mulder unrolled her so he now has three wishes of his own. Mulder wishes for peace on earth and she wipes out the entire human population except for him. With his second wish, Mulder undoes his first wish. Mulder then writes down his third wish to be very specific. However, just before making the final wish, Scully helps Mulder realize that the power of a genie should not be used to force people to be good, and so he ultimately wishes for the jinniyah to be free.Shapiro, pp. 255–264

When communications with the Venkatsen Research Group were lost, the U.S.S. ''Enterprise'' was sent to investigate. In a system with 47 planets, the transporter is not usable, so Kirk and crew take a shuttle to Hohweyn VII. En route, a gravitic mine damages the shuttle. Communications and navigation are not responsive, and Kirk and Sulu are injured in the blast. McCoy, in an attempt to pass time, convinces Kirk to tell his story about the ''Kobayashi Maru'' and beating the "unwinnable scenario".

Kirk proceeds to tell how he reprogrammed the simulation so that, when Klingon cruisers attack his ship, the Klingon commanders recognize his name and assists Kirk in saving the freighter.

Chekov tells his story about the Kobayashi Maru and a secondary training exercise on an empty space station. Chekov completed the scenario by evacuating his crew and physically ramming the ship into the Klingon attackers. In the second exercise, Chekov commits group "suicide" by "killing" the others who had captured him. The secondary exercise involves pitting all the cadets against each other to see who lasts a pre-determined time period. Chekov creates a different plan. He learns that when Kirk went through the same scenario he organized the cadets in such a way there was no need to fight each other.

Sulu tells his story about his great-grandfather Tetsuo, and about going to Command School for the first time. The first exercise is a type of Model U.N., where Sulu is from a tech level 3 planet, Menak III, and trying to gain entrance into the Federation. When Sulu finds out Tetsuo is discontinuing treatments for a life-ending illness, he refuses to speak to him. Sulu finds out about Tetsuo's death after returning from a field exercise. When he finally takes the Kobayashi Maru test, he decides that the freighter's distress call is probably a trap and chooses not to help it.

Scotty tells about his early years at Command School, and how his love of engineering made it difficult for him to pay attention to non-engineering subjects. Upon taking the scenario, Scotty used engineering solutions to destroy ever increasing waves of Klingon cruisers. Review of his performance shows that he used the Perera Field Theory to destroy the final wave, which was proven to be mathematically possible (thus acceptable to the computer), but physically impossible (as proven by Scotty). The resulting decision had Scotty moved out of Command School and sent to study engineering.

The shuttle is rescued by the ''Enterprise'' after a plan to turn the shuttle into an electromagnetic black hole works, which lets the ''Enterprise'' know where to find them.

The novel takes place in a small town in the 1950s. High-school student Maribeth Robertson, raised in a Christian household, has sex on prom night with a star athlete who is planning to marry his popular girlfriend after graduation. Maribeth's father is displeased by what she has done and sends her away to live with nuns until her baby is born and can be placed up for adoption. Maribeth is told that she can come back home once her baby is gone. At the convent, she feels afraid and lonely, and leaves to get on a bus with a one-way ticket. She finds herself in a small college town where she touches the lives of a family who has suffered a great loss.

''Voyager'' responds to a distress call, beaming all the people off a Nygean ship which is about to explode. Most are sent to ''Voyager'' s cargo bay, but two of them are sent to sickbay, where one takes Seven of Nine (Jeri Lynn Ryan) hostage. He is forced away from Seven and attempts to take the Doctor (Robert Picardo) hostage. This fails as the Doctor, as a hologram, is invulnerable to a common knife.

It turns out the ship ''Voyager'' rescued was carrying prisoners to a facility where they are scheduled to be executed. Since there is no capital punishment in the Federation, the crew are uncomfortable with the situation, but the Prime Directive forbids them from interfering. They provide cages for the prisoners, who are treated brutally by the Nygean guards. Neelix (Ethan Phillips) insists that the prisoners must be fed and the Doctor insists they must receive proper medical care. Seven considers this a waste of resources, since the prisoners are going to be killed anyway, but the guards agree to allow the prisoners to have meals.

After a particularly brutal beating by a guard, one of the prisoners, Iko, is seriously wounded. The ''Voyager'' guards are forced to rescue Iko by drawing weapons on the Nygean guards. Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) subsequently orders ''Voyager'' s security personnel take over guarding the prisoners. The Nygeans protest but Janeway gives them no choice.

Iko undergoes a medical procedure in which Borg nanoprobes are injected into his body; not only do the probes repair his injuries, they also seem to have restored the parts of his brain responsible for empathy, and he begins to feel remorse for his crime.

At first, Iko wants to be executed for all he has done, but he becomes close to Seven, who sees in him a reflection of her own struggles for atonement for all she did as a Borg. Since under Nygean law, the victim's family decides the punishment for all crimes, Iko eventually appeals to his own victim's family for leniency. He tells them that he is cured, is sorry for what he has done, and hopes to start a new life on ''Voyager''. The family denies his request.

Meanwhile, Neelix becomes friendly with a Benkaran prisoner named Joleg, who explains minority Benkarans are subjected to racial profiling by Nygeans. Joleg persuades Neelix to get a letter through to his brother, but this turns out to be a ruse - Joleg has hidden ''Voyager'' s coordinates inside the letter, and the ship is attacked by others of Joleg's race. Joleg has organized a prison break so his co-conspirators can free him, but the plot is foiled by the ''Voyager'' crew. Neelix, who understands he was being manipulated, turns his back on Joleg.

An antique Klingon D7-class vessel attacks ''Voyager'', cloaked. Using a metaphasic scan, Seven of Nine calculates the position of the ship, allowing Tuvok to fire on it and disable their cloaking device. The captain of the Klingon ship, Kohlar, refers to the Federation as "sworn enemies of the Empire." Naturally, Kohlar does not believe Kathryn Janeway when she says that the Federation and the Empire have been at peace for eighty years. However, when Kohlar sees B'Elanna Torres - who is pregnant - he abruptly changes his mind. Kohlar has his crew fake a core breach on his ship so that all the Klingons aboard, over 200, are transported to ''Voyager''. When he is confronted by Janeway about this, he explains that he believes Torres' unborn child is the prophesied "Kuvah'magh," the savior of the Klingon people, the one whom Kohlar's ancestors left the Klingon world in a multi-generational voyage in order to meet. The elder Klingons are very skeptical, especially because Torres is only half Klingon and thus her daughter will be only one-quarter Klingon. Other Klingons constantly bother Torres when she is working, prompting her to beam from place to place. The Voyager crew is forced to share quarters to make room for the Klingons, and Tuvok is assigned Neelix as a roommate.

T'Greth, one of the Klingons, challenges Tom Paris, B'Elanna's husband, to a duel to the death, which Paris accepts. At Janeway's insistence, however, T'Greth and Paris agree to a non-lethal duel with blunted bat'leths. To everyone's surprise, T'Greth loses the duel.

It turns out that T'Greth suffers from a seemingly incurable disease known as Nehret, which afflicts all Klingons aboard Kohlar's ship, and now Torres and her unborn child as well. T'Greth convinces some of the other Klingons to take over ''Voyager''. After much fighting, the ''Voyager'' crew retakes the ship. The Doctor then comes up with a cure by using stem cells from B'Elanna's baby.

The Klingons relocate to an M-class planet while Paris and Torres agree to consider "Kuvah'magh" as a possible name for the baby.

A subplot concerns Harry Kim not wanting to mate with Ch'Rega, a Klingon woman who lusts after him because he broke up a fight between her and another Klingon over food. However, he is not attracted to her in return. Neelix offers to take her off Harry's hands. Harry pretends with Neelix (in her presence) to be threatened that Neelix will cut the food from his stomach if he was seen taking more than his share of food again, and Ch'Rega is most impressed. Neelix and Ch'Rega have sex in Tuvok's quarters, leaving the place an utter mess. Tuvok tells him to get out after seeing the destruction.

Rob and Chris have a baby boy named Robbie. At first the appliances all think that they will pay more attention to him but later get used to him ("I See a New You"). Later, the Hearing Aid, who was left in a drawer in their new house from the past owner gets out of the drawer and passes everyone who is asleep. Toaster then sees him and follows him up to the attic. Toaster gets very suspicious about him when he was talking to someone in space.

The next morning, Toaster tells what happened last night then they all agree to stay on watch of the drawer till he comes out. Later when it is midnight everyone falls asleep just when Hearing Aid escapes from the drawer. The "little master", as they call baby Robbie, awakes to the sound and gets out of his crib and follows Hearing Aid. The appliances awake and find Robbie going up the stairs. Lampy tries to get him down but he is dragged up the stairs and his plug slips out and falls down the stairs. The appliances appear in the room when a big beam of light appears. The appliances chase after Hearing Aid but then Robbie disappears in a bubble through space. After that they all find out that he was sent to Mars.

They get Wittgenstein the old supercomputer to help them and gives them advice. They get the microwave and cheddar cheese popcorn to help them fly, as it is organic, a laundry basket, and the ceiling fan. They set off in space to go to Mars and find Robbie. During their flight a pack of balloons appear who fly endlessly in space from hands who let them go ("Floating"). The appliances crash on Mars and find Robbie. They meet a Christmas angel named Tinselina who was sent to Mars with Viking 1. The appliances follow a group of military toasters who had just arrived to their leader Supreme Commander who is a huge refrigerator. They then learn that they are going to blow the Earth up because their old owners threw them out, and Toaster tries to talk them out of it. In between the fight, Robbie is able to push a hand out of his bubble. His hand touches Supreme Commander, and the refrigerator suddenly begins to turn pink. He smiles at the child, before returning his original color.

Toaster ends up between an election with Supreme Commander ("Humans"). After a while we learn that Toaster wins the election and is the new Supreme Commander. The appliances go into the freezer of Supreme Commander and find another Hearing Aid that is the brother of Hearing Aid. They have not seen each other since sixty years. When asked by Toaster why Supreme Commander changed his mind about blowing up the Earth, he says "the touch of the small boy's hand" reminded him that not all humans are bad. They are all about to return to Earth when suddenly Hearing aid's brother forgot to deactivate the rocket. The missile counts down. Toaster jumps off with Hearing Aid's brother and destroys the rocket. Toaster is almost left on Mars but the others come back for him. After Toaster is on board Tinselina gives up her clothes so they can have something organic to get back to Earth.

The appliances happily ride back to Earth ("Home Again"). The appliances return to Earth just in time as the baby monitor that Ratso, their pet rat, had been restraining all night, finally wakes Rob and Christine up. One day when they are taping Robbie, Rob finds Tinselina in a garbage can and fixes her up. It is a happy ending with Robbie's first word is "Toaster!" and Tinselina's first time on a Christmas tree. It is a happy ending with the appliances having a happy Christmas with the little master.

When Eddie Everett (Patrick Warburton) was a rookie in 1992, he was one of the best pitchers of his time. He led the California Angels to the American League Championship Series, where they played the Boston Red Sox, and were one out away from making it to the World Series (this same situation occurred in real life, but in 1986, not 1992). When a rookie playing for the Red Sox hits a ground ball to Eddie, he bobbles it and is unable to get him out, while the runners he let on base score, losing a chance for the Angels to make it to the World Series. Ever since then, he had never been the same pitcher, or the same person.

Six years later, Eddie and his wife, Claire, are divorced, and he has barely kept contact with their thirteen-year-old daughter, Laurel. However, at a game where the Anaheim Angels are playing the fictitious Arizona Crimson Devils, and they lose, Claire says that she is taking a job in Boston and is leaving Laurel with him. When he takes her back home, she realizes that his life isn't at all what she thought it'd be. He can't get over losing that game in his rookie year, and she prays that he can get a second chance.

After hearing this prayer, real angel, and former Angels pitcher Bob Bugler, is sent to help her. He and other angels help the team have an incredible winning streak, right when Eddie was about to get cut from the team. Soon, his game improves, as well as his relationship with Laurel.

As the season ends, the Angels and the Crimson Devils are forced to play in a one-game playoff to determine which team will represent the American League in the World Series. The actual devil (Colin Fox) makes a deal with Randy Fleck, the Crimson Devils' star player who was also the one who hit the grounder that blew the 1992 ALCS for the Angels, for Eddie to lose the game, and everything he cares about, in exchange for his soul. He agrees.

The devil makes the game delayed thanks to rain, and Eddie leaves to see Laurel's ballet recital. To get him to the game faster, Bob speeds up the recital. When he gets to the game, the Crimson Devils are up 2-0 in the bottom of the eighth inning. The Angels soon score three runs thanks to a home run by Eric Jacobs, who had a demon holding him back. When Laurel asks Bob why he didn't do anything about it, he replies that the angels aren't allowed to help in championships. When the ninth inning comes, Eddie gets two quick outs, but then a player hits a triple. Then, Randy Fleck who blew the game for him in his rookie year comes to the plate, and he asks God what to do, then Bob comes up to him on the mound and tells him that his angel just arrived, and he looks in the stands to see Claire standing there. After this, he pitches to him, and he hits a ground ball just like the one he hit in their rookie year, but this time, he manages to get it, and he throws it to first to end the game, and save his career. He hugs Laurel after the game, and kisses Claire.

Rob McGoarty, the owner of the appliances, and the one referred to as "The Master," is in his last days of college while simultaneously working at a veterinary clinic. One night, while finishing his thesis, his computer crashes due to a computer virus. The appliances, along with a rat named Ratso, seek to help Rob by finding and reversing the effects of his computer virus. Meanwhile, Mack, Rob's lab assistant, plots to sell the injured animals Rob had been tending to a Santa Clarita laboratory named "Tartarus Laboratories." The appliances discover an abandoned, old prototype TLW-728 supercomputer named Wittgenstein in the basement. Wittgenstein reveals that he is living on one rare vacuum tube, a WFC-11-12-55, due to being infected by a computer virus. The appliances learn that unless they find a replacement quickly, Wittgenstein's vacuum tube will blow and lead to his death.

In an attempt to return Wittgenstein to his full capacity, Radio and Ratso go to the storage building of the college to find the WFC-11-12-55 tube. However, when Radio and Ratso return with the tube, they accidentally break it during an argument. Wittgenstein does his best to survive, but the virus causes him to blow his remaining tube and he dies. Guilt-ridden over condemning the animals to their doom at Tartarus Laboratories, Radio gives up his own tube, sacrificing himself. The appliances install Radio's tube in Wittgenstein and he wakes up with boosted power that regenerates all of his other tubes and destroys all the viruses within him. The appliances and Wittgenstein alert Rob and his girlfriend, Chris, to Mack's scheme. The appliances create a makeshift vehicle and pursue Mack's truck with Rob and Chris following them. They manage to lure the police to the front of the truck and have Mack arrested. After discovering the appliances in the truck, Rob and Chris assume that Mack had also planned to sell Rob's stuff, but Rob wonders where Radio is. Later, they discover Wittgenstein and Radio in the basement. Chris replaces Radio's tube with a new one she found in Nome, reviving him. Wittgenstein restores Rob's thesis and is later sold to a museum to be upgraded with modern technology. In the end, all of the animals are adopted by new owners except Ratso, who Rob and Chris decide to keep as their pet. Rob proposes to Chris and she accepts. They leave college with their appliances and Ratso, planning to start a new and happy life together.

When the Daye family goes out for food at a Japanese restaurant, they witness a gangland slaying. A federal agent, named Mitchell, persuades the parents to be witnesses in the trial against the gang boss who ordered the hit.

Members of the New York City East Side boys club—leader Muggs, Danny, Glimpy, Scruno, Skinny, and Peewee—reluctantly board a bus bound for summer camp.

The bus stops in the town of Hillside, where Muggs and his pals flirt with Margie, a soda fountain waitress. While they are there, a radio broadcast announces that a maniacal "monster killer" is in the area. When they arrive at the camp, the counselor, Jeff Dixon, complains to his girlfriend, camp nurse Linda Mason, that he will get no work done on his thesis because of the rowdy juvenile delinquents.

One night, Nardo, a mysterious caped figure, and his dwarf assistant, Luigi, ask a local gas station attendant for directions to the hilltop Billings house, which has been deserted for years since its owner was murdered. After he leaves, another car arrives and the attendant recognizes the driver from his mystery magazines as Dr. Von Grosch. The attendant believes that Nardo is the killer and Von Grosch is hunting him, and he alerts the local constable that Nardo is a suspect. One night, Nardo and Luigi sneak into the local graveyard and are shot at by a grave digger.

That same night, Muggs slips out of camp hoping to rendezvous with the soda fountain girl, and is followed by all his pals. The East Side Kids get lost in the woods, and when they wander into the graveyard, Peewee is also shot by the digger. The boys take Peewee to the nearby Billings house, where Nardo tends to his minor injury and gives him a sedative. Nardo lets the boys spend the night, but Peewee disappears while sleepwalking. The rest of the boys are unable to sleep because of Nardo's strangeness and Peewee's disappearance. Linda, meanwhile, also disappears while out searching for the boys, and Jeff goes to the police for help.

When the boys confront Nardo, he claims not to know where Peewee is, but insists that the boys remain in the house. Muggs distrusts Nardo and on his command, the boys attack him and roll him into a carpet. Skinny and Glimpy disappear through a secret passage, and Scruno is spooked when Nardo reappears. At constable Jim's office, the grave digger recalls seeing the boys, and Jim believes they may have fallen into the killer's hands at the Billings estate. The boys, meanwhile, search for Peewee, but are continually being surprised by the appearance of coffins and objects that move themselves, and by the disappearance of their pals through walls and closets.

Linda, meanwhile, accepts a ride from Von Grosch, who takes her to the Billings house, ostensibly to help the boys. Muggs and the boys succeed in terrifying Nardo by pretending to be a ghost, and they finally find Peewee back in bed. Just after Linda and Von Grosch arrive at the house, Von Grosch attacks Linda.

The police burst in and accuse Nardo of being a killer, but Muggs has already learned that Nardo is merely a magician. When they all hear Linda screaming inside a locked room, Muggs climbs onto the roof and enters the room through a window. While he struggles with Von Grosch, who is the real "monster killer", Linda opens the door, and the police arrest Von Grosch. Later, Nardo performs magic tricks for Jeff, Linda and the boys, and when Muggs goes into a cabinet after a disappearing girl, he emerges with Scruno in his arms.

''Winkie'' is the story of a teddy bear of the same name who was accused and imprisoned for over nine thousand charges including terrorism, sodomy, witchcraft, treason and others.

Winkie is a teddy bear miraculously given life and freedom of movement and speech. In the novel, Winkie's gender transforms, from being a 'she' to a 'he,' as he is passed on to different children. He is first called "Marie" in the hands of Ruth, his first owner. By then Marie was just a toy, albeit already having consciousness and feelings. Marie is then passed on to Ruth's fifth children. In the ownership of Clifford Chase, the youngest of Ruth's children and named after the author, Marie is then changed into a boy. He was called "Winkie" from then on. However, when Cliff, like the previous owners, abandons and ignores Winkie upon growing up, Winkie feels betrayed, and altogether alone, for he knows that there will be no one left to 'hug' him any more. He is left sitting on the shelf above Cliff's dresser for years until given the gift of life by some mysterious and unexplainable force.

Winkie then decides to go out into the world, to get away from the humans that betrayed him. He shatters the bedroom window with a book, and climbing out onto the tree outside, is able to fulfill the first of his three wishes: freedom. He continues to fulfill the other two, with nothing else to do. Noticing some brown pods underneath a tree, Winkie eats them, fulfilling his second wish. After eating, he then proceeds to defecate, "doo-doo" as he calls it – his third wish. Winkie then goes to the other lawns of the neighborhood, making his "special mark."

On his twenty-fifth lawn, Winkie meets an old woman. Here he is torn between accepting the sweet croons of the woman and turning his back on her. Anger boiling inside him, he chooses the latter, scaring the woman away as he yelps "Heenh! Heenh! Heenh!" He then decides to go to the forest, trying to distract himself and forget the encounter with the old woman. After two days of walking and crawling, he arrives. Here he eats more berries. He falls asleep on a rock, only to be wakened by an excruciating pain in his stomach. Rolling over and over, Winkie feels as if his seams will burst open, only to find that the pain is intensifying. At its peak, however, it disappears. Thinking that the stomachache was brought by the berries he ate the night before, he turns to look at the terrible mess he made, only to find that, instead of "doo-doo," there was a baby "Winkie".

For months, father-mother and daughter live peacefully in the forest, eating berries and sometimes from garbage cans nearby. One day, Baby Winkie is kidnapped by a mad English professor living in the woods. The professor is a terrorist, making bombs and mailing them to other terrorists. He kidnapped Baby Winkie for he fell in love with her innocence and purity, only to be disappointed to find that she speaks his language of books. For months Winkie is distraught, lying down on the ground until vines began to crawl around him. One evening, he hears a hum which he is sure came from Baby Winkie. He runs after the sound, only to find her, glowing and shining brightly, in the hut where the professor lives. Baby Winkie then disappears, leaving Winkie alone and depressed. He resolves to live in the hut, acknowledging that his daughter is forever gone yet still hoping that she will return. He disposes of the professor, who died before Baby Winkie disappeared.

In the days after her disappearance, Baby Winkie appears before Winkie in a dream. "Think back," she says, and then is gone again. After three days, Winkie is arrested by the police. In the months following this apparition and his imprisonment, Winkie tries to remember everything, from his life with Ruth until his hearings in court, and is able to find meaning in his being and existence. His trial, led by the insecure and stuttering Charles Unwin against the prosecutor and most of the court audience, is not as Winkie expects. With 9,678 charges – of which he knew nothing – Winkie felt that he would lose. But when Judy, the prosecutor's assistant, sees that Winkie really is innocent and reveals that they are withholding evidence deliberately, Winkie regains hope. In the end, the jury reaches deadlock. Winkie, in the meantime, is free after the Free Winkie Committee pays for his bail. He travels to Cairo, Egypt with Françoise – a lesbian cleaning woman who mended him after he was shot during his arrest in the forest – where he begins to accept and understand why everything has happened to him.

Much to the dismay of Mugs McGinnis, everyone in his East Side Kids gang (as well as the rival The Cherry Street Gang) gets to smack his rear end eighteen times in celebration of his eighteenth birthday. His mother Molly then becomes distraught when she gets a letter from his "uncle" Pete Monahan, a rancher friend of his late father, stating that he will soon visit them in New York. Molly explains to her only child that ever since his father lied to Pete that he had seven children, Pete has been sending birthday checks for each child. Pete is unaware that the McGinnises are so poor that they could never afford to return the checks.

Just then, Pete and his grown daughter Judy ride up to the McGinnis apartment on horseback. Mugs declares that the rest of his supposed brothers and sisters are working at a defense plant, and later, forces his gang to pretend to be his siblings. Glimpy is dressed up like a girl, and Scruno), who is black, is introduced as an adopted child. Pete is delighted by the brood and takes them all out to a nightclub for fun.

The next day, local opportunist George Mooney (tells Pete that he is being duped by Mugs. Pete is offended when he learns the truth about the McGinnis brood, and tells Mugs to forget he ever had an uncle. The next day, Mugs and the gang go to the hotel to return the gifts and apologize to Judy, and learn that Pete has disappeared. When George, who has arranged Pete's kidnapping, comes to the hotel for a visit, the boys hide in another room, but overhear him say that Pete has had an accident, and that he will take Judy to him.

Judy pockets her gun before she leaves with George, and East Side Kid Danny hops onto the bumper of George's car. When the car stops, Danny gets off and calls Mugs to tell him the location of the kidnappers, but is then caught himself and held hostage along with Pete and Judy. The Cherry Street gang joins with the East Side Kids in fighting against the kidnappers, and when policeman Flanagan investigates the ruckus, he arrests the kidnappers.

Later, the East Side Kids are guests at Pete's ranch, and try to impress each other by riding bucking broncos.

This time around, the East Side Kids, a gang of well-meaning young rough-necks in New York, are pulled into a murder mystery. They manage to rescue a young girl by the name of Sylvia from her violent stepfather Morley's abuse. Soon after, the stepfather is killed by a gangster called McGaffey for interfering with his racketeering operation by stealing his money.

Sylvia has taken refuge in the gang's hideout. One of the Kids, Danny, returns to her stepfather's apartment to bring some clothes for her. He is arrested by the police, suspected of the murder.

When McGaffey hears about the arrest he makes the gang a proposition. In exchange for the actual chair leg used by Mugs, president of the Kids, to hit Morley when the gang saved Sylvia, with Mugs' fingerprints, he wants them to break into a warehouse for him.

Danny fails to explain to his policeman brother how the killing of Morley happened. A former member of the Kids, Rusty, who is a sailor, comes to visit the boys in their hour of need. It turns out Sylvia's paralyzed grandfather had been in the apartment and had seen the murder when it happened. He can still communicate with the world through blinking. Rusty discovers that the grandfather blinks morse code, and interprets it, revealing that McGaffey is the killer.

Mugs comes forward, telling the rest of the gang about McGaffey's proposition. They decide to go to the warehouse, and Rusty takes Sylvia to the police station to tell them who the killer is and to get Danny out of jail. The Kids break into the warehouse by driving a truck through the doors and a brawl ensues. The police arrive at the scene and McGaffey and the rest of the gangsters are arrested.

The film opens with a recap of earlier events in the series as David Sloan writes a letter to his wife, Vicky. After being framed for murder by Tong Po, David has spent the last two years in prison, while his wife has become the sexual captive of his old nemesis, who has since become one of the most powerful drug lords in Mexico.

After receiving explicit photos from Po of his kidnapped wife, David takes his frustrations out on a fellow prisoner before meeting with a DEA official, Casey Ford, who briefs David about their situation. He reveals that the agency has been unable to apprehend Po by their own means, and that Po intends to host a martial arts tournament at his private compound, with the winner earning a match against Po and a $1,000,000 cash prize. Knowing the history between them, Casey offers to release David if he will enter the tournament and eliminate Po himself. David readily accepts, using the alias "Jack Jones" to conceal his identity. His first stop is a street fight, where he easily dispatches two street fighters earning him a necessary invitation from a man named Brubaker, who scouts fighters and invites them to Po's tournament.

On his way to the border, David enters a roadside bar and confronts a group of thugs harassing a young woman named Megan Laurence. David defeats them with ease and saves the woman, who is ungrateful for his help and reveals that she is entering the tournament as well. David arrives at the compound and is greeted by Darcy Cove, one of Po's many female sex slaves, who tells him that he must compete in the qualifying matches. David witnesses Thomas, a brutal fighter, take out another young fighter. Then, David is chosen to face Megan. Reluctant to harm the young woman despite her taunting, David passively subdues her. He also meets up with an old acquaintance named Lando Smith, a talented fighter who turns out to be his backup on the mission.

At the party of the tournament's seventh anniversary, Bill, Po's right-hand man, introduces Po to the crowd. David leaves the party soon after to search for his wife but finds the entire compound to be heavily guarded. Meanwhile, Po offers Megan a second chance to compete, but places a bounty on her head inciting all the other fighters to attack her at once. Megan holds her own until Po attacks her, prompting Lando to intervene. After a brief standoff with Po, Lando escorts Megan back to her room.

That night, David searches the compound and manages to locate his wife but is unable to free her before the alarm sounds. On Po's orders, the guards try to apprehend him, but David escapes. The next morning, he befriends Megan and offers his help for the upcoming tournament.

The tournament begins with several matches taking place. David witnesses Thomas incapacitate a female judoka fighter, while Lando and Megan both win their respective matches. When David is called up to fight, Lando approaches Darcy to divert Po's attention away from him. David wins his fight quickly and escapes Po's notice.

In an effort to gain more intelligence about David's wife, Lando enters a romance with Darcy and presses her for information while offering to help her escape from Po. Darcy provides him with the necessary intel which he passes on to David before being caught by Bill and his guards. Po tortures Lando to learn why he has come to the tournament, but unable to get a satisfactory answer, he brings forth Darcy and tortures her in front of Lando, forcing him to admit that he is a DEA agent. Lando pleads for Darcy's life, but Po tortures her to death.

Meanwhile, David seeks to free his wife but is unable to find her since Po had her moved from her original cell as a result of his previous intrusion. David is then captured by Po, who is surprised to see his old rival. On the final day of the tournament, Po declares that all fights will be to the death and dismisses several fighters who are unwilling to risk their lives, but shoots them all dead as they depart. The tournament proceeds with even more fighters killed at the hands of their opponents, until both Lando and David are dragged into the arena.

Po announces that the tournament is a memorial to his late wife, Sian, who was killed five years prior when the DEA invaded his home. He blames David for her death and offers a $500,000 bonus to whoever is able to defeat David. Thomas accepts the challenge, but David is able to defeat him. Po calls for more challengers, and the other two remaining fighters step forward. One after the other, David proves to be more than a match for them. In frustration, Po orders Megan to fight him, but she refuses, calling him a coward. Po threatens to kill them all if she does not fight, but Megan asserts there was never any prize money, and that Po intends to kill them all regardless, her words prompting the other fighters to rally against him. As one, the men rise up to fight for their lives against Po's armed guards.

The fighters seem to have a strong advantage, until Po himself enters the fray and begins to subdue them. Though he fights bravely, Lando is easily bested by the Muay Thai master. In the end, only David and Po are left standing. After a brutal fight, David conquers his rival once again, but Bill takes Vicky at gunpoint, giving Po the opportunity to escape. David dispatches Bill with a well-aimed knife throw before he and Vicky exit the compound along with Lando and Megan.

Eric “Mobe” Calhoune's best friend Sarah Byrnes is catatonic, sitting in the mental ward of Sacred Heart Hospital. The staff there suggests that he recall some moments that may jog her memory and bring her and back to reality. Eric and Sarah Byrnes (who insists on being called Sarah Byrnes, rather than just Sarah) have been friends for a long time, originally because he was extremely overweight and she was severely burned as a child, leaving her with scars on her hands and face. They were picked on regularly and began to write an underground newspaper called ''Crispy Pork Rinds'', focusing an article on the bully Dale Thornton. After the ensuing events, they recruited Dale as “protection”, and their lives became a bit easier.

Eric is recruited to the swim team, and as he improves in skill his weight decreases. Out of fear of losing his friend Sarah Byrnes, he continues to eat, and even tries to eat as much as he can so that he can “stay fat for Sarah Byrnes”, so that he won't stop being an 'outcast' with her and lose her friendship. Eric's search for a “cure” for Sarah Byrnes’ catatonia leads him to seek out Dale Thornton, and Eric learns that she had an abusive father and that the facial scarring was no accident.

Shortly after being confronted with this information, Sarah Byrnes begins speaking to Eric, and he discovers that her catatonia has been a ruse, and that she is terrified that her father, whose abuse has been worsening, is going to kill her. She has been hiding out in the hospital because it is the only place she feels safe from him. But Virgil Byrnes appears to be on to Sarah's plan, and time is running out. Confused as to what to do, Eric reveals all to his teacher and swim coach, Ms. Lemry. She hatches a plan to hide Sarah Byrnes in the apartment above her garage.

Ms. Lemry teaches the Contemporary American Thought class, which includes discussions on abortion, suicide, religion, body image, social justice, and many other topics. Eric and his agnostic friend Steve Ellerby conflict with Mark Brittain, a devout Christian. Mark's girlfriend, Jody Mueller (also Eric's crush), secretly doesn't agree with all of his views. It is revealed that Mark encouraged her to abort his baby. Jody breaks up with Mark and starts going out with Eric. Meanwhile, during the course of this class, Mark is confronted with the truth of his actions. He has difficulty reconciling his actions with his beliefs and later attempts suicide, but fails.

Ms. Lemry agrees to take Sarah Byrnes to Reno to look for her mother, who is the only witness to the abuse Sarah has suffered at the hands of her father. While they are gone, Virgil Byrnes hunts down Eric after school and threatens to kill him, and eventually stabs him in the back and cheek. Eric makes his way to Dale Thornton's house, where he passes out, and Dale and his father rescue him and take him to the hospital. Ms. Lemry and Sarah do find Sarah's mother; they have to chase her when she runs away from them. At first Sarah was angry at her mother for leaving her, but later begged her mother to come back to make up for lost time. Sarah's mother refuses to leave. When Sarah and Ms. Lemry return, Sarah attempts to run away because she doesn't want any more of her friends to get hurt, but Eric and Ms. Lemry stop her. Eric's mother's boyfriend, Carver Middleton (former Vietnam Special Forces soldier), figures out that Virgil Byrnes must be hiding out in his house and lays a trap for him, capturing him and severely injuring him, which lands Carver in jail.

Cobb stars as a small-town Georgian bank clerk with a talent for baseball. When he's signed to play with the Detroit Tigers, Cobb is forced to leave his sweetheart (Elsie McLeod) behind, whereupon a crooked bank cashier sets his sights on the girl. Upon learning that Cobb has briefly returned home to play an exhibition game with his old team, the cashier arranges for Our Hero to be kidnapped. Breaking loose from his bonds, Cobb beats up all of his captors and shows up at the ball field just in time to win the game for the home team.

"The Grey House is the final piece in the jigsaw of Alice Jordan's perfect life. It seems to be the ultimate achievement of her outwardly happy marriage - a loyal, if dull husband, three children, two cars and now the house. So why does she feel as if something is missing? As Alice and her family settle themselves into village life the something missing becomes something huge and then breaks, scandalizing the village, opening up old wounds. But because of it, Alice begins to feel that there is hope and humour and understanding and compassion in the new life she must build for herself." — Joanna Trollope

''Floribella'' is based on the classic story ''Cinderella''.

Flor is a pretty, young and poor girl who works for Frederico Fritzenwalden, who falls in love with Flor. However, Frederico is engaged with Delfina, who is a very mean and spoiled woman that fights against anything to marry the soonest possible Frederico and get his money. But like in the fairy tales, the love always wins: Frederico finds out all the truth about Delfina, and all what she did to everyone. In the final week of the soap opera, Frederico dies (he dies differently in each country version), and with this ending, a new story starts with Flor and Conde Máximo Augusto, so this way, the second season of ''Floribella'' begins.

In the winter of 1804 ("the year four" as the characters call it) or thereabouts, during the War of the Third Coalition, HMS ''Reliant'' under Captain William Laurence seizes the French ''Amitie'', a 36-gun frigate. Laurence and the crew of the ''Reliant'' find an unhatched dragon-egg on board and declare it a prize captured from the French. Unfortunately, the egg is near hatching, and in order to bring the resulting dragonet into service with Britain's Aerial Corps, it must accept harness and a handler as soon as possible. Laurence orders every officer aboard to prepare to make the attempt, but the dragonet, unusual with all-black hide and six spines on his wings, chooses Laurence, who names him Temeraire, after a second-rate itself named for a French ship likewise brought into service of Britain. Despite Laurence's reluctance to leave polite society and join the Aerial Corps, whose men are almost married to their dragons and who are known for grievous informality, he and Temeraire develop a deep affection.

The ''Reliant'' lands in Madeira, where Laurence and Temeraire await the Aerial Corps' response concerning their enlisting in the Corps; they are eventually ordered to a training camp at Loch Laggan in Scotland. Meanwhile, the naturalist Sir Edward Howe identifies Temeraire as a rare Chinese Imperial, a breed rarely seen outside China, much less in Britain; only the Celestials are rarer. The Corps also attempt to reassign Temeraire to a more experienced handler, Lieutenant Dayes; Laurence is surprised at how close he has grown to Temeraire in this short time and rejoices when Temeraire rejects Dayes entirely.

After a brief stopover at his father Lord Allendale's estate, where Laurence reveals his new profession to his family, Temeraire and Laurence arrive in the covert of Loch Laggan. Here Laurence meets Celeritas, the dragon training-master; Catherine Harcourt, the young female captain of the Longwing Lily (Longwings, the only acid-spitters in Britain, insist on female captains), whose formation they will join; Berkley, the captain of the Regal Copper Maximus; and Rankin, a captain of noble family, and his abused Winchester Levitas. Temeraire sees his first action when Victoriatus, a Parnassian, is injured in combat and must be carried back to base. Laurence and Temeraire also adopt their flight and ground crew, headed by Lt. John Granby; Granby, a friend to Dayes, showed initial hostility to Laurence, but the two overcome their difficulties during the mission to aid Victoriatus. Finally, Laurence meets Jane Roland, mother of one of his runners, Emily Roland, who is being groomed to captain the Longwing Excidium after Jane herself retires; Jane and Laurence eventually become lovers.

During their training, Celeritas introduces Choiseul, a French deserter, and his dragon Praecursoris, whom Temeraire views as competition. Choiseul is revealed to be a double agent when he attempts to kidnap Lily and Captain Harcourt. After interrogation, he admits that he was actually sent to steal Temeraire, whom the Chinese had gifted to Napoleon as his personal mount. The spirits of the captains, dragons, and crew are bolstered by the victory at the Battle of Trafalgar (October 1805), which erases Napoleon's navy and diminishes his aerial strength; additionally, while Nelson is raked by fire from a Spanish Flecha-del-Fuego, he survives to fight another day. While they are celebrating, Rankin and a mortally wounded Levitas arrive at Dover with important intelligence: Napoleon had not planned to send troops over by sea, as originally predicted. Instead, he plans to send them by air, using transports hauled by dragons, accompanied by Napoleon's aerial force. This disrupts celebrations as the captains at the Dover covert prepare for combat, knowing their great disadvantage in numbers.

The Dover dragons fly out to meet the French aerial armada, their primary objective the destruction of the transports. Unfortunately, the superior French numbers prove telling, and soon some of the transports land. However, Temeraire, earlier deemed unlikely to develop a breath weapon, unleashes a powerful shockwave roar, which destroys the transport they are attempting to take down. This turns the tide of battle and the French signal retreat. At the celebration party held in order to commemorate the victory, Sir Edward seeks out Laurence. He then reveals that Temeraire is actually Celestial; the roar, called the "divine wind," is unique to that breed. The Chinese reserve Celestials solely for emperors and royalty. Though this opens plenty of new worries concerning China's apparent friendship with France, Temeraire dismisses the idea of going to France, preferring his life in Britain with Laurence.

This tale is set in the 19th century, in the early days of Fabletown, when Snow White was sent as an envoy to the lands of the Arabian Fables. But the Arabian Fables are actually offended that a woman would be sent to negotiate. When she catches the eye of the sultan, Snow finds herself filling the unenviable role of Scheherazade, the teller of the original ''One Thousand and One Arabian Nights'' tales.

Snow has to amuse the Sultan with tales of wonder and imagination every night - for a thousand and one nights - to keep her head off the chopping block. The stories as Snow tells them are shown in a framing sequence similar to the original. Running the gamut from horror to dark intrigue to mercurial coming-of-age, it reveals the secret histories of familiar characters through a series of compelling and visually illustrative tales.

An ill-wind disturbs the peaceful land of Maggiar and the wizard, Karoly requests leave to consult with his sister, Ysabel over the mountain. Lord Stani instructs his two eldest sons, Bogdan and Tamas, and his master huntsman, Nikolai to accompany Karoly. After a difficult trip over the mountain, they approach a tower, Krukczy Straz where they hope to find shelter, but are ambushed by goblins. The goblins have overrun the tower, killing all inside. Tamas is separated from the others but is rescued by Ela, a witchling who takes him to her mistress, Ysabel in a neighboring tower, Tajny Straz. But this tower has also been raided by goblins and all are killed, including Ysabel. Ela goes into the tower and retrieves Ysabel's shard from the goblin mirror. Then Azdra'ik, the goblin lord appears, but does not threaten them. He tells Tamas he must take the mirror fragment from Ela because it is too powerful for her to use. Ela takes Tamas to the next tower at the ruins of what was Hasel. Here Ela looks into the mirror but is overwhelmed by the goblin queen staring back at her. Tamas is startled when the queen looks at ''him'' and calls him a wizard, which, he assures Ela he is not. Ela is drawn to the goblin queen at the lake and Tamas tries to follow her, but gets lost. Azdra'ik finds him and together they search for Ela.

Back in Maggiar, Yuri, Tamas's younger brother has been left behind to look after Tamas's dog, Zadny. But Zadny, pining for his master, escapes his pen and tracks Tamas's scent over the mountain with Yuri in pursuit. Near Krukczy Straz, Yuri finds an injured Nikolai, and together they follow Zadny, still on Tamas's trail, to Tajny Straz. But by the time they get there, Tamas has already left. Then Karoly arrives and reveals to Nikolai the story of the succession of witches, their bargains with the goblin queen, and the mirror fragment. Karoly realizes that Ela must have the shard and says he must take it from her before she misuses it. The three then head for Hasel to find Ela. At Hasel, Zadny continues his pursuit of Tamas, and realising that Ela and Tamas must be together, they all follow Zadny.

Azdra'ik and Tamas find Ela near the goblin lake. Much of the surrounding landscape has been devastated by marauding goblin armies and a darkness spreads from the lake. The goblin queen is expanding her sphere of influence. Ela is tempted to try the mirror again, but Tamas, slowly becoming aware of the wizard in him, convinces her otherwise.

Yuri, running ahead in pursuit of Zadny, stumbles into the goblin queen's hall. There he finds the goblin mirror and sees Bogdan in it. Bogdan, under the queen's spell, pulls Yuri into the mirror. Tamas arrives and tries to persuade Bogdan to free Yuri, but Bogdan challenges Tamas and in his rage is accidentally killed. Tamas and Ela confront the goblin queen. The shard returns to the mirror but with their combined magic they seize control of it and banish the goblin queen and her armies. Karoly and Nikolai arrive but the darkness is already receding. Karoly reveals that Azdra'ik used goblin magic to "father" Ytresse with Ylena and that Ela is Azdra'ik's great grand-daughter and Karoly's niece. Tamas, now in control of Azdra'ik, elects to let the goblin lords remain on earth.

''Hammerfall'' takes place on an unspecified planet, where the Ila, believed to be a god and immortal, rules the Lakht, a huge desert, and all its villages from the holy city of Oburan. Some of the villagers, including Marak, an abjorian fighter of the Kais Tain tribe, are afflicted with a "madness" that manifests itself in the form of voices and visions, and are outcast from their communities. The Ila, however, is interested in the "mad" and orders that they be rounded up and brought across the desert to Oburan.

The Ila singles out Marak, because he and his father had launched an unsuccessful rebellion against her. She queries Marak on the nature of these visions and voices, and, intimidated by her holiness, he tells her they appear to come from the east where there is a silver tower he is drawn to. She instructs Marak to lead the other mad east across the desert to find the source of the madness, and promises that if he returns with the answer, she will make him ruler of Kais Tain. After several weeks in the harsh desert, the visions and voices draw Marak and the others to the silver tower where they meet Luz, who appears to be a deity like the Ila.

Luz explains to Marak that the "mad" have tiny "creatures" in their blood that makes them see and hear things. These are "makers", or nanoceles that they have infected them with, and it is Luz who has been calling them east. She tells Marak that when the Ila first arrived on the planet over 500 years ago, she used her own makers to modify man and beast to survive in the desert, but this angered the ''ondat'', an alien species, because she had released makers on their world and damaged its ecology. The ''ondat'' feared her actions would rekindle the age-old Gene Wars, and want to rid the planet of all Ila's life. Luz's people negotiated with the ''ondat'' to give them time to undo the Ila's makers with their own more advanced nanoceles, and prevent the ''ondat'' from destroying the planet. Thirty years ago, Luz and her team landed and began releasing their own makers into villagers to draw them to her. The ''ondat'' agreed to hold off their destruction for thirty years, and to spare the area surrounding Luz's tower once it begins. Luz instructs Marak to return across the desert to Oburan and persuade the Ila and other survivors to come to Luz's Refuge where they will be safe. The thirty years is already up and Marak has to hurry because the ''ondat'' have already begun their bombardment of the Lakht with asteroids from space.

To stress the urgency of Marak's new mission, Luz feeds the "mad" with a new vision, that of the final ''ondat'' assault on the world, the hammerfall. Guided by Luz's voice, Marak manages to avoid the bombardment from space and reaches Oburan, only to finds it in ruins, and the Ila and other survivors camped nearby. Keeping to his promise, Marak tells her what he found, and about Luz and her makers. The Ila reveals that she knew about Luz, and while at odds with her, she agrees to return with Marak to her Refuge because she knows that the hammerfall is coming.

The return caravan with the Ila and other survivors barely makes it across the desert to the Refuge before the final hammer falls, destroying the Lakht. An uneasy truce is established between the Ila and Luz, the world's two "gods", and while the Ila insists that her makers will overcome Luz's, it is ''her'' makers that are overwhelmed by Luz's. The weather has changed—it is cold and often snows, but after several generations, Marak, whose makers have made him immortal, begins routine inspections of the transformed Lakht, and Luz prepares to release new creatures she has engineered.

Much to Rossamünd's surprise, instead of a sailing life he is summoned to begin life as a lamplighter in the coastal city of High Vesting, far away to the south. After being prepared for his journey by his masters, he receives his instructions from a leer (a spy who has a special box with organs in it to enhance his sense of smell) and sets off on a river voyage on the ''Hogshead'', a ram captained by an intimidating man named Poundinch. However he soon learns that he has been tricked onto the wrong ship, and is now slave to a band of criminals. He learns little of their trade other than that they are smuggling some kind of terrible contraband. Rossamünd only narrowly escapes fate as a captive cabin boy when, unwilling to reveal their cargo to river gatekeepers, the criminals are attacked by rams of the navy.

Rossamünd, having escaped the river battle, reaches the riverbank and struggles through the wilderness on his own. He comes close to death before being found by Miss Europe, a fulgar (a type of lahzar, or monster hunter) who can fire lightning from her hands. Her powers are demonstrated to Rossamünd as they come across the Misbegotten Schrewd, an ettin (a very large monster). It shows some level of intelligence and no outward hostility, and so Rossamünd cannot help but sympathise with it as it is slain by Miss Europe.

Their party is attacked soon after by grinnlings (also known as nimbleschrewds, a small and particularly nasty breed of monster) and the creepy leer Licurius, Miss Europe's personal servant, is killed. Rossamünd drags the badly-wounded and unconscious fulgar to Harefoot Dig, a wayhouse on the road to High Vesting, where she is healed and rested. While staying at the Dig, Rossamünd becomes privy to Miss Europe's reputation and hears her referred to as the Branden Rose, a name with infamy attached to it. Miss Europe also begins to refer to Rossamünd as her factotum (a servantile position previously held by Licurius). Rossamünd is torn between his predestined career of lamplighting, and this new prospect. To replace the deceased Licurius in the short term however, Rossamünd is charged with hiring a new carriage driver in the nearby town of Silvernook. There he finds the postman Fouracres, a friendly man who is all too willing to help, who seems to be a monster-sympathiser. The party now leave the wayhouse and after uneventful travel they reach High Vesting - Rossamünd's original destination.

Two weeks having passed since Rossamünd left the Marine Society, he is eager to get to his new place of employment but Miss Europe has business to attend to. Rossamünd is left to explore the city. He comes across the ''Hogshead'' docked in the harbour, and is confronted by Poundinch. The captain, assuming Rossamünd to be snooping into his mysterious, live, and probably-illegal cargo, ties Rossamünd to one of the crates in the hold and leaves him there. Rossamünd gives up hope of being rescued until whatever is inside the crate begins talking to him. It turns out to be a glamgorn (a friendly, little, human-like bogle) named Freckle. The other crates do not contain such friendly creatures however, and Rossamünd realises Poundinch's trade: smuggling deceased human bodyparts to be put together into new, horrible creatures like those in the other crates. The captain soon returns and removes Rossamünd from the hold, but not before Freckle hints at some hidden significance to the foundling's name.

Poundinch leads Rossamünd to one of his other ships, but Rossamünd escapes the captain and flees - right to the safety of Fouracres and Miss Europe. Miss Europe takes the captain out with one electric shock, and Poundinch falls into the caustic water of the harbour. Rossamünd insists that the three of them go back to the ''Hogshead'' to rescue Freckle, and they do just that (Freckle immediately disappearing into the sea), but the subsequent realisation that Freckle is a bogle sparks momentary hostility between Miss Europe and the foundling. However, they continue on to find Rossamünd's employers. On the way, Miss Europe reveals that she is suffering from an undetermined illness, and must travel far away to where she was altered into a lahzar so she can be treated. She promises to return after a while to see how Rossamünd is faring in his lamplighting career, and to again offer him the position of her factotum. Accepting this, he bids Miss Europe and Fouracres farewell.

Rossamünd discovers that Mister Germanicus, whom he was supposed to report to in High Vesting, had given up waiting for the foundling and had moved on north to Winstermill. He sets off in a coach, accompanied now only by parting gifts from Miss Europe: food, more gold than Rossamünd had ever seen in his life, and a note revealing the lahzar's true identity - Europa, a duchess-in-waiting, set to one day rule over the rich city of Naimes. Soon enough Rossamünd reaches Winstermill, and is signed into service by two registrars, friendly Inkwill and nasty Witherscrawl. He is also given a letter, written five days earlier by Verline from the Marine Society. This letter reveals that Master Fransitart will soon be on his way to see Rossamünd, and is bearing some kind of distressing news. Completely confused, Rossamünd goes to bed. He will begin his career as a lamplighter at the dawn.

Ellen (Charlotte Rampling), is a professor of French literature at Wellesley College in Boston who has spent six summers at a Haitian resort where local young men and teenagers providing sexual companionship are easy to find. Among other guests, Brenda (Karen Young), a stay-at-home wife from Savannah, Georgia, and Sue (Louise Portal), a warehouse manager from Montréal, feel lonely and ignored by middle-aged men back at home. They travelled to Haiti to enjoy a holiday of sun, surf, and sex with attractive teenagers to whom they are financially generous; complicating their friendship is the fact that Ellen and Brenda both live for the attention of Legba (Ménothy César). It is only after an episode of violence disrupts their vacation that their eyes are finally opened to the callousness of their hedonistic actions, the suffering of the Haitian people and the political climate.

It is 12:01 PM and Myron Castleman, an executive in New York City, finds that he is reliving the same hour of the same day, over and over. His time loop starts at 12:01 PM and lasts until 1:00 PM, when he is somehow returned to the same place where he began the hour. All the people around him are unaware of the loop, and everyone repeats their actions exactly over the course of the hour, except insofar as they interact with Castleman. In one of his loops, Castleman learns of a local physicist's theory that appears to describe his situation. The physicist, Nathan Rosenbluth, theorized a "disfiguration of time" that could cause the universe to snap backward and repeat the period of one hour. Over his next three time-loops, Castleman tries desperately to contact Rosenbluth and ask him for advice. In the last of these attempts, Castleman collapses, suffering a heart attack. He realizes he is dying, but is grateful that this will finally break the loop and free him. He dies, and the hour of 1:00 PM arrives. Castleman awakens and sees he has been returned to the place where he begins every hour. The time is 12:01 PM.

A sci-fi story set on Mars in the future, ''THB'' features the adventures of HR Watson, a teenage girl, and her super-powered bodyguard, THB (whose name stands for Tri-Hydro Bi-Oxygenate, a fictional molecule created by Pope). THB resembles a small rubber ball carried around by HR Watson, but when activated with water, expands to take the form of a seven-foot (215 cm) super-powered man.

The action is set during World War I. While John Clayton, Lord Greystoke (Tarzan) is away from his plantation home in British East Africa, it is destroyed by invading German troops from Tanganyika. On his return he discovers among many burned bodies one that appears to be the corpse of his wife, Jane Porter Clayton. Another fatality is the Waziri warrior Wasimbu, left crucified by the Germans. (Wasimbu's father Muviro, first mentioned in this story, goes on to play a prominent role in later Tarzan novels.)

Maddened, the ape-man seeks revenge not only on the perpetrators of the tragedy but all Germans, and sets out for the battle front of the war in east Africa. On the way he has a run-in with a lion (or ''Numa'', as it is called by the apes among whom Tarzan was raised), which he traps in a gulch by blocking the entrance. At the front he infiltrates the German headquarters and seizes Major Schneider, the officer he believes led the raid on his estate. Returning to the gulch, he throws his captive to the lion. Tarzan goes on to help the British in the battle in various ways, including setting the lion loose in the enemy trenches, and kills von Goss, another German officer involved in the attack on the Greystoke estate.

He then becomes embroiled in the affairs of Bertha Kircher, a woman he has seen in both the German and British camps, and believes to be a German spy, particularly after he learns she possesses his mother's locket, which he had given as a gift to Jane. His efforts to retrieve it led him to a rendezvous between Kircher and Captain Fritz Schneider, brother of the major Tarzan threw to the lion previously, and the actual commander of the force that burned the estate. Killing Schneider, Tarzan believes his vengeance complete. Abandoning his vendetta against the Germans he departs for the jungle, swearing off all company with mankind.

Seeking a band of ''Mangani'', the apes among whom he had been raised, Tarzan crosses a desert, undergoing great privations. Indeed, the desert is almost his undoing. He only survives by feigning death to lure a vulture (''Ska'' in the ape language) following him into his reach; he then catches and devours the vulture, which gives him the strength to go on.

On the other side of the desert Tarzan locates the ape band. While with them he once again encounters Bertha Kircher, who has just escaped from Sergeant Usanga, leader a troop of native deserters from the German army, by whom she had been taken captive. Despite his suspicion of Bertha, Tarzan's natural chivalry leads him to grant her shelter and protection among the apes. Later he himself falls captive to the tribe of cannibals the deserters have sheltered among, along with Harold Percy Smith-Oldwick, a British aviator who has been forced down in the jungle. Learning of Tarzan's plight, Bertha heroically leads the apes against the natives and frees them both.

Smith-Oldwick becomes infatuated with Bertha, and they search for his downed plane. They find it, but are captured again by Usanga, who attempts to fly off in it with Bertha. Tarzan arrives in time to board the plane as it takes off and throw Usanga from the plane. Smith-Oldwick and Bertha Kircher then try to pilot it back across the desert to civilization, but fail to make it. Seeing the plane go down, Tarzan once more sets out to rescue them. On the way he encounters another ''Numa'', this one an unusual black lion caught in a pit trap, and frees it.

He, the two lovers and the lion are soon reunited, but attacked by warriors from the lost city of Xuja, hidden in a secret desert valley. Tarzan is left for dead and Bertha and Smith-Oldwick taken prisoner. The Xujans are masters of the local lions and worshippers of parrots and monkeys. They are also completely insane as a consequence of long inbreeding. Recovering, Tarzan once more comes to the rescue of his companions, aided by the lion he had saved earlier. But the Xujans pursue them and they turn at bay to make one last stand. The day is saved by a search party from Smith-Oldwick's unit, which turns the tide.

Afterward, Tarzan and Smith-Oldwick find out that Bertha is a double agent who has actually been working for the British. Tarzan also learns from the diary of the deceased Fritz Schneider that Jane might still be alive.

Wellman Anthony Santee is a former race car driver who has turned to a life of crime since the death of his mother. Santee and his friend Eddie Turner bend the law for profit by hauling exotic stolen cars.

Santee's latest assignment is to transport such goods across the desert, but a Highway Patrol officer pulls him over. The officer notices that Turner carries a gun hidden behind his back and prepares to arrest him, when suddenly a pair of cops named Frank Severance and Jack "Rudy" Rudisill arrive. After a brief gun battle, Turner and the officer are killed, and Santee is left wounded.

After recovering in a prison hospital, Santee escapes during transfer to the fictional San Gorgonio Penitentiary after correctly sensing that his guards intend to murder him. Wounded and on the run, Santee abducts Rita Marrick from a nearby gas station, unaware that she is a police officer.

Rita's partner Michael Agnos leads the search for Santee and Rita. As Santee eludes capture with the help of Eddie's widow and child, Severance and Rudisill continue their investigation. Rita's attempt to escape, which forces Santee to violently disable nearby police officers (as opposed to kill) causes her to begin to doubt Santee's guilt.

Santee releases Rita and invades Severance's home, forcing his wife, Esther, to provide the phone number of former associate Jimmy Shoeshine, from whom he demands payments due to him and Eddie. There Santee is rejoined by Rita, who finds evidence in the house supporting his claims, and they escape, barely evading gun blasts from Esther and a highway patrolman.

At Shoeshine's warehouse, Santee handcuffs Rita out of harm's way and in a firefight, he decimates Shoeshine's lethal mechanics. After he coercively retrieves the money from Shoeshine, Showshine is able to escape due to the timely arrival of Severance and Rudisill. It is revealed in a series of flashbacks, that Severance and Rudisill are the leaders of Shoeshine's car smuggling ring and that they killed the patrolman, and Eddie, to safeguard their involvement. Subsequently, the pair murder both Jimmy, who has responded to the firefight and Michael, for knowing too much. Rita, devastated after witnessing Michael's death, joins Santee in a desperate race for life. As Severance and Rudisill close in, a crime scene officer discovers a surveillance tape that recorded Severance killing Michael.

Severance and Rudisill, having pursued Santee and Rita, confront the outlaw couple on a cliff face, after a prolonged car chase. Santee kills Rudisill, avenging Eddie, as he points a gun at a wounded Rita, and engages Severance in a hand-to-hand brawl. Just as Santee overpowers and prepares to execute Severance, the police arrive. They separate Santee from Severance and Severance is arrested and taken away. Later, a wounded Santee is vindicated through Rita. After these events, Santee and Rita kiss each other as the police arrest for again, this time for permit for release after his innocence was proven before returning to his life.

Everything was going fine for hot young 25-year-old Jeana (Estella Warren) until her newscaster boyfriend accidentally revealed on TV that Jeana is still a virgin despite being in her mid 20s. Jeana is completely humiliated by this, and adding insult to injury is the fact that the revelation of her virginity has made her a target for every oversexed man in the immediate area, all of them determined to "make a real woman out of her". Noting dejectedly that since it was revealed that she is a virgin, every man who looks at her "wants a date", and all her optimistic romantic ideals have been shattered. Ultimately she cannot salvage her relationship with her newscaster boyfriend, but in the end, she does finally find a man, a photographer, who is decent enough to be the man to whom she finally loses her virginity.

Three years ago, Shintetsu, the Craftlord of Iron (one of the seven Craftlords), gave up his life to protect his wife Amariss, their child, and the whole of Wystern, and was honored as a hero for his sacrifice. Three years later, the remaining Craftlords organized a tournament to replace the role of Craftlord of Iron. The player takes on the role of the child of Shintetsu, and fights to earn the title in honor of his/her father. However, the foreign nation of Deigleya have plans of their own, as well as a thousand-year-old forbidden secret that was the truth behind the tournament.

The child of Shintetsu fights through the tournament and wins every match presented to him/her, however, strange natural disasters are affecting nearby settlements, and earthquakes are prevalent throughout Wystern. A mysterious figure follows the child of Shintetsu throughout his/her journey, and eventually presents him/her with the Western Sword. The Western Sword was once used to seal a great evil, but the player becomes entrusted with the weapon once the seal became ineffective. Before the tournament can be concluded, the player learns of a building unrest among the craftlords, and discovers Lubert, Craftlord of Amber, and Ureksa, Craftlord of Jade, are attempting to harness the power of the destructive spirit Parista, and have struck a deal with the neighboring warfaring nation of Deigleya in exchange for sharing control of the beast. It is later discovered that Ureksa was the brother to the former Craftlord of Jade, Rumari, and it was because of Rumari that Parista had accidentally been awoken three years ago. The Western Sword, along with the Eastern and Northern Swords, were crafted by Shintetsu in order to seal Parista once more, but upon learning these three swords would be ineffective, he poured his own soul into a fourth sword, the Southern Sword, and sacrificed himself in the process. The player learns that the tournament in order to take the place of the Craftlord of Iron was simply a distraction for the populace while the Craftlord circle fought amongst themselves for a plan of action in dealing with the beast of destruction, Parista. While Parista was the spirit of fire, the spirit Kuhrya was the spirit of ice and the polar opposite of Parista, and guarded the Southern blade until the child of Shintetsu would claim it and send Parista back into the spirit world. Upon gaining the final blade, the player enters the final battle with the spirit Parista, and fulfills his/her destiny. While the tournament was simply a formality, the player earns his/her place as the Craftlord of Iron and saves the world from destruction.

The action centers around President Franklin D. Roosevelt's maneuvers to get the United States into World War II while keeping his 1940 campaign pledge to America voters that "No sons of yours will ever fight in a foreign war, unless attacked." Vidal makes the case that 1) the U.S had backed Japan into a corner with the oil and trade embargo, as well as massive aid to China and unconditional demands Japan could never accept; 2) the U.S. provoked Japan into attacking; and 3) the U.S. had broken Japan's military codes and knew of Japan's pending attack, but intentionally withheld warning Pearl Harbor. This was to arouse the U.S. populace and use the attack to bring the United States into the war, so the U.S could take its place as the post-war dominant superpower.

The novel gives considerable attention to the rise of Wendell L. Willkie to become the Republican candidate in the 1940 Presidential Election, suggesting that Roosevelt's supporters grossly intervened in the affairs of the rival party to make sure that the Interventionist Willkie would win over Isolationist rivals, thus ensuring that whoever won the elections the US would enter the war. The book's detailed depiction of the 1940 Republican National Convention in Philadelphia even suggests—though offering no proof—that murder was resorted to in order to place a Willkie supporter in a key position of control over the convention's technical arrangements, and that such control was used to sabotage former president Herbert Hoover's bid for a comeback.

An often repeated theme is the reference to Roosevelt—and afterwards to Harry S. Truman—as "Emperor of the World", to Eleanor Roosevelt as "The Empress", to the Roosevelt White House as "The Imperial Court", to Washington D.C. as "The Imperial City" and so on. Roosevelt is compared to Augustus, the founder of the Roman Empire.

The novel also covers some of the American artistic and cultural scene after the war, with attention given to John La Touche, Dawn Powell, Vidal himself, Tennessee Williams, and postwar Hollywood.

Percy Jackson is a dyslexic twelve-year-old with ADHD.''Paragraph'' 4 line 3 in the novel While on a school trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, one of the chaperones, Mrs. Dodds, turns into a Fury and attacks him.''Paragraph'' 33, line 5 Percy's favorite teacher, Mr. Brunner, lends Percy a magical sword-pen to defeat her. Percy and his mother Sally go to Long Island. Percy's friend Grover reveals himself as a satyr and warns of danger. At a summer camp, Sally is attacked by a minotaur and disappears in a flash of light. Percy kills the beast with one of its own horns. He learns that the camp is called Camp Half-Blood, and that he is a demigod: the son of a human and a Greek god. He settles into camp life and meets several other demigods, including Luke and Annabeth. After a hellhound attacks him, he is saved by Chiron and then claimed by his father, the god Poseidon. Chiron explains to Percy how the three eldest male gods—Poseidon, Zeus, and Hades—swore an oath not to have children; Percy represents a violation of the oath. He is the second violation of the oath, as the first was Thalia, daughter of Zeus. She was killed by monsters sent by Hades. This, coupled with the fact that Zeus's master lightning bolt has recently been stolen, has bred much suspicion between the gods.

Percy must locate Zeus's lightning bolt. Annabeth and Grover accompany him to the realm of Hades—the most likely culprit. Percy brings Chiron's magic sword Anaklusmos and Luke's flying sneakers. The trio travels to Los Angeles to visit Hades. Along the way, they are attacked by the Furies, Medusa, Echidna, and the Chimera. They perform a favor for the god Ares, who gives them a backpack full of supplies and safe transportation to Nevada. Percy learns more about his companions, his powers, and the world of the Greek gods. In Hades's realm, Grover is nearly dragged into Tartarus by Luke's flying shoes. The battered group finally meets Hades, who reveals that his Helm of Darkness has also been mysteriously stolen, and accuses Percy of stealing it. Hades threatens to kill his hostage Sally and reanimate the dead unless his helm is returned. When Percy finds the missing master bolt inside Ares's backpack, the group realizes they've all been manipulated by Ares. Narrowly escaping the Underworld, Percy challenges Ares to a duel on the beach. After a long and tough fight, Percy wins, and he gives the Helm of Darkness to the Furies. Hades realizes that Percy is not the thief of the helm nor the master bolt, and returns Sally home.

Percy takes the master bolt back to Zeus on Mount Olympus. Percy returns to Camp Half-Blood as a hero and enjoys the rest of his summer. On the last day of camp, however, he goes into the woods with Luke, who reveals himself to be the real thief of Hades's Helm and Zeus's bolt, following the orders of Kronos. Kronos had manipulated the power-hungry Ares into taking part in the scheme. Luke explains his beliefs that the gods are too irresponsible and are poor leaders who need to be overthrown. He offers Percy the chance to join him, and when Percy refuses, Luke tries to kill him with a scorpion. Percy is poisoned and faints. Awakening, he is given the choice of whether to return home for the school year or stay at camp year-round. He decides to spend the school year with his mother, even though it will be more dangerous for him with Luke and Kronos on the loose. Grover and Annabeth also leave the camp for the year but promise to keep in touch with Percy.

Outside the Oregon town of Bellefleur, teenager Karen Swenson is seen fleeing through the forest at night. When she falls, a dark figure approaches, and they both become enveloped in light. Swenson's body is later found by Bellefleur detectives, with two small marks on her lower back.

Later, in Washington, D.C., FBI Special Agent Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) is summoned to a meeting with Division Chief Scott Blevins (Charles Cioffi) and a seemingly anonymous government official, The Smoking Man (William B. Davis). She is assigned to work with Special Agent Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) on the X-Files, an obscure FBI section covering unexplained phenomena. Blevins has assigned Scully for the implicit, albeit unacknowledged, purpose of using her scientific knowledge to debunk Mulder's work.

Scully introduces herself to Mulder, who shows her evidence from the Swenson case. He notes that she was the fourth member of her high school class to die under mysterious circumstances. Mulder also notes an unknown organic compound found in the tissue surrounding the marks on her body, as well as similarities between her death and others from across the country. Mulder believes that Swenson's death is due to extraterrestrial activity. However, the skeptical Scully expresses disbelief in Mulder's theory.

When Mulder and Scully's plane flies over Bellefleur, it encounters unexplained turbulence. As they drive in the woods near the town, the agents' car radio goes haywire; Mulder marks the spot of this event by spray-painting an "X" onto the road. Mulder arranges for the exhumation of the third victim, Ray Soames, despite the protests of Dr. Jay Nemman, the county medical examiner. When Soames' coffin is opened, a desiccated body is found inside, which Scully concludes is not Soames, but possibly an orangutan. She finds a grey metallic implant in the body's nasal cavity.

Mulder and Scully visit the psychiatric hospital where Soames was committed before his death, and meet two of Soames' former classmates—the comatose Billy Miles (Zachary Ansley) and wheelchair-bound Peggy O'Dell. O'Dell suffers a nosebleed during the agents' visit, and is seen to bear marks similar to Swenson's. Outside the hospital, Mulder explains to Scully that he believes Miles, O'Dell, and the victims to be alien abductees.

That night, the agents investigate the forest; Scully discovers strange ash on the ground, leading her to suspect cult activity. However, a local detective arrives and orders them to leave. Driving back to their motel, Mulder and Scully encounter a bright flash of light and their car loses power, at the same spot where Mulder had earlier spray-painted the "X". Mulder realizes that nine minutes disappeared after the flash, a phenomenon reported by alien abductees.

At the motel, Mulder tells Scully that his sister Samantha suddenly vanished when he was twelve years old, which has driven his efforts into investigating paranormal and supernatural cases. The agents receive an anonymous call to inform them that O'Dell has died. At the scene, they are informed that she was killed running into traffic and realize that she was killed at the exact moment they had experienced the flash on the road. Mulder is informed that the desiccated body has been stolen from the morgue. The agents return to their motel to find it ablaze, and all their evidence destroyed.

Nemman's daughter, Theresa, contacts the agents for help. She tells them that she has awakened in the middle of the woods several times, fears for her life, and admits to having the same marks; she also develops a nosebleed. Theresa's father and the detective, revealed to be Billy's father, arrive and take her away. The agents wonder about the bodies of the first two victims and return to the cemetery; they find the graves already dug up and the coffins missing. Mulder realizes that Billy is responsible for bringing the victims to the woods. Returning to the woods, they again encounter Detective Miles, but hear a scream and find Billy nearby with Theresa in his arms. There is a flash of light, and Billy and Theresa are recovered unharmed.

A couple of weeks later, Billy is put under hypnosis. He recalls how he and his classmates were abducted in the forest as they celebrated their graduation. The teenagers had been subjected to tests by the aliens, and were killed when the tests failed. Scully provides Blevins with the metal implant, the only remaining piece of evidence. She later learns from Mulder that Billy's case files are missing. Meanwhile, The Smoking Man stores the implant away, amongst other identical implants, in a vast evidence room within the Pentagon.

In southwestern Idaho, near Ellens Air Force Base, military police raid the home of Colonel Robert Budahas, who has barricaded himself inside after stealing a military vehicle. The authorities find Budahas trembling and covered in rashes.

Four months later, FBI agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) meet at a Washington bar to discuss the Budahas case. Mulder explains that Budahas, a test pilot, has not been seen since the raid and the military will not comment on his condition; the FBI has refused to investigate. Mulder claims that six other pilots are missing at the base, which is subject to rumors about experimental aircraft. While using the bar's restroom, Mulder is approached by a mysterious informant named "Deep Throat" (Jerry Hardin), who cautions him to avoid the case. He claims that Mulder is under surveillance, which later proves to be true.

Mulder and Scully travel to Idaho and meet with Budahas' wife, Anita, who claims her husband exhibited erratic behavior before his disappearance. She tells them about a neighbor - whom the agents visit - whose husband, also a test pilot who has been behaving oddly. Scully makes an appointment with the base's director, Colonel Kissell, but he refuses to talk when they visit his home. They are subsequently approached by Paul Mossinger, who identifies himself as a local reporter and refers them to a local UFO-themed diner; there, they discuss UFOs with the owner, who believes she has witnessed several nearby.

Visiting the base that night, the agents witness a mysterious aircraft performing seemingly impossible maneuvers in the sky. They flee when a black helicopter approaches, seemingly in pursuit of Emil and Zoe, a trespassing teenage couple. As Mulder treats Emil and Zoe to a meal at the diner, they tell the agents about the lights and how they believe the UFOs are launched from another nearby base. Meanwhile, Budahas is returned to his home with no memory of what happened. After leaving the diner, Mulder and Scully are confronted by black-suited agents, who destroy the photographs they have taken and order them to leave town.

An indignant Mulder sneaks onto the base with help from Emil and Zoe. He sees a triangular craft fly overhead and then is captured by soldiers who tamper with his memory. Meanwhile, Scully re-encounters Mossinger, whom she discovers is actually a security operative for the base. At gunpoint, she forces him to guide her to the base and exchanges him for Mulder. Having been denied the truth about the base, Mulder and Scully return to Washington. Days later, Mulder encounters Deep Throat while jogging at a local track. Mulder asks if "they" really are present on Earth; Deep Throat responds that "they have been here for a long, long time".

In Baltimore, businessman George Usher arrives at his office building. He is watched from a storm drain by someone who then sneaks into the building by climbing through the elevator shaft into the ventilation system, kills Usher, and removes his liver. Usher's murder, the latest of three, is assigned to careerist FBI agent Tom Colton (Donal Logue), who turns to Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) for help. Colton is baffled by the lack of entry points at the crime scenes and by the apparent removal of the livers with bare hands. Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) notes their similarity to earlier murder sprees from 1933 and 1963. At the scene, he notices an elongated fingerprint on the air vent, which he finds to be similar to some documented in the X-Files. He concludes that because five murders occurred during the earlier sprees, the investigators should expect two more.

Because Scully believes that the killer will return to the scenes of his earlier crimes, she and Mulder wait in the parking garage of the office building. There, they catch a man named Eugene Victor Tooms (Doug Hutchison) climbing through the air vents. Tooms is given a polygraph test, which includes questions written by Mulder linking him to murders dating as far back as 1903. Tooms passes most of the test, but crucially fails Mulder's questions placing Tooms at the historical murders. However, Colton dismisses Mulder's queries and lets Tooms go. To prove his assertion to Scully, Mulder digitally elongates and narrows Tooms' fingerprints, showing that they match the prints at the crime scene. Mulder believes that Tooms is able to stretch and squeeze his body through narrow spaces. That night, Tooms demonstrates this by squeezing down a chimney to claim another victim.

Mulder and Scully find no documentation on Tooms' life. They visit Frank Briggs (Henry Beckman), a former detective, who recounts his experiences of the investigation into the 1933 murders. Briggs brings out old photographs of Tooms—who has not aged in sixty years—and gives them the address of Tooms' former apartment building. There, Mulder and Scully find a "nest" constructed out of newspaper and bile in the building's crawl space, as well as several trophy items taken from past victims. Mulder suspects that Tooms is a mutant who can hibernate for thirty years at a time after consuming five human livers. As the two leave, Tooms, who is hiding in the rafters, stealthily takes the necklace Scully is wearing as a new trophy.

Mulder and Scully put the apartment under surveillance, but Colton has them taken off the job. Mulder finds Scully's necklace in Tooms' apartment and tries to call his partner, but her phone line has been cut. Tooms breaks into her apartment through a tiny air vent to kill her, but Mulder rushes there and apprehends him first. Tooms is put in an institution for the criminally insane where he begins to build another nest using newspaper. At the institution, Scully informs Mulder that medical tests on Tooms show an abnormal skeletal and muscle system, and a rapidly declining metabolism. When Tooms is given food through a slot in the door, he stares at the thin slot and grins.

The sketch opens with a throwaway joke as the hardware shopkeeper (Corbett) hands a lady a roll of toilet paper, saying "mind how you go". The lady exits and the shopkeeper is then approached by a customer (Barker), who is holding a shopping list. The customer then requests what sounds like "four candles". The shopkeeper then takes out four candles, but the customer merely repeats his request and the shopkeeper is confused. The customer rephrases his request to reveal he in fact wanted "fork 'andles - 'andles [handles] for forks" (garden forks).

He then asks for plugs. To try to avoid a similar mistake the shopkeeper asks what kind and is told "a rubber one, bathroom". Believing that he is asking for rubber bath plugs the shopkeeper gets out a box of them and asks for the size. The customer's answer is "thirteen amp" revealing he in fact wants an insulated electric plug. He next asks for saw tips. Confused, the shopkeeper asks if he wants an ointment for "sore tips". After a better explanation the shopkeeper explains they do not have any.

He then asks for "o's". This item causes the most frustration with the shopkeeper bringing a hoe, a hose ("'Ose! I you meant 'oes!") and pantyhose to the counter before working out what he wants are the letter O for the garden gate – "'o's as in ''Mon Repos''". The box of garden gate letters is noticeably difficult to get to and put back, requiring a ladder. When he asks for "peas" the shopkeeper, believing him to be asking for the letter P for a garden gate, is understandably annoyed as they are in the box he has just put back. The customer waits for him to get the box down again before better explaining what he wants – tins of peas. At this point the shopkeeper first suspects it may be a joke.

He then asks for "pumps" and the shopkeeper asks him to elaborate. The customer complies by asking for "foot pumps". The shopkeeper brings a foot-operated pneumatic pump to the counter. The customer then reveals he wants "brown pumps size nine". At this point the shopkeeper becomes convinced that the customer is playing a practical joke on him. After he asks for washers the shopkeeper, out of desperation and annoyance, recites a long list of possible items. The customer then explains he wants tap washers, almost the only type of washer that the shopkeeper failed to list.

At this point the shopkeeper, having had enough, snatches the shopping list the customer has been holding to complete the order without any confusions. However, he then seems to take offence at something written on the list. He decides he cannot tolerate the customer any longer and calls his assistant from the back to complete the order. The assistant reads the list and opens a drawer of billhooks, asking "How many would you like, one or two?" (suggesting that the shopkeeper misread it as the profanity "bollocks").

In 1947, a man is attacked while fixing a flat tire on the road near the Pine Barrens in New Jersey. His corpse is later found with its leg chewed off, and a hairy humanoid is killed nearby.

Back in present-day Washington D.C., Scully brings to Mulder's attention news about a body found in New Jersey with its arm and shoulder missing. Upon arriving at the Atlantic City morgue, the agents discover that the body was eaten by a human. However, the local detective, Thompson, denies the agents access to the investigation. Scully returns to Washington to attend her godson's birthday party while Mulder stays in New Jersey. At the party, Scully meets Rob, the divorced father of one of the guests. Meanwhile, Mulder questions homeless people about the case. A man shows him a drawing of a humanoid and tells him that he saw it and that the other homeless people and cops know about it. Mulder gives his hotel room key to the man and sleeps in the alley, where he sees a shadowy, human-like creature. He chases the creature, but is arrested before he can catch it.

The next morning, Mulder calls Scully to come bail him out. Afterwards, Scully brings Mulder to meet with Dr. Diamond, a professor of anthropology at the University of Maryland, before going on a date with Rob. Peter Boulle, a local park ranger, contacts Mulder after finding the corpse of a wild man in the woods who he believes could be the Jersey Devil. Scully and Mulder bring Boulle and Dr. Diamond to the morgue, where the body has mysteriously vanished. Mulder believes that the Jersey Devil they are hunting is actually the creature's mate, who has headed into Atlantic City in search of food after her mate's death. The agents, along with Boulle and Dr. Diamond, search for the creature in an abandoned building. As they do so, Detective Thompson arrives with a SWAT team.

Mulder spots the creature and chases after her. He is attacked by the creature, which wounds him before Scully scares her away. The creature then escapes into the woods. Scully, Mulder, Dr. Diamond and Boulle manage to find the creature, which again escapes after being shot with a tranquilizer dart. However, the SWAT team soon finds and kills her. Mulder asks Thompson why he killed the creature; he responds that it is the same reason one would kill a rabid animal. The autopsy reveals no prehistoric bone structure, although human bones are located within her digestive tract. The autopsies of the male and female creatures also reveals that they likely had children. Mulder leaves to talk to an ethnobiologist at the Smithsonian; Scully turns down a second date with Rob to join him. Meanwhile, in the woods, the child of the creatures appears, watching a father and son hiking.Lowry, pp.109–110Lovece, pp55–56

Two muggers are found dead in a back alley of Philadelphia after robbing a woman, Lauren Kyte, at an automated teller machine. Mulder and Scully investigate the case when called in by a pair of agents from an unknown agency. The bodies are found to have an electrical charge and their throats have been crushed from the inside. Meanwhile, Lauren sees her boss, Robert Dorlund, and resigns due to her grief over the death of Dorlund's partner, Howard Graves, who supposedly committed suicide weeks before.

Mulder and Scully determine that one of the dead men belonged to an Islamic terrorist group, the Isfahan, and using the ATM video are able to track down Lauren. A screenshot of the video reveals a blurry figure who appears to be Howard Graves. The agents meet with Lauren at her home and after initially denying it, she admits to the incident but knows nothing about the murders. Upon leaving, the agents find their car going out of control on its own, leading it to crash into another car. At a repair shop, the car is found to have no evidence of tampering, but an electrical charge is detected within it.

Upon visiting Graves's headstone, the agents learn of his suicide and the death of his daughter at a young age, who would have been Lauren's age were she still alive. Scully suspects that Graves faked his death, but on consulting the pathologist who examined his body and testing the organs he donated to others, it is proved that he is really dead. Meanwhile, Lauren witnesses a vision at night, including blood appearing in the bathtub, that leads her to believe that Graves was murdered. At her going-away party, Lauren is threatened by Dorlund, who believes she has knowledge of confidential information that could implicate him. Lauren calls the agents to her home, but before they can get there, two assassins hired by Dorlund arrive to kill her. An invisible force kills both of them just as Mulder and Scully arrive (with Mulder witnessing the body of one assassin being hanged in midair).

Lauren is interrogated by Mulder, Scully, and the two unknown agents, who believe Graves and Dorlund's company sold technology to the Isfahan. Lauren admits to Mulder and Scully that the sales did indeed take place and that she believes Dorlund had Graves killed. After hearing Lauren recount the eerie circumstances that she believes are being caused by Graves's spirit, Scully--the usually reserved skeptic--readily accepts her story. Mulder is confused but, after Lauren leaves, Scully admits she was just humoring her. The agents search the company's premises, but are unable to find any evidence. When Dorlund attacks Lauren with a letter opener, Graves's spirit takes it and cuts open the wallpaper, revealing a disc with evidence. Weeks later, Lauren starts her new job, but it is implied that Graves's spirit may have followed her there.Lowry, pp.112–113Lovece, pp.58–59